The success of a venture, from the smallest marketing idea to an entire new business venture, depends on a lot of things, of course. One of them is speed of implementation.

Simply getting out there and doing whatever needs to be done quickly is of critical importance.  There is only so much you can do mentally (all non-action is mental). You cannot plan-do-review if there’s no doing.

So why do we sometimes implement so slowly, or even worse, not at all?

A number of reasons –

1. Knowledge Gaps.

Management is not about gaining total clarity before acting, it’s about hitting the 80/20 sweet spot where 20% of the money and time that could be spent in preparation is spent yielding 80% of the achievable clarity. Then management is about execution, with a beady eye on the risks.

2. Perfectionism.

Waiting for the perfect moment to act. This is silly because there is no perfect moment.

However, there is the optimal moment. The moment when, allowing for the imperfections of life, conditions are propitious. Even sub-optimal may be OK. Sub-optimal does not mean “destined to fail”. It just means things could be better but things can always be better.

3. Fear of Failure.

I believe there is no species on earth possessing the ability of us humans to talk ourselves out of action. What causes this fear?

It is, simply, doubt. Or uncertainty. We have doubt and uncertainty because we are intelligent. We see overwhelming confidence in others as naivety, or worse, stupidity. Our analytical brains cannot help but have doubt, to see the uncertainties.

So accept doubt for what it is – a marker of intelligence, and then use that intelligence to act anyway, despite the uncertainty.

The higher the speed of implementation the quicker you will be successful. Doing stuff gets results and results allow you to fine tune and get better results. Isn’t it wonderful that we get better at something the more we do it? Wouldn’t it be strange if this was not so?

It is also true that the higher the speed of implementation the quicker you will fail. This doesn’t sound good but it is good. Not everything we do will work. If we implement quickly we will see failure coming earlier and then we can stop or change tack with minimal loss of money and time. The alternative is that we implement slowly and it takes years to find out what we have been doing isn’t getting us to our destination. And the price of that is colossal, in money and, critically, time.

So, how to implement with real pace, with real speed?

Well of course there’s all the usual management best practice that I bang on about all the time like getting everyone’s motivation sorted out; planning – sufficiently detailed while avoiding perfectionism; setting goals and deadlines; defining your high-payoff activities and using blocktime to leverage this most precious of resources etc etc etc etc etc.

These “outer game” tools and techniques are good.

But maybe there’s a few elements of the “inner game” that need addressing –

• Motivation – drill down really far into the “why”; the “reason for action”. This requires real insight and honesty and rigour but when you crack it it will power you straight through to your destination.
• Learn to see doubt and uncertainty as your friends, without whom you would be very, very lost. They are signposts towards what risks we need to manage, not excuses for inaction.
• Subjugate your ego – everything and I mean everything is secondary to the achievement of the goals. This means that you should get out of the way. Get off the critical path. Delegate and outsource until everyone’s eyes water, and don’t allow anything to be held up or delayed because someone is waiting for you to do something and you haven’t got around to it. Don’t worry – when you are successful everyone will know it was you in the driving seat.

I was talking a few weeks ago about the power of routines. I’ve had some good feedback. So I’m going a bit deeper this week.

I’m talking about taking something you don’t particularly like doing and doing it the same way, every day (or so), until it becomes a routine. This works because routines become automatic. “I’ve always done it this way”. Not so good if we’re talking 3 hours of TV every night. A bit better if we’re talking 20 minutes hard exercise before 730am.

It starts with willpower. The sheer will to begin to do something. Willpower is a great force but there are two things you need to be aware of. Firstly, willpower is in short supply. Don’t confuse its immediate power with consistency. Willpower is soon depleted. It is difficult to use willpower in the long term to achieve anything.  Secondly, using willpower, or indeed any power, is draining. There’s less left in the tank.

This is where routines come in. Leverage willpower by establishing routines. Like my morning routine I was talking about last time. A little power goes a long way because it kicks off a routine. The willpower required is tiny – it is the willpower required to get up as soon as the Blackberry alarm first snooze is over. That’s the will power. Not much. And the leverage is the routine – the main benefit of which is that I exercise and actually eat some breakfast.

This is the efficient and effective use of will power.

The 800-pound gorilla in the room is our old friend: fear. Fear – the enemy of will. Fear needs to be managed. Something Rory McIlroy clearly managed to do yesterday when he won the US Open golf by a mile. A significant improvement on his efforts a few weeks earlier in Atlanta when the gorilla ate him alive on the last day.

There’s no time here for a treatise on fear but try this – when you feel fear, recognise it, accept it for what it is (some ancient obsolete brain function designed to protect you from something that wanted to eat you over by the swamp), wonder about the poor caveman or woman that needed that protection, and then do what it is you want to do anyway, after checking for sabre-toothed tigers.

So can you really use will power, routine and fear management to do anything you want? Well I think you can. And that’s 90% of the battle, for me. I don’t accept I cannot do something. Sometimes I have been shown to be wrong but that’s not the point. It’s the attitude that matters. Going back to golf, the sports psychologists say you should look at every putt with an overwhelming certainty that it will sink AND to not mind if you miss. This seems internally inconsistent but it is actually management of the fear of failure by understanding that failure is not personal, merely a result you didn’t want.

So how do we put all this together –

1. Design the routine first. Maybe a morning routine. A high-payoff activity you hate doing, e.g. making 20 phone calls a day; speaking to a group. Whatever it is. Routine-ise it. What are you going to do? Where are you going to do it? When are you going to do it – time and frequency?

2. Then apply willpower. Use sparingly, as a catalyst, to begin the routine. Let’s say you want to do your routine every working day. It will take about three weeks for your routine to become so engrained that you won’t need to use any willpower at all after that. You have a new habit. We’re 80% robot. We can use this to our advantage by setting up routines.

3. From the start, manage any fear you have. Recognise it, accept it, but remain unchanged by it.

Worth a try? What’s the worst that can happen? Good luck.

So, we’re twenty four days into 2011 already. Almost February. My Mother tells me time continues to speed up as you get older. Ug! It’s already going past at 600mph. So fast that it’s difficult to keep the really important stuff at the front of the mind. So easy to switch the neck-top computer off, do what we have always done and miss the chances to improve on last year, no matter how good last year was.

Well that would be a shame so here’s my Top 10 list of self-management essentials to ensure you use the free will you most certainly have, but can so easily neglect.

Let’s start at number 1…

Values

Straight in at number one, since about 500 B.C….values. What do you believe in? What matters to you? Values drive all effective action. Get this right. It’s the foundation.

Purpose

Number 2…the angelic offspring of values….purpose.  The essence of leadership – whether of oneself or of others. No purpose…no point. Start with values and from them…derive your purpose. Paying the mortgage is not a purpose. You were put on the earth for a wee bit more than that.

Plan

Number 3…values and purpose…now get a plan. You are part of a plan, whether you like it or not. The only question is who writes the plan. It’s either you or someone else. If you don’t wish to be the author there are many who will take your place, but they won’t write the plan with you in the starring role.

Goals

Number 4…goals. You have a purpose…very good.  Time to get a bit more real. A bit more tangible. So, how will I achieve my purpose? Goals. Goals. Goals. Think of goals as small steps on the route to achieving your ultimate purpose.

If you don’t have goals get some help. I really mean it. When a coach/manager/mentor says to you to set goals, it’s like your doctor saying “stop smoking.” It’s not fashion. It’s not the latest thing. Just do it.

Action

Number 5…take massive action. Data collection is over. Thinking time is over. Define and focus on your high-payoff activities (the things that if you do NOT do, you will fail to achieve your goals). Work on your time management and personal productivity until you feel like you are in charge of yourself. Then you probably are.  Develop a steely, cold, single-minded determination to do what you need to do to deliver your goals and ultimately your purpose. Consider throwing away your TV. Then throw it away.

Measure

Number 6…measure. If it matters to you, measure it. No measurement…no feedback. No feedback…no catalyst for improvement. You’ve got to get very lucky very early to be successful without measuring what’s important. So, do you feel lucky? Well, do ya?

Fear

Number 7…fear. If you have a high-payoff activity that you do not do as much as you should, deal with the fear that stops you doing it. The mistake you’re probably making is attributing more pain to doing the thing than not doing it. This is easy to do because the pain of doing the thing is now, palpable and tangible. Whereas the pain of not doing it is some time off and seems less urgent. Reattribute the pain to inaction, not action. In other words, focus on the pain of regret, not the pain of discipline, as the great, late Jim Rohn said. This works.

Educate

Number 8…educate yourself. Never stop. Deepen and widen what you know and how you use it. This is better than TV. You have the time.

Humans

Number 9…partner with others. We work better in teams. Get into one. Either a mentoring group, a mastermind group or a business partnership. Something involving others. We are social and work better in teams. But beware…here be dragons. Unless those you choose to work with are in the same place as you, mentally, and share similar ambitions, they will be very bad for you, despite not being bad people.

Stop running

Number 10…take time out. This life is a marathon, not a sprint. Smell the roses.

That’s it. Why not focus on one of these areas right now…today. No matter how good 2010 was, 2011 can be better. Good luck.

I was 27 years old when I took off my lab coat for the last time. I was to become a buyer, then a sales rep, then a marketing guy, then a sales manager…and so on.

I had to negotiate.

For the first time.

Hmmm…negotiate. Sounded scary. Somewhat different to test tubes, chemicals and the certainty of the lab.

Negotiation isn’t really what a lot of people think it is. It isn’t win-lose. It isn’t personal. It isn’t a battle. It isn’t about slick tricks and techniques.  Or rather it doesn’t have to be.

It is about preparedness, thoughtfulness and suppressing your own ego.

There are many keys to negotiation, not just one.

There’s understanding who you’re dealing with – are they the decision maker (there is only one you know, the person who can say “yes” and they don’t wear a badge). Or are you talking to one of the many people who cannot say “yes”, but can say “no”? (In that the decision maker will not say “yes” if this trusted colleague is saying “no”).

Another key is having many options for getting to an agreement – the more options you have, the better your chance of getting agreement. It is tempting to construct in your head the perfect outcome, convince yourself it is fair to all parties and go into the meeting with your shiny solution. But unless you’re very lucky the other guy probably does not share your view of the perfect outcome. So generate options, options, options.

Yet another key to negotiation is to focus on interests, not positions. What interests are shared by the parties in the negotiation? Common interests will lead to a solution. Focusing on moving the other guy from his position while largely keeping yours unchanged isn’t going to work.

But there is one key to negotiation you MUST have…

Your BATNA.

You need a BATNA. Your Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. Your Plan B as it were. When you have a BATNA, your objective for the negotiation is to better your BATNA – to come up with an improvement. This is a low risk objective. If you fail…so what? You’ve got a Plan B.

But if you have no BATNA, your objective in any negotiation is to do a deal… any deal. This is not a good place to be psychologically. It breeds fear, anxiety and meekness. And those show.

You see this on Dragon’s Den – the hapless entrepreneur offers 20% of their company for £50K. They get a single offer of £50K for 40% of their company. All they can do here is accept or walk away. (Interestingly, when they walk away it is seldom because they have a BATNA, it’s because they cannot stomach “giving away” so much at an emotional level).

They cannot negotiate because they have no BATNA. They must accept or decline. Yet they try to negotiate. And they do it meekly. They question “will you accept 30% for the £50K?” It’s never a statement: “I’ll give you 30% for the £50K”. It’s always a question. I have to look away at this point. The answer from the Dragon is always “no” and it should always be “no”. Then the hapless entrepreneur accepts at 40% anyway but there’s one difference – they’ve blown their credibility and they’ve begun a new relationship having diminished themselves because they’ve asked for something, not received it and accepted the fact that they’ve not received it.

It’s OK to do this in one-off transactional negotiation, e.g. buying a washing machine where you’re not trying to build a relationship with the other guy or establish credibility. But if you plan on meeting the other guy again across the negotiating table or the boardroom table, you need credibility and trying to negotiate without a BATNA is the quickest way there is to destroy your credibility.

Get a BATNA. It changes the game.

(A lot of this is covered in a great wee book called Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher and William Ury).

Most people accept that having goals is better than not having goals. But then very few people actually have goals. Why the contradiction?

This is what people say:

I’ve got goals already!

I want to be slim, rich, travel to Australia, run the London marathon. These are not goals. They are dreams.  Dreams are fine. A lot of goals start as dreams. But goals are different. They are written, precise, measurable, have an associated plan and a timescale for completion.

I don’t know how to set goals.

This is sadly believable because we are not taught how to do it at school. There’s a process for generating and delivering goals. The process is not fool-proof. But life isn’t a game of perfection. It’s about stacking the odds in your favour.

I think I’ll fail.

Well, don’t set a goal that you think you will fail to achieve. In order to be motivated we need to believe we have a pretty good chance of success. So set a goal you can achieve. But here’s the good bit – in time, this repetition of success will embolden you and you will set more challenging goals until you are routinely achieving goals that would have seemed impossible a few years ago.  And in any event, it is not setting high goals and failing to achieve them that is the worlds’ problem, it is setting low goals and achieving them.

My friends will laugh at me when I tell them my goal.

So don’t tell them. And, in time, get new friends.

I don’t need goals; I know what I’m doing.

You do, to an extent. But you can stagger around in the fog, sort of heading in the right direction and you will, in the round, make progress. But having goals is like driving on a sunny day with clear views and a map. You will also make progress, but an awful lot more of it.

I have goals…in my head.

See above.

Life is too unpredictable.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We’re going to take off and then make a right turn until the nose of the 747 is pointing directly at London. Then, we’re going to relax for the next 7 hours. The cross winds, turbulence and general lack of order in our atmosphere means we may land anywhere from Reykjavik to Algiers. But hey, life’s unpredictable. Thank you for flying with Unpredictable Airways.”

Don’t get me wrong. Sometime we have to simply react to external events. But let’s not sacrifice all self-determination because occasionally life throws us a wobbler.

Goal setting starts are a chore, becomes a discipline, then a trusty tool. By that point you realise goal setting is the greatest skill you can learn. And the thing about skills is – you can learn them!

Success comes from goal-directed action.

Start small – have one goal. Set it now. What would you like to achieve by the end of this week that you would not have done if you had not read this blog post.

Do it now – take 2 minutes. You’re worth it.

I was inspired to write on this topic by Brian Tracey www.briantracey.com. Despite sharing a surname, he isn’t one of the Thunderbirds, but if that was his goal, he’d be one.

This week’s Pearl of Leadership Wisdom is on…Action

“You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind.” – Anon

Our brains are brilliant but they are also charged with our protection. We can see wonderful opportunity and possibility, but also the risks and the threats. A large part of our brain simply wants us to stay in our cave. Take no risks. Stay alive.

If you go down to the woods today…

But the risks we face today in 2010 are not as extreme as perhaps they were in 25,000 BC. But our brains apply the same constraint of fear as if we were thinking of taking a walk in the woods, in 25,000 BC, by ourselves, whilst leaving our club behind in the cave, and not noticing the large foot prints in the soil…

We all have…

…a comfort zone. Its limits are defined by our unconquered fears. But here’s a thing – your comfort zone cannot stay the same size. It either gets bigger or smaller. It’s a clearing in the woods.

I never saw a thing…

Venture into the edge of the woods every day and chop down a few trees. Your clearing is getting bigger. Do nothing and Mother Nature will reclaim what is hers. As you go about your day wandering around your clearing, never getting too close to the edge, you won’t see her do her work. But she’s doing it, one sapling at a time. Your clearing is getting smaller.

I hate you too…

Fear kills action. Stone dead. Or hobbles it; disables it. But the animosity is mutual. Action kills fear as well.  ACTION KILLS FEAR. It’s like matter and anti-matter. Fear and action cannot co-exist for long. One or the other will prevail. One will cast the other out into the wilderness.

The fear delusion…

Fear exists. I am fearful of large dogs. I mean really big ones. But fear’s PR department has been getting away with murder for centuries…longer. These PR guys have sold us maximum strength, new improved fear when in reality the underlying threats are getting smaller.
It’s probably right to be fearful of dinosaurs, less so of making a speech. Boiling lava – yes. Launching a new business – no. Acid-spitting killer ants the size of dinner plates – yes. Picking up the phone – no.

You will not be surprised to know I advocate taking action. Action gets results which lead to new and better actions which lead to new and better results and so it goes on – it’s like Darwinism. Evolution for your life. With you in the driving seat. And action is the ignition key…

Mark

This week’s Pearl of Leadership Wisdom is on….

Procrastination – Part 1 – Causes of

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them” – Aristotle

I’ll just…

I’ll just make sure this email’s gone, first…I’ll just make a quick coffee, first…I’ll just return that phone call to my friend/Mum/new girl in accounts with the swimming pool-blue eyes…I’ll just have another fag, first…Oh! Is that the time? See you tomorrow.

Procrastination, the curse of the nation…

Why do we do it? Or, more accurately, why do we not do it? Why do we procrastinate? Maybe you don’t, in which case I imagine you are so successful that one of your PAs is reading this for you, and is now reaching for the delete button because he/she knows this is not relevant for you.

I’m busy! I can’t be a procrastinator…

Busy doing what? Running around doing exactly what you want, when you want, in the way you want…I’ve seen pretend busy done at expert level in every organisation I’ve ever worked in.

I’m as successful as I want to be…

I’m happy…I’m not ambitious….really? Good for you. For some, yes. For most, I don’t believe you. It’s more like simply accepting your lot. Coming to terms with your situation. Things are “OK”. Your life is…“OK”. This is called complacency.

Fear…

… of failure, of success. Whatever you can think of…someone’s fearful of it. Or more accurately, has failed to manage this emotion effectively.

I really don’t feel like it…

Oh diddums. I was listening to Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour the other day, as you do, and there were some ideologically pure feminists on…you know the type of person – educated but stupid. Who needs to think when they’ve got an ideology? Basically their argument was that having sex with your partner when you don’t feel like it is a form of rape. They didn’t say “rape”, but that’s what they meant. Girls!!! Get a grip. Do it until you feel like it….don’t wait to feel like it. (Some of my male friends have told me that they have sometimes pleasured their partner when they’d much rather be doing something else, or maybe it was…much rather be doing someone else. I’ll check.)

Which type of procrastinator are you?

Next week – how to overcome procrastination – this huge limitation that keeps your future just there – in your future.

Mark

This week’s Pearl of Leadership Wisdom is on…….

Motivation

“What you have to do and the way you have to do it is incredible simple. Whether you are willing to do it, that’s another matter.”
- Peter Drucker
Motivation….that which gives purpose.

Here we are again, another Monday for most of us. What will give us purpose today?

Well, there’s three kinds of motivation:

Firstly there’s FEAR motivation. Do this or I’ll hit you with a stick/fire you. Does this motivate, give purpose? It can, for a while. It can be good to have a “burning platform” when affecting change in a business. But FEAR motivation is external to us, it is imposed upon us from outside. And it is temporary. People will find a way to shield themselves from the FEAR. Or get their own stick.

Secondly, there’s INCENTIVE…..do this and I’ll give you a large pile of money, carrot etc. Does this give purpose? It can do. But again, it’s external and temporary. When the donkey’s had a carrot it may not want another for some time. Or it may not do anything at all before the carrot is given – the incentive has become custom and practice. The drug no longer works.

Thirdly, there’s ATTITUDE motivation. We find purpose and a reason to do what we need to do because we are crystal clear on our own personal, worthwhile goals. We have really understood what we want and where we are going and what we need to do to get there. We are in charge. We have our own map. Our ATTITUDE drives us. This is internal. This is permanent. It does not ebb and flow. It serves us well.

So if there’s not enough ATTITUDE motivation in your life, email me for a goal planning sheet and begin to generate some of it right now.

Next week…..

Are We Conditioned? – what’s true and what’s not – the power of conditioning.