A successful Business Improvement Practitioner is capable of much more than using a bunch of methods and techniques to define and implement changes. They need to exercise great people skills, communication skills, attitudes, social intelligence, and possess emotional intelligence quotients that enable them to navigate their environment, work well with others and perform to achieve goals.
To help Practitioners maximise their impact we have summarised the five crucial qualities we feel are prevalent in most effective people. What’s more once these are understood they can be self-developed in those looking to make a bigger mark. We have given some hints on how you might start to work on these.
1. Continuous Learning
As a leader of improvement in a business there are indeed core skills and traits that successful practitioners possess. However, it is important not to become stagnant. Continuing to practice, challenging yourself and ongoing learning is a way to avoid that.
The key to this even being possible is the self realisation and willingness to embrace that there is always room for improvement and growth. These are turned in to challenging growth goals. We are talking about setting challenging goals that require growth to achieve.
Understand that there is always room for improvement and growth and that you need to rely on a team around you to help achieve your goals.
Hints on how to get better at this
Set yourself goals. Usually have 2 or 3 main goals that you are working on. They should be challenging and require you to grow in some way to get there.
Regularly reflect on those goals and adjust if necessary.
Seek assistance from a coach or mentor when setting and reviewing goals.
Be sure to celebrate along the way too.
2. Respect and Humility
It is a great quality to be humble, listen to others, understand, and respect them. Not just for an Improvement Practitioner but for any human being.
Respect is having a regard for other people and their lives. Understanding and empathising about where they have come from, to where they are today. Often coming in as an outsider to a process, an Improvement Practitioner must realise that it is most likely other enhancements have already been attempted on an existing process. People within the process will understandably be proud of any accomplishments, so appearing on scene as a superhero to save them from their wasteful process will establish a barrier with those who live and operate in the process everyday.
Firstly, humility involves an awareness and acceptance of our own limits. Secondly, and closely related to this, humility involves an acknowledged dependence on others. Humility is not thinking less of ourselves but thinking of ourselves less. It is freedom from pride or arrogance.
Humility and respect are interdependent. Swiss moral philosopher Henri Frédéric Amiel rightly said, "There is no respect for others without humility in one's self.“
Hints on how to get better at this
Spend time listening to others. A key quality of humbleness is to value others and enable them to be heard. Spending time listening, drawing out how they are feeling and what they value is very powerful. It is important to remember that sometimes you are not trying to solve their problems or answer them: just listening and responding to them as a fellow-human. This is hard to do for people who are natural problem solvers.
Understand your own limits and admit to mistakes or failures. We are all wrong sometimes, rarely do we mean to be. My father used to tell me, “The only people that never fail are the people that don’t do anything.” Learn from these times. We all have flaws and vulnerabilities, which is OK. It is a great thing to be aware of and even an opportunity to build a goal or two around.
Ask for help when you need it. There is, as many of us will ruefully recognise, a form of pride that lies in being able to solve our own problems. Humility, therefore, lies in acknowledging when we need help, and being able to ask for it appropriately.
3. Nature Change
Business improvement is a synonym for change management in its simplest form. It is a team effort and requires collaboration. It is something that you do WITH people, not something that you do TO people. We resist change because it unknown.
The people who have developed a superior quality in this area go in with a plan. They have a systematic, yet human approach to dealing with the transition or transformation of an organisation's goals, processes, or technologies. They can read why people react the way they do because of:
1. How they feel. Are people excited, apprehensive, angry, or upset about the change?
2. What they’re thinking. How are people reflecting on change? Do they question the necessity or outcomes?
3. How they are behaving. Are people open to suggesting new ideas, participating or are they disruptive?
Hints on how to get better at this
The DCOM model developed by CLG, a global consulting firm based in Pittsburgh is a very handy framework to use through change. The acronym DCOM stands for direction, competence, opportunity, and motivation. Although DCOM is easy to describe, implementing the model requires considerable forethought, planning, effort, and often radical changes in organizational behavior.
There are many other models out there. I like this one because you can test the model’s effectiveness to see what happens if any of its components are weak or missing:
If you have competence, opportunity, and motivation, but lack direction—you get chaos!
If your operation has all three elements except competence, it will eventually end up bankrupt because well-directed, highly motivated people with resources drive the company into the ground.
If opportunity is weak, even the best performers get frustrated because they lack the time, tools, and authority to remove barriers or perform optimally.
If motivation is low, performers become lethargic. They display almost no extra effort, because the consequences for going that extra step are ambiguous, meaningless, or even unpleasant.
4. Business Savviness
Improvement leaders must be able to manage the politics within a business, not just their line management. They need to understand all parts of the business. Business acumen is often used as synonym for savviness. It is knowing about the business, sensing what will happen and adapting accordingly. There is foresight, motivation and action that enables them to deal quickly with a situation.
Understanding the motivations of the Chief Financial Officer, Chief Strategic Officer, and Chief Revenue Officer is vital to how to communicate value, progress, and future ideas. A business savvy person also needs to be willing to back their intuition. They know they have to be this way to reap an advantage, but they weigh up and balance risks before doing so. A savvy person navigates the political minefield of different key stakeholders. This understanding of interconnections also extends to the future and the past. These people know where their company has come from; where it is going to; and the processes that need to happen in between to turn possibilities into reality.
Hints on how to get better at this
Understand the company's business and performance the way an investor would. Read reports, articles dig a bit deeper. What does the CEO care about? the CFO, the CIO, the Board? And why do they care?
Present facts not hearsay. This makes discussions objective. To be confident enough to use facts requires being well researched. Get them wrong and they can discredit a perspective.
Regularly ask yourself if you are doing important work. Have the sense to realise if what you are doing is on the ‘not so important’ list, constantly falling off agendas etc., ask if you are doing the right thing?
5. Persistence
Creating a culture of improvement is not always smooth sailing. There are always unexpected challenges, and some efforts are destined to fail. Vision is deeply ingrained in everything a persistent person does. They do what they do with a constant focus on it; they express great emotion and energy.
A persistent person is a dreamer and visionary who see their lives and their work as having a higher purpose than simply earning a living. Their vision fuels their motivation and that drives them. They demonstrate a willingness to stick with their mission no matter what obstacles arise, willing and able to adapt as they persist.
Hints on how to get better at this
Determine Your Motivation. This comes from a deep reason why we want to achieve or have something. If you know why you’re doing what you’re doing, it gives you more energy to keep moving.
Identify Your Wants and Desires. Before you can develop persistence and eventually achieve success, you need to first identify your wants or desires.
Outline Your Definite Action Step. Identifying your wants or desires speaks of what you want to achieve. Determining your motivation shows the reasons why you want to achieve what you want. Outlining your definite action step is necessary to know how you will be able to achieve what you want. When you know how to get what you want, it makes it easier to achieve it.
Keep a Positive Mental Attitude. The road to success is not easy, in fact, it’s challenging. There will be countless times you will be faced with defeat and failures. Keep your thoughts focused on acting towards your goals.
Develop Discipline and Habit. All your goal setting and planning will go to waste if you don’t develop discipline and good habit. Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. Upholding discipline and good habits can help you stay the course, even despite difficulties.
There are many people who have been taught tools and methods to help improve a business. Knowing and practicing those alone does not equate to success. There are crucial qualities that every Improvement Practitioner needs to excel at. With self-recognition and a focused effort anyone can get better at these qualities.
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