How I Can Make an Immediate Impact

I am the person who is energized by other people’s problems. So, to make an immediate impact, I seek out some of the toughest problems that either my team or my client is facing and set about tackling them.

Problem solving is draining for most people, but not me. This sets me apart. The thornier and more complicated the problem I have to solve, the better. One of my best qualities is my ability to break a complex problem down into its component parts. So I ask lots of practical questions, push aside people’s generalizations, and get to the facts.

I show my colleagues how to “unpack” a complex problem and solve each part separately. They are grateful, and I’m at my best.

I put myself in the middle of pivotal, intense moments.

When other people are stumped and at their wits’ end, I am at my best. I think more clearly, project more confidence, act with more certainty. Whether my colleagues let on or not, they crave–and need–my confidence in high-pressure situations.

I seize any chance I get to explain how things work — with a customer, at a staff meeting, or at a company gathering. I am at my most powerful when breaking a process or situation down so that other people can see what is really going on.

Every team leader has a couple of processes he knows aren’t good but are “good enough.” They annoy him, but he tolerates them because the team is busy–“good enough” will have to do for right now. I can help that manager. I take one of these “good enough”s as a side project and come up with a practical solution for making it work right.That manager may not understand exactly how I did it, but he will see this as “initiative.”

Since I feel energized when I am tackling a difficult challenge, I find I embrace the concept of “kaizen”–“continuous improvement”–and tend to focus on those parts of my world that are not yet as effective as they could be.