By | David Klaasen | Helping You Create Clarity, Inspire Your People & Drive Performance | Retain your best people | Changing Management Mindsets and Behaviour | Practical Behaviour Analytics
Effective management requires discipline . . . but not necessarily the discipline you think – I’m talking about self-discipline. I’ve recently been doing a lot of Executive Coaching for Senior Managers and Directors and there is a common theme that frequently comes up … ‘ wanting some quality time with the boss. However, this is actually a double-edged sword.
Getting quality time with the boss requires a lot of self-discipline. You need to be really clear about your boss’s priorities, have empathy for their challenges and above all know how to make yourself easy to manage – this is where the self-discipline comes in.
Self-awareness
If you want a happy boss you need a high level of self-awareness; this means knowing your strengths and your potential blind-spots. It is also helpful to be mindful of how the human brain works. The Neuroscience is now pretty clear, and it’s very simple – we are primarily motivated by both the desire for safety and pleasure and the avoidance of pain and loss of security.
You may be more motivated by one or the other of the above. It doesn’t matter which, as long as you are consciously aware of which it is, so you can adjust if you become blindly optimistic and complacent or pessimistically sceptical and stressed. What is your level of self-awareness?
