Rally your team and achieve success as never before! This is your year.
If you are anything like me, there is just not enough time in the day to get it all done. I have determined the reason for this struggle to be FOCUS. In our efforts to get it all done, we simply don’t get any of it done or worse yet done right. Do you ever feel that way? Believe it or not, your team feels that way as well. Whether they communicate that fact or not, they too are distracted and overwhelmed at times.
Planning & Goal-Setting
To simplify is to succeed. Consider choosing no more than 3 primary initiatives to focus on this year. These primary goals may require change in scope over time, but focus on no more than three strategic goals. Here is the hard part: now pick just one.
ACTION STEP #1: Pick 2 or 3 key primary initiatives and write them down.
ACTION STEP #2: Now pick your one big thing!
This almost seems contradictory to the current mindset of multi-tasking. Yes it is. Here is why: this concept allows incredible opportunity for you and your team to drill down, focus and get it right.
Key Components for Successful Goal Setting
Does everyone on the team know, understand and implement your main company goal every day? Better yet, do they even know your main company goal? What would happen if they did? Could your organization be more engaged and purposeful during their work day? I bet they could. How would that benefit you and your organization?
Have you set goals in the past and they have not worked out for you? I want you to honestly ask yourself if your goals were valuable, attainable, measurable, committed to memory, and attached to a date of achievement. More importantly, did your team have a burning desire to achieve them? If your goal fit all those criteria and you still fell short, it is really time to consider why.
Create Your Annual Goals
As a great leader, you have to facilitate the creation of goals with your team. The team requires clear vision to achieve their best performance. I believe passion to be the difference between good enough and great. Add to that, priority, focus and measurable effort directed towards the purpose and the magic begins. Pride is achieved by hitting the goal on time and the job done right. I must then ask, “Can the team achieve success when they are diluted with every rabbit trail and shiny object that can be found?” To answer simply, they can’t. I would go further and say neither can you.
Communication & Alignment
The most challenging thing to do is to rally a group of different people around the same goal. What’s valuable to one person may not be valuable enough to another. Mix in a burning desire to achieve it and it gets complicated. As the top leader in your company, how do you get your entire team rallied around a single, meaningful, true goal? Why would your team care? After all, they do their job right. They clock in and do what they are instructed to do. Why do all this stuff?
The sum of all efforts is greater than a single effort every time. By getting all brains in the game and all moving parts synchronized, more magic begins. To focus and simplify the message, consider the following strategy. To move from good to great, engage these tactics.
Create a Plan to Achieve Your Goals
Once you select you primary objective, make sure to follow these steps in order to communicate the goal, to keep your team (and yourself) accountable, and to stay focused!
- Involve the team in the process.
- Make sure they know what’s in it for them (rewards).
- Once everyone buys into the goal, make it the standard; if people don’t own it, they don’t belong on your team.
- Lead by example with your own commitment and enthusiasm.
- Invest time teaching people how to win.
- Keep a scoreboard and talk about it all the time.
- Set stepping stone goals (guideposts) along the way and celebrate each win as they happen.
- Keep your word and pay up!
A Brief Reflection on Strategic Planning and Setting Goals
A difficult fact to consider: the team that got the organization to this point in time, may not be the right team moving forward. As your company grows and develops, not all the current players are the correct players for the marketplace today. Do not be afraid to mix it up.
Now that you, the leader, and your team are on the same page, it’s time to execute with complete passion. Make that one big thing happen. Break it down into measurable milestone goals, assign responsibilities and establish Key Performance Indicators. Set your marked achievement dates and provide accountability. Actively measure it. Support success and leverage your strengths. Provide the best leadership you can. Do not avoid support from others and get it done right.
