Personal Leadership for Women: Root Cause Analysis

In medicine, it is critical that an accurate diagnosis be made so that the disease can be treated and not just the symptoms.  For example, if you go to a doctor with stomach pains and she simply gives you something to make the pain go away, it will not do you any good if you have cancer.  The cancer needs to be treated, not just the pain.

Also, the best treatment would depend upon the disease.  The treatment would be different if you had an ulcer or if you had cancer.  An accurate diagnosis is critical.

In business, root cause analysis is often used to determine why something went wrong.  In essence, the process involves determining what happened, why it happened, and how to prevent it from happening again.  Of course, the same process can be used when good things happen.  Determine what happened, why it happened, and how to repeat the good results.

Root cause analysis is very similar to making an accurate diagnosis.

These same concepts can be used in our personal and professional lives.  If we define what happened (or is not happening) and can pinpoint why, we can develop a plan to achieve the results we want.  The critical aspect is determining why.

It does not matter whether you want to look at the process as diagnosing what is happening in your life or as root cause analysis.  The important thing is that you do analyze what is happening and why.  You may need to ask yourself, “And why else” multiple times before you get a complete answer.  Once you do have a complete answer, then act on the information. 

You cannot make good decisions with bad or incomplete information.  Make sure your analysis is complete and you have all the “whys” before developing a plan to address them.  This can be painful as it may show that we have weaknesses that we do not want to admit.  But it is necessary to achieve the success we want.

Personal Leadership for Women: Feelings, Rights and Responsibilities

We have the right to feel everything that we do.  Along with that right is the responsibility to express those feelings appropriately.

We have the right to feel all the positive emotions:  happiness, joy, excitement, accomplishment, love, among others.  We also have the right to feel all the so-called negative emotions such as anger, hurt, despair, grief.  (I do not like the term negative emotions.  All these emotions are just part of life.  I think we all go through them at some point in our lives.  If we do not, then maybe we have a problem feeling what humans are meant to feel.  We cannot let these emotions control our lives, however.  We need to accept them, address them, and move on.)

Along with these rights are responsibilities.  We have the right to feel anything and everything that we do.  We also have the responsibility to express those feelings appropriately.

For example, we have the right to feel angry when someone does something to hurt us.  We have the right to tell that person how what he or she did affected us.  The responsibility comes in on how we tell him or her.  If we tell the person, with respect, what we feel and why, that is good.  We do not have the right to treat the person disrespectfully.  We do not have the right to yell at the person or call names.  We certainly do not have the right to hit or harm the person. 

What is considered appropriate depends on the situation.  If we want to cry out eyes out at home, that is fine (so long as we do not scare the children and pets!).  It is not appropriate to do that in the workplace, however.

What is considered appropriate also depends upon the person.  What we say to an adult is different from what we would say to a child, for example.  What we say to a stranger may be different from what we say to a friend.

Do not deny your feelings.  Do not stuff them deep inside of you and hope they will go away.  They will not.  Before you express those feelings, however, think of the most appropriate way to do so under the circumstances.

Personal Leadership for Women: Who We Are

We are who we are because of the choices we have made. 

If we like who we are, then we can continue to make the same choices.

If we want to be something other than who we are, then we need to make different choices.

It is that easy and that difficult.

Personal Leadership for Women: Finish What You Start

For me, starting projects is easy.  New projects are fun and exciting.  The difficulty is in finishing them.  Finishing is what matters, however.  It is in finishing the project that we get the results that we want.

Do you finish what you start?  Or as one project gets old or difficult, do you leave it to start new project?  If so, why?  When we can identify why we do something, or do not do something, we have a better chance of changing. 

Also, we have a better change of finishing if we focus on the result we want to achieve.  This can give us the motivation and dedication to finish.  Finishing matters!