I was scheduled to work with a district manager on her growth and development. Since we met at one of her locations, I planned to spend the first hour with the DM and the location staff. After that, I had intended to spend most of the day on the DM herself. 

Except, none of that happened. Being the last day of the month like today, the DM was scrambling to make her sales targets. She didn't join me for the first two hours as she was on the phone with her managers. Then when we finally sat down to work together, she was texting, emailing, and taking calls in her bid to bring the month in.

I was so happy that it happened. It completely changed the plan I had for the DM. She didn’t need to learn to make the last day of the month. She needed to learn not to be scrambling at the end of the month. More importantly, she needed to identify how she could grow and develop to do that.

Here are three things we set out for her to do. While her work was with location managers, the same development is appropriate for any leader who works with others.

1. Spend more time with direct reports looking forward. That is the number one growth opportunity for managers. Especially those who manage managers. Far too much of their conversations are spent with what's "going on" versus where they are going and how they will get there. 

Also, there's too much talk about the details of the direct report's staff. Leaders need to be supportive and empathetic around employee issues. But that should only take up some of the time. A leader needs to be able to end any meeting or call with an agreed-upon plan for the location or person to make The Day to make the week. 

2. Focus on intentional actions. Intentional actions are purposeful, deliberate, and focused actions that move teams and individuals forward to achieve the desired results. Leaders don't inspire success. They inspire people to take intentional actions that create success. 

The DM realized her improvement hinged on crafting unique intentional actions for each location. Like many managers, she often issued blanket directives, but a more effective approach would involve individualizing action plans for each site. When you manage individuals, setting specific and tailored expectations for each team member, there's a higher probability of fostering growth and achieving superior results. By the way, most of the things she had her team do on the last day of the month is what she needed them to do throughout the month.

3. Make daily adjustments. Watching results and KPIs, the DM needed to keep looking forward so each location could make the necessary adjustments. That was one of the more challenging things for the DM to do. Not the adjustments per se, but making the time to do so. She just made reviewing three locations a day part of her start-of-day routine, and she quickly got into the habit. 

So let me ask, how can you grow and develop as a leader to make The Day? 

Do that, and you're more likely to make the month and the year. And the last day of the month is a heck of a lot easier.