At CRE OneSource, we are committed to building a self-managing team. A self-managing team is a group of individuals who collectively manage their own responsibilities without supervision. They have a high degree of autonomy and are empowered to make decisions. But how do you become self-managing?
We put these 3 Steps to Self-Managing together as a powerful method for transforming basic learning into significantly improving performance and ultimately self-management. This concept builds on another concept that we’ve written about: LOCK. If you aren’t familiar with LOCK, skim through that first!
Here’s a breakdown of the three steps and the path to becoming more self-managing:
1. Application
The first step in learning something new begins with listening and observing. Watching how others do it until the task feels familiar helps build both skill and confidence. Applying what you’ve learned to complete the task works well—until you hit a plateau. The risk here is becoming too comfortable. If you’re motivated to continue growing, it’s time to move on to step 2.
2. Leadership (Learn + Own)
Step 2 is all about taking full ownership of what you’ve learned and fully immersing yourself in it. I apply the LOCK framework alongside steps 2 and 3. Consider how you can regularly put your knowledge into practice. Could you teach it to someone else? Creating official processes based on what you’ve learned can solidify your understanding and make it truly yours.
3. Self-Managing (Compress + Kaizen)
The final step to becoming fully self-managing is about refining what you’ve learned and embracing kaizen. Can you ask better, more insightful, questions to reach your best performance? Reflect on how you can streamline your tasks to be more efficient, giving you the capacity to take on more. Thinking on a larger scale and asking the right questions helps you become more self-sufficient because you understand what needs to be done and how to improve it.
Your skills and ability to apply what you’ve learned go beyond the fundamentals. By applying these three steps, you can take your performance to the next level, no matter what you’re learning. Try it out and see if it helps you push past any plateaus and experience real growth.
Charlie Coppola
