18 Chapter
Your Action Plan for Continued Success
Any idea is useless unless put into action. We have found that many of the professionals we work with are excellent at the large impactful aspects of their positions but do not take care of the details in their communication. They do not know the “how to’s” for putting a book like this into action.
Here is a specific action plan to keep you on track:
1. Write down one to three specific communication goals you have at the moment. For instance, a stronger relationship with a colleague, more effective sales calls, getting a promotion through the feedback you are given, or not saying inappropriate comments at meetings.
2. Write down the key stakeholders who are relevant to your specific goal and what their communication hot buttons are regarding what they expect from you.
3. Go through each chapter with three highlighters. One color signifies what you need to START doing, as it will make a difference in your career. Another color signifies what you need to CONTINUE doing and may not do consistently. The third color signifies what you need to STOP doing. These are the actions that are stalling or stopping your career growth.
4. With those expectations in mind, take three points from each highlighted color in each chapter and create your behavior action plan.
5. Go through the chapter checklist (see page 116) on a weekly basis. How will you measure your success? Define your performance metrics and follow it monthly. Modify when necessary.
The following is an example of how you can write down your specific action plan and keep track of your goals and accomplishments as you go along.
#1. Goal:
My goal is to learn the communication styles of my team in order to communicate more effectively with them.
#2. Stakeholders and their communication hot buttons:
Michael: Wants things to be direct and to the point.
Srinivas: Likes to make small talk for a few minutes and then get right to the bottom line. Doesn’t really like too much detail.
Leigh: Wants to know the details and who is going to be involved. Wants to know any ramification to the team or other key players or stakeholders. Does not like any surprises.
Alex: Wants all of the detail without anything left out. Gets very annoyed when things are dropped on his plate at the last minute and expected to be done immediately
Sarah: Hard to read. Sometimes she is very chatty and other times she could not care less about what is going on with anyone else. She says she wants all of the details, but then, when you give them to her, she gets distracted and takes out her phone in the middle of the conversation.
#3 & #4 Highlight and write action plan:
Start: |
Rereading every e-mail I send to make sure that it is sent with each receiver in mind. With Srinivas I will be more chatty; with Michael, I’ll be really direct and stop asking him about his weekend, etc. |
Continue: |
Paying attention to the nuances of each person |
Stop: |
Approaching everyone the way I like to be approached. I realize that not everyone wants to get to know me on a personal basis. While this is personally a little hurtful, I am going to take into account that everyone has different styles and different agendas. |
#5. Chapter Checklist, Metrics Measuring.
The following list includes examples on how to set up specific behavior metrics in each chapter. Take the time to tailor this to yourself. Each chapter could have many behaviors to support your goal. Print out this list to create your own portable metric checklist.
1. Being on Your A-Game
2. Beginning with the End in Mind
3. Knowing Your Personal Brand
4. Managing Perceptions
5. Connecting and Building Relationships
6. Making Appropriate Small Talk
7. Superb Communication Through Technology Use
8. Managing Your Social Networking
9. Awareness of Communication Stallers and Stoppers
10. Not Making Assumptions
11. Focusing on the Details
12. Giving and Receiving Precise Feedback
13. Adapting to Different Communication Styles
14. Reacting Professionally
15. Saying the Right Thing
16. Communicating Value
17. You Action Plan for Continued Success
1. Be on My A-Game
Goal: Not to let my personal life affect what is going on at work.
I was so upset with my husband last week, but I put a smile on my face, took a breath, and acted as though everything was fine. It was great, because after about 20 minutes, I actually felt so much better.
2. Begin With the End In Mind
Goal: Plan out my next conversation with my manager.
I sat down the day before my meeting and made a plan outlining his communication preference, all of his hot buttons, the benefits and risks to what I was suggesting and next steps. It worked really well and I am going to do that for every conversation moving forward.
3. Know My Personal Brand
Goal: Realize that how I come across every day reflect my brand.
I have been sitting in my car for a few minutes before walking into work, thinking about my brand and how it is going to be communicated through my actions and especially through my e-mails. It seems to be working really well. I have noticed that my coworkers have been really responsive this week.
4. Manage Perceptions
Goal: To learn about my blind areas so that I can be more aware of the behavior I am doing that could be perceived as negative.
I asked Sam, my cubicle mate, what I did that may not be perceived as positive. He asked me to be more specific. I asked about the professionalism of my conversations. He told me that I was extremely loud and it was sometimes hard for him to concentrate on his own work.
5. Connect and Build Relationships
Goal: To go out of my way to build a relationship with Vicky even though she can be so abrupt at times.
I was able to have a one-on-one conversation with Vicky at the meeting and she is actually terrific. We have a lot in common and I realized that she is abrupt because she has a huge amount of responsibility and that is how she communicates her stress. I will not take it personally anymore.
6. Make Appropriate Small Talk
Goal: To go to that networking event and meet at least one new person.
I went to the Wine & Wisdom Association event and I told my colleague I would see her at the end of the evening. That was really hard. I then used my planned conversation tactics and had three good conversations with people I will follow up with this week. I concentrated on “being interested, not interesting.” This made it so much easier for me because I didn’t have to come up with a lot to say, but I was able to build on what they were saying.
7. Superb Communication Through Technology Use
Goal: Not send any emotional e-mails.
I put three emails into my draft folder this week and waited an hour to reread them before sending. I was so glad I did that because they would have been seen as extremely rude and emotional if I had sent them.
8. Manage My Social Network
Goal: To take the time to think about what I can post on LinkedIn that would make an impact on my sales.
I wrote a value-added Top Ten Tips for how to choose a printing company this week. When I posted it, the response was amazing. I am going to take the time even more now to think about what I am posting.
9. Awareness of Communication Stallers and Stoppers
Goal: Not to say, “I can’t do it” the minute someone wants to give me another piece of work.
I thanked Jacques for giving me the opportunity and asked him for more information about the data needed. When I found out the details, I realized I was able to do it and I was glad that I had not immediately said no, which was my first instinct.
10. Not Make Assumptions
Goal: To not think that people are doing things to hurt me. Stop the ANTs.
I wanted to tell Bill what I thought about him when he forwarded my e-mail to his boss. But, I didn’t. Instead, I went to talk to him directly and calmly to find out his thoughts and why his boss needed to be included. When he explained to me his boss’s role, I understood why he had sent it and realized that it had nothing to do with me, but with the outcome of the project. I felt so much better.
11. Focus on the Details
Goal: To presenting my weekly PowerPoint more professionally.
I took the time to go through my PowerPoint and make sure all the fonts were the same and there were no typos. I also made sure that the slides looked clean and communicated my message well. I took the time to think about what I was wearing for the Wednesday meeting. It felt great when the VP came up to me after the meeting to tell me how professional I was and how he was so impressed with me.
12. Give and Receive Precise Feedback
Goal: To not be defensive when I get feedback on my monthly report.
I sat down with Belinda and was totally open to her feedback on Friday. When she said that she saw some mistakes, I asked for very specific information and asked for her thoughts on how she would do it. She actually gave me a great idea that will take me less time.
13. Adapt to Different Communication Styles
Goal: To make sure I get an e-mail response when I ask for information.
I sat down and analyzed what would make Sue respond to me faster. When I realized that Sue reads e-mails with bullet points that are concise and my e-mails were too long, I changed my format. She immediately sent me back what I needed.
Goal: To not get triggered when people don’t like my ideas.
I did not get visibly upset when Laura did not appreciate all the work I had put into her project and felt that more needed to be done. I calmly asked her for more information and she thanked me for not taking it personally and being focused on the goal. I could tell she was worried that I would take it personally from our previous encounters. That was eye opening for me.
15. Do and Say the Right Thing
Goal: To have more of a verbal filter with my colleagues.
I really wanted to ask Sally if she was pregnant. She looked pregnant and I know she has been trying. But, I didn’t, and I thought to myself, “I’ll find out if she is when she wants to tell people.”
16. Communicate Value
Goal: To make sure that the management team sees value in what I bring to the table and how I always do what I say I will do.
I made sure that I sent follow-up notes to everyone this week even when I didn’t know status. This let them know I had not forgotten. It was nice when they thanked me in the Friday meeting.
17. My Action Plan for Continued Success
Goal: Take the time to sharpen and improve my communication skills. I am always so busy that I do not take time to plan how I am communicating my brand, as well as how I communicate to reach my intended outcome.
I scheduled 30 minutes on Friday to go through my checklist to see if I had met my goals from last week and to see if I needed to revise them for the following week.