Your EMP Report

You have done a satisfactory job at taking control of your dominant habits, preventing others from expressing themselves and overusing informal communication channels, thus providing some of the room needed for your hidden potential to surface and develop. 

Let’s consider why you still have room to develop your hidden potential. Recall that so far in your career, you have relied on some very positive behaviors, particularly getting things done yourself (in the name of efficiency). With each success, these behaviors have turned into your automatic dominant habits – serving you well. But unfortunately, as you’ve encountered more complex managerial situations, getting things done yourself have also partially stopped you in your tracks by bogging you down in the day-to-day, rather than freeing you up to consider more strategic matters.

As you continue to uncover and develop even more of your untapped potential by allowing your team to take on more responsibilities and develop autonomy, you will quickly find yourself able to manage the complex professional situations required of more senior leaders. This rare, yet essential skill, will rapidly take you far in your management career.

As you know from the EMP, the only way to successfully achieve this is by continuing the great work you’ve done so far in reducing your dominant habits. The best path forward is to consistently revisit the exercises you’ve done throughout the EMP.

Your achievements testify to your capacity to empower yourself through high levels of motivation, self-discipline, consistency, and determination – all qualities of a Producer. More work on these qualities will serve you well both directly and indirectly as you continue your career.

As a Producer, you certainly have the tools to “move the needle” further for yourself and your career. From the EMP, you’ve already discovered and developed some of the untapped potential that can lead you to your next promotion. But without putting in a bit more work, especially empowering your team, some important potential will probably remain untapped.

What you need to do is to continue practicing the sustained motivation, self-discipline, consistency, and determination you showed while working through the course. I also realize that perhaps at times the course became rather challenging and other work assignments might have interfered. Also, I am sure it was probably easier to stay focused for the first nine weeks, but then it became more challenging during the following six months.

In fact, many Producers mistakenly view the end of the nine weeks as having “reached the top,” – the goal, whereas in reality, despite all of your admirable achievements, you’ve just begun your road to success. Much of the hard work comes in consistently revisiting and doing the EMP exercises – requiring the motivation, self-discipline, consistency, and determination you have demonstrated so far as a Producer.

You’ve done great work until now. It’s now time to gather all of what you’ve got to give yourself one last push. As you continue developing your motivation, self-discipline, consistency, and determination, you’ll not only successfully complete your EMP but also further develop the qualities you’ll need as you continue your climb up the corporate ladder.

In terms of change, your results show that you’re on your way towards implementing change in the way you manage. However, you still have some untapped potential for development and growth. Throughout the course, you received the knowledge and tools to make a real change. Let’s talk a bit about what true change is.

Reaching true change means having the ability to plan, act, react, and think in a completely different way than before.  Change doesn’t come easily. There’s always a gap between what you’d like to change and what you actually do change. And what can prevent you from bridging this gap is your habits. During the course, you learned some important things about changing habits:

1. It’s really hard to identify your dominant habits because they are subconscious and therefore automatic. As a Producer, for example, you’ve learned over the years that the best way to get something done is to do it yourself – that’s your default setting. No doubt though, through the EMP, you’ve now developed an awareness of your dominant habits. You may even be able to identify them after certain behaviors – but seldom before.
2. Your dominant habits can prevent your potential from emerging and developing. To really “move the needle,” it’s essential to provide your team with more autonomy.

One of the dangers lurking behind change is that even when you think you’ve made significant changes, you can often slide back into your old habits. As a Producer, you are goal-oriented, and it might seem as if you’ve reached your goal – and can go on to your next task. However, it’s important to stop and realize that in reality, at this point, you’ve actually demonstrated the ability to develop your potential habits – they’re far from being permanent. That’s why it’s important to work so hard at ingraining these new habits into your everyday behavior. At a certain stage, you’ll actually notice that your new habits have become dominant. I call this the “lock in stage”. Until this happens, though, you’ll want to watch out for reverting to your old dominant habits.

 Now is the time to further harness the knowledge and tools you’ve received from the course and to revisit the exercises, particularly concentrating on empowering your team. Knowing how to successfully negotiate change is a highly-valued management skill and once you achieve it, it will serve you well in the future as you advance in your career.