Help Young Leaders to Develop an Action Mindset

Have you ever received a round TUIT? If yes, how long did you carry it with you? A friend asked me to help a young professional on his search for a sales engineer job. My first four attempts to meet were met with, “I’m busy.” I thought, “Wow, he must have lots of interviewing opportunities.” 
When we finally connected, he said that he’d been job-hunting for four months. “Seems odd,” I thought, “since the market is hot for sales engineers.” What’s really going on here?

Well, I’m shocked to learn that his action plan required three connections per week. Not meetings, just connections. I thought back to my Xerox days where my target was 50 cold calls a week.  Based on this math, it would take him 16 weeks to accomplish what Xerox sales people did in one week!
 
My coaching hat goes on. We develop an Action Plan. When I check progress, he says, “Well, I haven’t gotten around to it yet!
 
Ugh! He needs your round TUIT! What do you do when high potential sales and entrepreneurial leaders have no understanding of the action mindset concept?
 
How often do you see young leaders overwhelmed by the action they have to take? They procrastinate. They make lists and write out plans. Then make excuses. They appear busy, but don’t move forward on priorities. In the end, they are stressed, wishing they had started executing their plan sooner.
 
Develop an Action Mindset is the sixth action step in strengthening your Sisu Spirit.
Great leaders take action and do what needs to be done. This is the mindset we can help foster in Next Gen leaders.
 
These tips will help when coaching young leaders to become more action oriented:

​No action plan would be complete without the action. 

Tackle one task at a time

What about multi-tasking? Research says that doing more than one thing at a time often means that one of the tasks will suffer. Encourage young leaders to focus on successfully completing one task on their to-do list at a time.
 
Do what you hate most, first!

What tasks do they hate most? The boring ones; the high-energy ones; dealing with figures; calling a complaining customer?  Whatever it is, challenge them to take a deep breath, think about their long-term goals and do it! Then, praise them for stretching their comfort zone and growing as a leader.
 
Choose the right time for the right task

Be realistic.Tasks that require focus and mental energy will not be as successful if they are put off until Friday afternoon! Do they function best early in the morning, or do they love burning the midnight oil? Encourage future leaders to schedule tasks according to their personal “best-time” preferences. 
 
Remind young leaders to steer clear of excuse-making and victim mode. Remind them that action-oriented people don’t stop at developing creative solutions, they execute them. They pull the round TUIT out of their pocket and take action.
 
In the next post I’ll tell you about the power of collaboration.
 
Leadership lesson: An action-oriented mindset focuses on developing creative solutions, not on the complicated challenge.
 
Leadership question: What challenges do you experience as you inspire young leaders to take action?

​​© Copyright Danita Bye, 2016​