Goal Execution - Make it a Way of Life

Guy Kawasaki [www.truemors.com] says, “defining your goals is only half the battle; here’s how to get them accomplished.”

The holiday season is always a good time to reflect on the past year as we close out accounts. Welcoming in the new year is a perennial opportunity to set goals, make plans and strive for great things in the new year. But, as my friend Jennifer Koretsky [www.addmanagement.com] counsels her clients, the day we set resolutions, we’re only 17 days away from breaking them.

Why even set goals?

First, reset your objectives: create something worth executing on. If you and your team are having a hard time executing, maybe you’re focused on the wrong thing.

Second, set your goals. But they have to be the right goals. You’ve heard of SMART goals. I’m suggesting a twist on that theme. The right goals are:

Measurable Every goal must be quantifiable. If you can’t measure it, it can’t be a goal.
Achieveable Take your most conservative sales forecast and multiply it by 10% (.1). Set your goal there. Not achieving a conservative goal is demoralizing to everyone. Instead set your goal at a modest % of your forecast – and then achieve it 10 times over.
Relevant Use relevant numbers. In e-commerce, which will drive revenues more your search engine rank or the clickthroughs to the sales page?
‘Rathole-resistent’ [Guy Kawasaki’s term] This is the checks and balances piece. Make sure each goal encompasses all the factors that will make your organization viable. If you have a goal of a number of sales calls in your target market but they generate no sales, that’s a rathole.

Now here’s the part about getting them done:

Postpone, de-emphasize or quantify less tangible goals such as ‘create a great work environment’.
Communicate each goal clearly to every single employee/contractor/team member.
Measure progress weekly – if you don’t want the accountability of measuring, then you might as well skip the goal setting too. Measuring monthly is not enough pressure to get results.
Responsibility Identify a Single Point of Responsibility for each goal. Lousy employees avoid responsibility. Good employees accept responsibility. Great employees seek responsibility.
Followthrough on each goal. Not every goal will focus on the cool stuff (new software, creative presentation, etc). It’s not hot or glamorous to resolve all website bugs within 48 hours but it is important to clients.
Reward achievers This sends a message to everyone. Achievers get reenergized about doing their jobs. Everyone else gets the message that the company values execution and takes it seriously.

Action vs. Inaction

Spring is a great antidote to long cold winters. It's the same with action and inaction. Action is a powerful antidote to the stagnation of inactivity. Being creatively alive involves abandoning a position of inaction in circumstances which have traditionally immobilized you. The name of the game is action. Doing. Overcoming your inertia and acting will give you a whole new lease on being creatively alive.

Action is the single most effective antidote to depression, anxiety, stress, fear, worry, guilt, and of course, immobility. It is virtually impossible to be depressed and active at the same time. Even if you wanted to, it is difficult to keep on moping, complaining, lolling around and wallowing in self-pity if you get active and do something. Anything! Just doing is such an important part of being a fully functioning person.

In fact, that lack of action is not a result of depression; it is the cause. Don't be paralyzed by the fear of making a mistake. Taking action, gives you momentum. Initiating the effort attracts opportunities and synergistic things happen.

Inactivity, on one hand, is most often a choice rather than an inescapable fact of life, while action is a definite way to avoid being victimized by yourself or others. If you decide to do something about your problem or challenge, rather than grumble about it, you'll be on the road to changing things around for yourself. When you take action, you also take control. Thinking keeps you a prisoner of the past. Action puts you in control of the future.
If you find yourself asking, "Yes, but what can I do" the answer is very, very simple. Anything is a lot more effective than nothing.

This old proverb has a lot of truth in it: Even when you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

Taboo Words - They Sabotage Your Business and Your Life

There are many words we use automatically. We don't even recognize the words are coming out of our mouths.

Self-talk can be very empowering, affirming, even motivating - if we channel it wisely.

Sometimes our self-talk - whether we think it or speak it is really damaging, especially to ourselves. On bad days, I catch myself starting sentences with "I can't do xxx", or "I don't want to do xxx" or even the proverbial "I'll try... " After years of staying aware of these traps, a little alarm goes off in my head. It is very good at catching me when I fall into any of these traps.

I've learned to take each of these tabot words and turn them around so I'm back in control of the situation. It's become a stress reliever of sorts because turning a negative into a positive is a great game to play with yourself and with your team. When I do this with my kids or on a team, it sets the bar high enough that whiners, do-nothings and complainers can't control the outcome.

Taboo words are poison to your goals and dreams. Even though you may’ intend’ them to be positive, they undermine what you truly want to say and do. Some of the most common tabot words we use all too frequently are:

• Can’t
• Won’t
• Don’t
• Hard
• Discouraged
• Not the best
• I’ll try
• I hope
• These people
• It’s because

How about you? Which ones are part of your vocabulary far too often? What will you do differently? Eliminate them from your vocabulary as fast as you can. Watch your attitude and your altitude soar.

Service Contracts

I purchased a tabletop copier 10 years ago when I started distributing my newsletter by snailmail. It has given me excellent service and when it isn't absolutely perfect, I call my service rep, Lou.

This service rep is your ideal employee. He loves his work. He knows the equipment and his clients very well. He is responsive to calls. He apologizes if he can't be here within 4 hours. He always has all the necessary replacement parts in his vehicle. He goes beyond his job description consistently to provide superior service, not because the company requests it but he knows it's the right thing to do.

What he's done instinctively is bind clients like me to him personally, not just the company and the brand. Such employees are priceless. You can't pay someone enough to provide this level of service. You can't teach it either.

I have an annual service contract now, since I paid off the lease some years ago. I pay annually to continue receiving the on-demand support I've always had. Lou advised me to request a visit at least twice a year even if I don't think I need it - just to tune up the copier and keep it in good shape - since I've paid for the service anyway.

At the regional headquarters it's another story. To book a visit with Lou has become increasingly cumbersome as the layers of telephone automation get deeper and deeper. Then today I got a call from a nice young sales rep, fishing for a sale to upgrade this old machine. According to his boss and his computer screen, my service contract was expired so he was told to call for a new sale.

When I informed him that I had indeed renewed the service contract and had the cancelled check to prove it - he was surprised and did some backpeddling.

He called back few minutes later, after verifying that indeed my support contract is active and flattered me on the condition of my copier - still fishing for another sale. I do commend him on his followthrough. He said he'd check and get back to me either way and he did.

If only all sales and service calls could be so effective, prompt and helpful.

Freedom to choose and accountability

When we are aware that we need to change something and are ready to make a change, there are many decisions to make. We must decide on a direction, the speed, personal and career growth impact, strategic implications for the company and in the marketplace, and what goals to set and strive for. Within each of those decisions, there are many opportunities to make choices, we are not locked in. We can choose paths or speeds or goals to keep us in a rut or stuck in the maze. Or we can choose options which allow us to break out of the old groove and push the envelope of what we can really do, be and have.

This freedom of choice is best exemplified by small business and entrepreneurship.

As a business owner, you get to make decisions about those things that are in your control. You get to select from many options that present themselves at each decision point along the way. With that freedom comes the responsibility to be accountable for the decisions you make. Be sure you have your accountability system in place and you use it to always make the best decisions and choices for your business.

Law of Correspondence

Brian Tracy has written another book about success. This one is the 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of business Success. He covers the familiar principles like the Law of Belief, the Law of Attraction and the Law of Expectation.

The one that struck me today was what he calls the "Law of Correspondence". He says that your outer world is a mirror of your inner world. So if you want to change your outer world - indeed your business as a whole - go to work on yourself first, do the inner work.

It's about getting clear on your purpose, mission and goals and how you think about these things. Do you think positively about success or money? Or is all your self talk about the obstacles, fears and doubts that will sabotage your future? What you think about, you bring about.

What I liked was the way Brian Tracy connected the two - the image in the mirror which reflects your inner world for the outer world to see. If the two coincide, your integrity, commitment and enthusiasm will shine through sincerely. That's what a client, prospect, banker, vendor, investor, employee buys into - you.

The Value of Adaptive Skills

Building your Emotional Intelligence Tool Box

Emotional intelligence is critical in developing your management skills in two areas:

1. managing others and your relationships with them.
2. managing yourself in terms of self-awareness of strengths and emotionally, your impact on the people around you in terms of self-knowledge and self- control.

If you are a change catalyst, building the adaptive skills of emotional intelligence is imperative. Good leaders must do this to build trust. It is both important and critical to your company's bottom- line. Here is an overview of some of the skills required:

• Knowing your feelings and using them to make life decisions you can live with.
• Managing your emotional life without being hijacked by it -- not being paralyzed by depression or worry, or swept away by anger.
• Persistence -- in the face of setbacks, and channeling your impulses in order to pursue your goals.
• Empathy -- reading other people's emotions without their having to tell you what they are feeling.
• Influence and persuasion -- in negotiations. I
• nspiring and motivating others to take on difficult challenges.
• Intuition -- using your instincts and inklings to make hard decisions.
• Handling everyone's feelings in relationships with skill and harmony -- being able to articulate the unspoken pulse of a group, for example.
• Resolving conflicts -- to change the relationship from win/lose to the idea that for me to win, you don't have to lose.

These are no longer luxuries for people with unpressured lives and lots of free time. These adaptive skills are essential for every leader in any size organization. When you build your emotional intelligence skills, you develop balance, which positively affects not only your success, but also your health and happiness.