Personal, team, or organizational improvement doesn't happen just because you want to get better. Unless you have the structure, process, and disciplined habits for constant and ongoing improvement, it's all just useless, wishful thinking.

Organization improvement needs to be structured with:

• Senior management taking a lead role.
• Developing internal experts on training, process improvement, and teams.
• Developing detailed improvement plans.
• Publishing an annual improvement report, celebrating and broadcasting successes.

Personal improvement is critical to be an effective leader:

• Where are learning and personal development on your list of priorities?
• How much time do you spend planning out your day and setting personal priorities?
• Don't succumb to the victimitis virus by allowing senior managers to disempower you.
• Become a listener. You can get hundreds of hours a year of education, inspiration and instruction by listening to audiotapes in your car.

Strong leaders put learning and personal development high on their priority list. They have developed strong improvement habits that have built strong leadership skills. If we allow short-term urgencies to tyrannize our time and displace long-term improvement, we're condemning ourselves to the treadmill of frantic, exhausting activities with decreasing performance levels.

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