Sunday, January 23, 2011

"Mirror" technique to adopt best practices

Like all of my blogs which says not only about what needs to be done, but also, the technique as to how to do it; this also has a technique to it.

This technique which is called mirroring technique, is simple and extremely effective in case you are finding it difficult to adopt a good practice.

In general, people expect things to happen in certain way. For it to happen, we expects that people around us to do things perfectly, so that situations align by itself in the most positive way for us, ensuring we get the expected result.

For example, when we call some one for a meeting, we expect them to come to the meeting on time. Till now it is perfectly fine. There is no harm in expecting things to go the way you need.

Now let us see the irony.

When your colleague calls you for a meeting for his purpose, how much weightage you give for that? In all probability, you will end up being late for the meeting or some times not even turning up.

This is where we need to correct things. We end up doing this mistake because we find reasons to support your mistake not realizing that tomorrow you will end up being the victim.

Being a manager, one of the principles that you should follow is to ensure you do things exactly the same way as you expect others to do for you. This by itself is the technique which I wanted to share with you.

1.      If you expect others to be on time in your meetings only if you show up in meetings on time.
2.      If you expect others to listen to you, ensure you are a good listener of their concerns
3.      If you want to give feedback to your team, be prepared to accept feedback from them as well
4.      If you want others to trust you, make sure you maintain your trust and intergrity with them equally well
5.      If you expect respect from the team, start respecting them and acknowledging their good works

This is nothing but adopting the best practices which you believe others should adopt. That is why this is called as mirror technique. You are mirroring your expectation with others to your self.

Last but not the least, being a leader, if you want to lead them from the front, be ready to go behind them and empower them – This again is a mirroring techinique.
Simple techniques like this doesn’t involve investments, but have very high returns.

Happy practicing this technique