Are you feeling stuck and you want to make some change?
Stress and despair are common during challenges where we feel a lack of control and autonomy. I talked with a manager, Amy, on a coaching meeting, and Amy shared that she feels overwhelmed and is unsure how to break out of her rut.
Amy and I sat on our virtual meeting for a minute, and then we worked through the following coaching process. Below are my examples, and this is a natural process that can supply you with some progress steps:
More of Less of Prioritization Process with Progress Steps
Walk yourself through:
- It is one year from today, and you are looking back at how you spent your Time; what do you wish you had spent more time doing? What do you wish you had spent less time doing?
- Write the More Time Doing and Less Time Doing – responses in columns or on sticky notes.
- Draw 3 radiating circles—the Center circle label – Very Important; middle circle – Important; outer circle – Less Important.
- You can move the sticky notes or transcribe your More Time Doing – to the top half of the circle. You are thinking through what is – Very Important to Less Important to you.
- You can move the sticky notes or transcribe your Less Time Doing – to the bottom half of the circle. You are thinking through what is – Very Important to Less Important to you.
- Breathe and look at what you framed – what is already different? What supported your progress to get this far?
When, Then, For – your path to progress
From your More Time Doing and Less Time Doing responses, make short When, Then, For statements.
- When – stuff you want to do less of happens;
- Then – things you want to do more of;
- For – some amount of time
The last piece of – When, Then, For time – might be the most helpful step. When you feel a loss of control, you can create heuristics or actions to work with the complexity and ambiguity to make small progress steps and reinforce your skills.
The process can apply to you and your team. We can go through a similar coaching and development process with your team.
Choosing a time and looking backward to define what you want to Do More Of and Do Less Of – then – creating action steps will create a better feeling of control and support your progress to change.