The 10-Step Leadership Tune-Up 

Every leader I know wants to confidently tackle the myriad of challenges they face, support the development of themselves and their team members, and drive significant organizational performance. 

Despite these goals, few leaders I meet for the first time have a habit of evaluating their approach to meeting their priorities. They are so busy in the thick of things that they don’t take the time to reflect, assess, and improve the very activities that underpin their success as leaders.

The 10-Step Leadership Tune-Up is a simple, structured, and repeatable approach to close the gap. 

In this newsletter you will learn:

1. The advantages of a structured and repeatable process to sharpen your leadership approach
2. The 10-Step Leadership Tune-Up process
3. When to use the 10-Step Leadership Tune-Up

The advantages of a structured and repeatable process to sharpen your leadership approach.

Having a simple and repeatable process to sharpen your leadership approach offers several advantages:

• Clarity and Focus. A structured process provides clarity on the steps to take and focuses your efforts on the most critical aspects of leadership development. It helps you prioritize tasks and goals, ensuring that you invest your time and energy where it matters most.
• Consistency. By following a repeatable process, you establish consistency in your leadership approach. Consistency builds trust and confidence among team members, as they know what to expect from you and they can rely on your leadership style.
• Continuous Improvement.  A structured process facilitates ongoing learning and growth. As you repeat the process over time, you gain insights, refine your skills, and identify areas for improvement. This iterative approach fosters continuous improvement in your leadership abilities.
• Accountability. Having a defined process holds you accountable for your leadership development. It provides a framework for setting goals, tracking progress, and evaluating outcomes. Accountability ensures that you stay committed to your growth journey and take ownership of your development.
• Scalability. A simple and repeatable process can be scaled across different situations and contexts. Whether you’re leading a small team or a large organization, the fundamental principles of effective leadership remain consistent. This scalability allows you to apply the process flexibly to various leadership challenges.
• Empowerment.  A structured process empowers you to take proactive steps towards your leadership goals. Instead of feeling overwhelmed or unsure about where to start, you have a clear roadmap to follow. This empowerment fuels your confidence and resilience as a leader.

A simple and repeatable process provides clarity, consistency, continuous improvement, accountability, scalability, and empowerment in your leadership. 

The 10-Step Leadership Tune-Up Process

Below are the ten steps. Each step has a description and an action.

1. Clarify Your Personal Mission

Creating an environment of success and communicating purpose to others requires first understanding yourself and what motivates you. 

Defining what brings significance to your life will help you focus on ways you can achieve your life purpose. A personal purpose, or mission statement, is designed to do just that. Steven Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, calls it “…your constitution, the solid expression of your vision and values.”

Action: Craft your personal purpose statement.

Use these guiding questions to help you craft your personal purpose statement: 

1. What motivates you? What brings you the greatest joy or satisfaction?
2. What does success look like to you?
3. What unique role(s) are you able to fulfill in people’s lives?

This doesn’t have to be fancy. I’ve been writing down my purpose statement on a sticky note every day for 5 years!

2. Clarify Your Personal Goals

Now that you’ve crafted and refined your personal purpose statement, outline goals that will help you fulfill that mission. 

Start by brainstorming. Make a list of whatever it is that keeps you up at night – those situations or tasks that, if changed or completed, would make life more meaningful. 

• Is it a stack of unfiled but important papers on your desk? 
• Unanswered email?  
• The need to research and implement new software? 
• An unresolved or uncomfortable relationship issue that has the potential to reach a crisis?

These planned activities might seem small, but they fit your mission with long-term payoffs when you put them on the calendar and follow through with them.

Action: Define up to three goals each for the month, quarter, and year.

Choose no more than 3 goals for this month. Be as specific as possible, and work on those that fit into your mission statements.

Looking further ahead, what are a few goals you want to accomplish this quarter? 

How about by the end of this year? 

3. Identify Your Personal Obstacles

The biggest mistake I see when leaders define their goals is that they assume ideal conditions. How often is day-to-day life ideal?

On the other hand, there are a few of you who go to the other extreme of analysis-paralysis and spend days and weeks trying to plan for every possible worst-case scenario.

I suggest a middle ground. Reflect on possible major obstacles and how you might overcome them.  Obstacles are simply the interests, demands, people, situations, or habits that could keep you from achieving your goals. 

When you look back at your purpose statement and goals, what could hold you back? 

Here are a few common obstacles:

1. Your goals are too vague, with success not clearly defined.
2. Your goals are too big and need to be broken down into increments. 
3. You don’t have a means of holding yourself accountable. 
4. You’ve developed poor habits like procrastination.
5. You overestimated how much time and effort you can devote toward achieving your goal.
6. You’ve neglected to consider the people who will be impacted and haven’t gotten their buy-in on the changes.

Action: Define your obstacles and create a mitigation strategy.

Be as detailed as possible in describing each roadblock and exactly how it prevents you from moving forward with your goals.
 

How will you mitigate each roadblock? 

How and where can you get help if it’s needed?

Is there anything that you can eliminate, delegate to another, or simply decide it’s never going to happen? 

4. Determine Your Personal ONE Thing

Now that you’ve clarified your mission, set some goals, and defined real or potential obstacles to avoid or conquer, it’s time to determine the ONE thing you’re going to focus on that will move the needle most for you. 

Being a “starter” or an “ideas person” is great, but having too many things happening at once is self-defeating. 

Determine ONE thing that, if you do it, will have a positive effect of making everything else begin to fall into place. You’ll feel like you’re making forward progress once you’ve begun it.

It can be a small thing. Sometimes getting something (anything!) off the list will energize you. Or it could be that ONE thing you’re dreading, and you know you want to get it over with. 

Think about how much better you’re going to feel when it’s finished!

Action: Write down the ONE thing you are going to start, work hard at, and concentrate on until it’s been implemented.

Should this ONE thing be broken down into increments, each of which can be finished and checked off individually?

Consider telling someone ahead of time about your plans and exactly when you’re planning to complete this ONE thing. 

Give them permission to check on your progress. 

I often serve as an “accountability-buddy” for my clients.

5. Create Your Personal Action Plan

Now it’s time to create an action plan that will enable you to do your ONE thing. 

Be specific. Ensure that it’s attainable, not frustrating or unrealistic. Break it down into steps to take. Have an end date for each specific step.

Your ONE thing may complex. Take the time to break it into manageable components, each of which will be completed before moving to the next. 

In an ideal world, you’d focus on your ONE thing to the exclusion of other projects. 

As I mentioned in Step 3, we don’t live in the ideal world. So what I’d like you to do is to prioritize your ONE thing. Keep it top of mind in your reminders app, or sticky note, or however you keep things in front of yourself, and schedule it into your day.

Once you complete your ONE thing, prioritize what you’ll be tackling next. Getting one item done leads to achieving your next ONE thing and starts a healthy chain reaction.

Action: Write out the specific manageable steps you’ll take to ensure completion. 

Where possible, assign a date for each step to be completed.

Assign an end date for the entire goal to be complete and add it to your calendar. 

Does the overall plan, and each step leading up to completion, appear to be realistic? If not, make adjustments to the plan, keeping in mind there will likely be unexpected interruptions.

Midpoint

6. Clarify Your Team Mission

Each team has a unique mission and place within the whole organization. Now that you have clarity about your own personal mission and you’ve set measurable, realistic goals, it’s time to clarify the primary mission for your team. 

To get the discussion started with your team, you could briefly share how you’ve created a personal mission statement, used that mission to create realistic goals, and how you’re implementing your plan.

Your team mission may have already been established by a senior leader, or by you, or by the team as a whole. If it hasn’t been established yet, it’s crucial to get this foundational step in place. 

Without a clear purpose behind what they’re doing, it’s difficult for team members to “own” or feel a connection to the larger picture. 

If your team’s mission hasn’t been clearly determined yet or needs to be clarified, below are questions that help to clarify it. 

As a team leader, you can answer these questions yourself, but discussion with the whole team serves to get everyone on board, build camaraderie, and reveal weak areas.

Action: Define team success.

Ask yourself and the team, “What does this team exist to do?” Be as specific as possible. 

What specific part does each individual member fulfill to accomplish what the team does? 

Ask each member to articulate their portion. Ask others to help clarify and determine overlap or holes. 

Is each member clear on how their part fits into the whole? Does each member understand the value of every other member’s part?

What does success look like for this team? 

What does failure look like? 

With these answers in mind, you can now clearly determine the primary mission of your team. Write out a specific team mission statement. There may be several components but simplify and clarify each section.

7. Identify Your Team Goals

You have clarity on your team’s overall mission and how each team member fits into making the team a success. Now it’s time to determine the real and measurable goals of your team.

These may be cascaded down from higher levels in the organization, or you may be the one who creates them.  Either way, it’s important to be clear on what your goals are for your team.

What is your team trying to accomplish this month? This quarter? This year? 

If you need to get clarity on these from a supervisor, do that first. 

Action: Define goals over multiple time frames.

Choose 3 goals for your team for only this month. Using those as a starting point, what goals does each team member need to have so that their part is finished on time? Be as specific as possible.

Can you and/or team members articulate how these monthly goals fit into your mission statement? 

Looking further ahead, what are a few goals you want to accomplish this quarter? How do this month’s goals fit (if they do) into those longer-range goals?

Are there long-term goals that need to happen by the end of this year? Is there a way to work on those long-term goals by meeting monthly and quarterly goals?

8. Determine Your Team’s ONE Thing

Now, it’s time to pick the one BIG goal that will move the needle the most for your team currently.

This goal is going to be your primary focus and your team’s primary focus. By centering the attention of your team on this particular goal with everyone working to that end, you make it much more likely that the team is going to achieve it. 

This ensures that your team is getting high-value work done, not just busy work or putting out fires, since this ONE goal has been determined to be a high priority. 

There are two approaches to selecting this ONE thing out of the list of 3: 

1. You choose the ONE thing to focus on and simply tell the team. Sometimes that’s necessary to avoid long discussions or wasting time.
   
2. Or, you and your team members choose the ONE thing together. . It doesn’t have to be unanimous, but listen closely if there are dissenting voices. Assure all team members that the other goals will be implemented before long. 

Your primary job once the team’s ONE thing is decided, and responsibilities are divided up, is to become the overseer and progress checker – in other words – to ensure the “doing” is happening. 

You’ll be checking in regularly, not waiting until the deadline is just around the corner!

Action: Determine your team’s top priority.

You should have 3 specific goals with clear descriptions that were decided on for this month. 

Decide with the team (or on your own if necessary) which out of the 3 is the ONE thing the team will focus on until it is finished. 

Identify the role and responsibilities that each team member has to fulfill to meet the overall goal. Discuss with each team member to be sure their assignments are understood. You’ll head off challenges later if you’re diligent with this step!

Clearly communicate the date each team member needs to have their part of the assignment ready.

9. Identify Current Team Obstacles

Let’s try to identify some roadblocks that could keep your team from achieving their ONE thing (and that could be derailing other goals, too). 

Team members can sometimes be fearful to share problems, raise issues, or ask questions.  If they get stuck and can’t move forward with their portion, it’s going to affect the whole team’s progress.

This is an opportunity for you to role-model the behavior you want to see. Choose a few of the personal roadblocks you uncovered that derail your plans and goals in Step 3. 

Action: Reflect with the team on roadblocks.

Ask about roadblocks your team members experience in their current work culture. This typically is hard for people to feel comfortable sharing. You’ll need to encourage them – give examples again if they’re hesitating. You could give an example that you’ve seen in the office or experienced in another workplace.

Encourage team members to talk about what they see or experience and help each other find strategies to combat these issues.

10. Create a Team Action Plan

It’s time to create an action plan to enable your team to accomplish that ONE thing you are all focusing on.

It’s a good practice to plan backward. That’s where yearly or quarterly goals are useful, and why we keep bringing up long-term goals in these exercises. 

If your team has a project due 12 months from now, for example, use that end date to figure out where the project has to be 6 months from now. 

• How does that 6-month deadline inform what has to be completed in 3 months? 
• What must happen this month to stay on track?
• What about this week? 
• Today?

Each member of the team needs to see the increments and understand how their part fits into this ONE goal. Individuals can then break their personal portion into manageable tasks. Each member knows what they’re responsible for achieving, and when it’s due.

As the team leader, determine how often to check on the progress of each team member. Add reminders to your calendar so you don’t forget!

Action: Create a team action plan.

The steps outlined below may seem like overkill at first, but the process gets easier each time you implement the steps. The whole team is learning communication skills that leave little room for misunderstanding and delay.

Clearly describe the ONE thing your team agreed to be working on this month. Be specific. 

Ensure that the goal is attainable – not frustrating or unrealistic. 

If this ONE thing is one component of a much longer-range project, ensure that everyone understands how this month’s goal fits into the entire plan.

Have the entire team help to break this month’s goal down into incremental steps. What portion has to be done this week, the week after, and so on. Assign an end date for each specific step.

Doing this visually works best (a whiteboard if you’re in the same physical location, shared monitors if not together). Everyone sees how the pieces fit together.

If it’s better for your team’s scope, the steps above can be implemented for year-long projects first, instead of beginning with monthly goals. 

Select a long-range project, and then break it down following the same steps to create 6-month, quarterly, monthly or weekly goals. 

Use your staff meetings to review the plan and update it accordingly.

When to Use the 10-Step Leadership Tune-Up

As a leader, you may want to utilize this simple and repeatable process at various stages of your journey to enhance your leadership skills and navigate different challenges effectively.

Here are three situations when the 10-Step Leadership Tune-up might be especially useful.

• Transitioning into a New Role. When stepping into a new leadership position, whether it’s a promotion within the organization or joining a new company, you can use a structured process to establish yourself, understand the expectations, and set clear goals for your leadership tenure.
• Strategic Planning. During strategic planning exercises, you can employ this structured process to define the organization’s vision, mission, and goals. In addition to more commonly used tools such as SWOT Analysis, the Tune-Up helps prioritize initiatives, and develop action plans for implementation.
• Leading a Change. When leading organizational change initiatives, you can leverage this process to assess readiness for change, communicate effectively with stakeholders, mitigate resistance, and monitor progress towards desired outcomes.

By incorporating a simple and repeatable process into your leadership toolkit, you can approach common, and oftentimes daunting, situations with confidence, clarity, and consistency, ultimately driving positive outcomes for yourself and your team.

TL;DR

Most leaders want to confidently tackle the myriad of challenges they face, support the development of themselves and their team members and drive significant organizational performance. Yet few have a process for evaluating and adjusting their effectiveness. The 10-Step Leadership Tune-Up is a simple, repeatable process that  provides clarity, consistency, continuous improvement, accountability, scalability, and empowerment in your leadership. I recommend the Tune-Up when you start a new role, are doing strategic planning, or implementing a major change.