A few months ago I bought a road bike. I’ve never had one before. One of those funny bikes with bendy handlebars that droop down for no apparent reason. I’ve been riding a mountain bike for years now. Nothing too strenuous – a small 8 mile loop on soft ground three times a week. Helps me clear my head…

But I felt I needed to do more so I bought the road bike on eBay. I set myself a big goal. 20 miles three times a week. Now the lycra-cladded amongst you will be snorting derisively. I know some of you are doing 120 miles in a single day. But I’m not there. For me, 20 miles seems like a lot. It’s a big goal. I set the goal. I planned my route and off I went.

It was terrible…I managed it but it was exhausting. It seemed to take all day. And what are those stupid handlebars about? I thought I was going to die. The sweat was pouring off me and my head was pounding. And I knew everyone was looking at me, as I huffed and puffed my way around the Cheshire countryside. After what seemed like an eternity I finished the route. Twenty miles – in the bag.

Three days later I overcame all my fears and I did it again. A bit easier this time but it still seemed like torture. Mentally, I was pleased to have done it, but I was hardly left with a huge desire to repeat the experience, and in my heart I knew that doing this three times a week was not going to happen. I just could not picture it. As a consequence I was not motivated to try because it is near impossible to feel motivated to do something when you think you’re going to fail.

I went back to the mountain bike. More my sort of thing.

Then the mountain bike had to have a repair and I was without it for over a week. Out came the road bike again. With huge trepidation. However, not being one to repeat past mistakes (usually) I started small – 10 miles. It took about forty minutes. It was fine. I did this three times a week for a fortnight. Despite the return of the repaired mountain bike I persevered with the road bike.

Then I upped it to 16 miles. Now I’m at 20 miles. I’ve just done four consecutive days at 20 miles per day and it was easy. Diary permitting, I can do 100 miles in a week. How long has it taken me to get to this giddy height? Nine weeks.

I will consolidate this over the next two weeks and then up it to 25 miles per outing. Then 30 miles. Then I buy the lycra. You have been warned.

Now this is a major achievement for me.

My progress has involved starting small and building up. We all know this is the way to do things but for me it’s been a stark reminder that to get anywhere we need to take the first step…

As Martin Luther King said, “you don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”

The key to goal achievement is motivation and the key to motivation is a genuine belief that we will succeed. No self-delusion. A genuine feeling that in all likelihood we will succeed.

So…how to set challenging goals? Answer – don’t set challenging goals. Set small, incremental goals. Maintain motivation and keep going. Take the first step…

OK but firstly, why bother?

You have two choices with people who work for you.

Choice 1

Empower your team. They will grow, become happier and more useful, allowing you to do bigger and better things, and in so doing you become happier and more useful too.  It’s a win-win. Everyone achieves more of their potential.

Choice 2

Don’t empower your team. They will not grow, become less happy and less useful and will resent you because you have institutionalised them. You will not get the chance to do bigger and better things and you may develop an illusion of indispensability which is just another way of chaining yourself to your current role with no means of escape. It’s a lose-lose.

I imagine you’re finding Choice 1 a wee bit more appealing.

So, how to bring about this fabulous state of empowerment? There are a few things to think about…

Structure

Is the organisation set up to facilitate or hinder success? There’s no point in being customer intimate if everyone works in silos with an internal focus. There’s no point in pursuing a differentiation strategy and slashing the development budget.

Skills

The fact is that on-the-job training, whilst important, is often a very slow way to half-learn how to do something badly. Skills training and coaching is the fast-track to competence and through that confidence.

Systems

Internal and external. Get the critical business systems right so that people can work effectively and efficiently. Marketing systems that work; CRM systems that work. Accounting systems, key account management systems. It’s endess. Almost everything is or should be seen as a system. This is not suffocating, it’s liberating because it allows people to spend their time improving systems and giving more value through their creativity and initiative rather than re-inventing the wheel every day.

Managers

Make sure the bosses are not disempowering staff through control freakery, failure to delegate, and all the other crimes of the poorly training or badly managed manager.

Management is of course getting things done through other people. Management is not about setting yourself up as the charismatic mega-being; the only one who can do things; the indispensible super-achiever, surrounded by a team of barely sentient worker bees who, after training, might be able to carry your bags. I exaggerate to make a point, but I’m sure you might recognise this type of manager…

Joint Goal Setting

Staff should set their own goals. There needs to be iteration of course as some will play a game and some will genuinely underestimate their abilities, but let them take the lead. Then they have more ownership and motivation and a primal need to deliver what they said they would.

Delegate

The essence of management. People have jobs because tasks have been permanently delegated in the past. That’s how organisations come into being and grow. From a people development point of view, delegation is like human growth hormone. How’s that for an analogy!? I’m quite pleased with that one.

Share Information

Information is not power. Empowered teams with information is power.

Show Confidence

Show confidence in your team. Not wild “you can do anything” nonsense. More a quiet, positive, supportive “I can help you be even better”.

So that’s empowerment. An overused “buzzword” that is seldom unpicked and understood sufficiently to allow positive action can be taken.

Once you empower your team you become more empowered yourself. What goes around comes around. How good is that?

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It’s not often I re-read a book. In fact the only book I have re-read is Roald Dalh’s Danny The Champion of the World. But I have just finished re-reading Stephen Covey’s masterful The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The worst thing about this book is the title. It sounds like just another quick-fix, get-everything-you-want-in-5-minutes fantasy. But it isn’t.

So here are the habits, in a nutshell -

No 1 Be Proactive.

We are in charge of ourselves. We are responsible – response-able. We can choose how to react to external stimuli, rather than being Pavlov’s dog – salivating at the light.

Covey says that keeping to your commitments – to yourself and others – is the clearest manifestation of our proactivity. If we commit to do something – do it. If we don’t want to commit to it – don’t commit to it. Integrity to our commitments is the clearest manifestation of our proactivity.

No 2 Begin With The End In Mind

All things are created twice – first in our minds and then in reality. We need to get clear on what we want – then create it. It’s goal-setting, essentially.

Without clear goals we are adrift. I reckon roughly 80% of people have no clear goals. They’re not bad people. They’re just won’t realise their potential.

No 3 Put First Things First

This is the high-payoff activities I bang on about endlessly. Not the crises, deadlines, interruptions and endless small stuff.  We must learn to say “no” to everything that is not a high-payoff activity. Say “no” to others, and to ourselves.  Do it pleasantly, smilingly, non-apologetically. But do it. Time actually IS our greatest asset.

No 4 Think Win-Win

In all relationships – business and personal. Life is not a zero-sum game. To win, others do not have to lose.

Do you have any win-lose relationships in your life? Turn them into win-win, or politely excuse yourself and go. Win-lose is bad for the other guy and bad for your soul. It’s actually lose-lose.

No 5 Seek First To Understand

…then to be understood.

People want to be understood, but few people do the understanding. Why not be one of them? When I meet people for the first time I make sure the conversation is about them, not me. Shamefully, I started doing this because it was suggested to me that this would help them to like me, as people like those who are interested in them. Fortunately, I now find myself genuinely interested in understanding them first. I enjoy understanding them. I actually like it. They seem to too. Maybe I really am a coach.

No 6 Synergy

1 + 1 = 3. We work better when we work together.  I’d rather be in two ventures, sharing the profits with another human being, than in one venture by myself.  I’m pretty good. I’ve got the test results to prove it. But I’m not that good. I lose perspective pretty quickly by myself. I miss things. I don’t see clearly. I am glad I am sufficiently self-aware to see this.

No 7 Sharpen the Saw

Take time to renew. You cannot work all the time. We need to rest, reflect, renew. So take some exercise, write a journal (a great idea), just play, or take time with someone you love. I’m rubbish at all of this. Someone said to me the other day they were leaving the office at 4pm to go home. I thought to myself – “what a luxury”. It’s not a luxury. It’s a necessity.

I cannot do Covey’s book justice in these few words. I suggest you read it, or re-read it and you, like Danny, can be champion of the world.

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.

Those of you who know me will have heard me banging on endlessly about High Payoff Activities (HPAs): the things you need to do to achieve your goals. And if you do not do them, you won’t achieve your goals. HPAs are not facilitatory or merely helpful; they are the critical, core, essential activities without which goals will not be achieved.

Define these, and spend 50% of your working day on them, and you will do very well thank you very much.

Some people ask me how to define HPAs. I have to admit to being surprised by this question, but I’ve been asked it so many times now that clearly it needs to be addressed.

If you really don’t know where to start, ask your boss. Or find someone who’s done what you are trying to do (a mentor). Or someone who can help you reach your potential (a coach). These people can be real and sitting in front of you, or you can find them in books, on courses, on the internet.

But let me give you an example from my life. It helps to start with a goal. So here’s a goal:

I will generate £X profit this financial year.

Simple and necessary. I have bills and two cost centres to look after.

So, how am I going to achieve this goal? That’s the HPAs. Goals are outputs, endpoints. HPAs are activities.

Because I understand my business, I know that to make £X I need to work with 20 clients. I’ll get about 5 through repeat sales, i.e. they will phone me. So now I need 15. I need to prospect. So here’s some prospecting HPAs –

HPA1 Continue to write these Pearls (one per week).

HPA2 Go networking (once per week).

HPA3 Conduct an email marketing experiment with purchased data (by end July).

HPA4 Market a one day workshop every 6 to 8 weeks (ongoing).

HPA5 Implement a listbuilding strategy generating x sign-ups per month (by Feb – done).

These HPAs will generate sales opportunities so I have another HPA–

HPA6 Sell and win coaching work (measure conversion rate of prospects to clients; track average client profitability) (as required).

And this of course produces another HPA –

HPA7 Delivery of coaching service to clients (as required).

Then there’s an HPA all of us should have -

HPA8 Plan and Review (quarterly, monthly, weekly).

An HPA must have a measure associated with it. “Go networking” is insufficient. “Go networking once per week” is better. “Go networking once per week and generate one lead per week is even better.” I could take that further.

Eight HPAs. That’s it. HPAs 1 to 5 generate leads. If they generate insufficient leads for the effort involved, I will change them or scrap them.

All of these leads, with a known conversion rate and a running calculation of average profitability per client will tell me with a good deal of certainty if I am going to achieve my goal.

There are other things I could do that might facilitate goal achievement – have a spectacular website, write numerous marketing pamphlets, hone my services until they shine etc  – but are they essential, core and critical? I don’t think so but there’s a bit of judgement required here between what’s an essential HPA, and what’s merely facilitatory.

Do the essential first and if you have some time over, do more of the essential – never get to the facilitatory.

Spend 50% of your time on HPAs – all of them mind, not just the ones you like. How much time you spend on each is a judgement call. HPA8 is your satnav and will correct you as you go along.

A small subtlety about HPAs – they need to be done. But not necessarily by you. If you have an HPA you are not skilful or confident about, delegate it or outsource it. If you cannot do that; get skilful, then competent, then confident. An unaddressed HPA will severely limit your chances of success. Be honest with yourself.

HPA8 is critical – planning and reviewing. Take time out every quarter to look at purpose and direction (strategy). Every month to make sure the short term (6 to 12 months) is on track. Every week to manage the forthcoming week and make sure you’re at 50% productivity.

I hope that helps.

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

Visualisation is an important part of the goal-setting process. It’s like a television advert for your own future. And you are the director of the advert. But where it’s different from a normal advert is that it creates the future. The advert isn’t pulled from the programme. The programme is made from the advert.
Now, before you reach for the delete button, I am not advocating that you can think yourself rich, because you can’t. No. You have to work really hard. But working really hard with the end in mind is much more effective work. And the end in mind, is the advert in your mind; the visualisation.
When you have something to do that is important, and perhaps worrying, visualisation is a powerful tool to help you raise your game.

Lights, camera, action…!

I have a small talk to give today, in Macclesfield, and it’s a bit different from any talk I’ve done before. I could furiously scribble notes down and try to memorise them, getting a bit stressed in the process. I used to do this, when I thought perfection was a good thing.

What I have done is this. I took a 3 x 5 inch index card and wrote down a few bullet points. No more than one for every two minutes of the talk. I then went and lay on my bed and I gave the talk, in my head, to an imaginary bunch of people in a place I’ve never been.

Can I do this in the car…?

No. Being relaxed is critical. Eyes shut. Lying down if possible.

How often…?

Depends on the event. I did this two consecutive times on Sunday morning and once this morning. That’s enough. If I was addressing the nation on TV, I’d do it a bit more. But not much more.

What do I see?

I try to imagine small details as I talk. The faces looking at me. The ties. The necklaces. The temperature in the room. It’s all made up. I’ve never been in the room. And I never will be truly in the room. I’ll be in the advert for the room. The advert I’ve created in my head.

What do I feel?

Exactly what I want to. This is about setting the emotion for the talk. How am I going to feel – I choose how I want to feel and I put it in the advert – I chose to feel calm, clear, in control and on top of my game.

The advert is imbued by all of this…twice yesterday and once this morning. The job is done, before it’s even begun. And will happen exactly as it has done in my head. The future is written, in my mind. The execution is a formality.

You can do this. Start with a small thing, something you know is going to happen, but you’re not 100% confident about it. Then move on to bigger and bigger things.

This stuff works…

This week’s Pearl of Leadership Wisdom is on…

Time Management for Dummies
Write lists…

You must have lists. With everything on them – everything. Work through your lists constantly and try to score out more than you add on.

You must…

…become obsessed with your tasks. Get through the small stuff first, to clear the decks for the big stuff. Please those around you first: do what your boss/partner/child asks you to do. We need to get along with people. Answer the phone when it rings. If you’re serious, get a nice leather binder with all the pages you need – diary, a page for phone numbers, London underground map, metric to imperial conversion charts, international dialling codes….

Well done! You’ve mastered time management for dummies.

Now…

Time management for smarties is different.

This is what to do…

Understand your goals. If you don’t have goals, move quietly away from the computer and call me…NOW.

Once you have goals, then define your High Payoff Activities (HPAs) – they are the critical actions that deliver your goals. Add two more – planning and physical exercise. You should have less than ten in total.

Half full…

When you plan your next week or fortnight, fill 50% of your time with HPAs (including meetings with yourself to do any HPAs that require no one else). Use your diary, or better, an electronic calendar like Office or Google (type calendar into Google).

For everything else, (emails, phone calls, actions collected throughout the day, actions collected in meetings, post etc) process them all as follows:

Decide whether you will  -

* Bin it,
* File it,
* Delegate it,
* Might do it one day, or
* Action it.

For the things that you may do one day, add them to a list entitled “Might Do It Today” Put this page in tomorrow’s slot in a bring-forward file (a concertina folder with 31 slots marked 1 to 31 for each day of the present month and a second concertina folder with 12 slots marked January through December for the months we’re not in at the moment).
If you must…

For those that you must action, and only those, do the following –

* If it will take less than 2 minutes, do it now.
* If it will take 2 – 15 minutes, put “the action” (hardcopy email, handwritten note etc) in your bring-forward file to do it on a specific day (just before it must be done, no sooner). File all associated stuff (email, notes etc) or bin them. Don’t leave anything in piles, in your inbox etc.
* If it will take more than 15+ minutes to do it, schedule time for it in your diary and put “the action” (hardcopy email, handwritten note etc) in your bring-forward file to do it on a specific day (just before it must be done – again, no sooner). File all associated stuff (email, notes etc) or bin them. Again, don’t leave anything in piles, in your inbox etc.

The moment I wake up…

At the start of every day, look at your diary (week to a view) and your bring-forward file. Your diary is your plan. Remember, if you don’t have a plan, you are part of someone else’s plan. And do you know what they have planned for you? Nothing much.

Your bring-forward file for the present day will contain the trivia that you MUST do, and your “Might Do It Today” page of things you may do one day, or may never do, but don’t want to forget about. Each day, you will look at this list and you may decide to elevate one or more of the items to actions which you will then process as above. Once you have done this, put the “Might Do It Today” list back in the bring-forward file under tomorrow’s date.

Do you have piles…?

The great thing about this approach is it gives you clarity and focus. The HPAs get done. They are your number one priority. There are no piles on your desk, piles in your inbox, piles in your head and bits of paper everywhere that cause a general sense of malaise.

In this system, everything has been processed and if it merits your time it will be in your diary or your bring-forward file.

This system is not just for work, it’s for life.

Twinkle, twinkle…

Do this for a month. Then increase the time spent on HPAs to 60%. Do this for a month. Then 70%. That’s probably as far as you can go, but by then you will be spending almost 5 times as much time as most people on your HPAs. You will feel in control, on your front foot, more confident and you will achieve more and more. It’s a virtuous cycle. You have become a star player!

Merry Christmas.

Mark

This week’s Pearl of Leadership Wisdom is on…

Trust

“You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough.” – Frank Crane
Merit trust…
Keep your promises to everyone. Especially loved ones, bosses, subordinates and children. I said everyone. And if you break a promise for reasons out of your control; explain, explain, explain. And bend over backwards to make it up. Never let a broken promise go unremarked, unresolved. But they should be very rare. Keep the promises you make to yourself as well. Don’t disappoint yourself. It breeds laxity, and worse.
And in goal setting…
…don’t call them goals. Call them promises. Try it, it works.
Don’t lie…
Let’s assume you’re not a pathological liar. Let’s assume you lie for the right reasons –
To avoid embarrassment…
…so you’d rather lie than be embarrassed? This is a self-esteem issue. If you’ve done something to be embarrassed about and it’s got out the bag, you need to stand up in the glare and take it. Those around you will admire you, think more of you. Whereas to be caught lying, even over something trivial, especially over something trivial…
To avoid hurting others’ feelings…
…most people would rather know the truth. Most, but not all. Frankly, someone who asks for your opinion wanting only one answer has put you in a no-win position and deserved all that they are just about to get.
To escape punishment…
…this is cowardice. Twenty years ago, I was in the back of a police car, in Hexham, having been stopped for over-exuberant driving, on an empty dual carriageway, late on a Sunday night. I already had more than my fair share of points on my licence, and if I got any more I was taking the bus. Plus, I’d just accepted a new job in a new city, involving a lot of driving…
One of the policemen explained the technology that was used to ensnare me. I was familiar with it and said so. He turned to look at me and said:
“Are you a copper?”
Moment of truth time…
Say “yes” and maybe get let off? I’m not a bus person, I don’t have the time. I’ve got this fabulous new job…I’m on a mission and the rules don’t apply to me…I deserve this break, I am special, I really am!
It may seem trivial now. But it didn’t at the time.
I said:
“No, I’m not a copper”.
I took the bus, for 6 months. I took my medicine. It was foul, but due. And it did me good.
Above, I said “Let’s assume you lie for the right reasons”. Trick statement! There are no right reasons.
We’re all adults…
Now, I’m not suggesting that you lose the filter in your mind that stops everything you think from being turned immediately into speech or emails. You must be diplomatic, and diplomacy is not about lying. Diplomacy is about understanding the impact you have on others and acting accordingly to minimise any unpleasantness. Minimise, not eliminate. We’re all adults here.
Be trusting…
…give people the benefit of the doubt. I have done innumerable psychometric tests where I have been said to be overly trusting, or even naive. This is crap. I am neither. I would not let a stranger look after my children, my money, my home. I am not a fool. But I’ll give new people my time, my attention, my focus. I will assume they will respond appropriately. And if they don’t I have learned something…that they are fools.
But if I don’t trust them…I am the fool.
To not give trust…to be overly guarded, suspicious, sceptical, defensive…is to never dare to taste a strawberry because it might be sour.
So what to do…
To be trustworthy and to offer trust are things that we can control. We have dominion over ourselves. We can choose to be and do these things. However, there is no guarantee that people will trust us, or merit our trust in them. But that’s their loss.
Keep doing what you say and saying what you do; be consistent; be truthful; be transparent and open; offer trust to all; have faith in humanity.
You will taste many more sweet strawberries than sour.
Mark

This week’s Pearl of Leadership Wisdom is on…
Planning
“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
Fail to plan…
…and you plan to fail. End of story.
You wouldn’t pretend to run anything significant without a plan. Yet some people never plan anything…their lives…their time. They waste something much more important than money. They waste their time. And their time is the currency they exchange for the chance to realise their potential…to be what they want to be. A waste indeed.
If you have a job…
…it can be tempting to feel that because you have hired your time out to your employer, having your time wasted by yourself and others is not so bad. That only works if you don’t want much in return for hiring out the prime of your life to someone else. Don’t be cheap.
Planning’s not for me…
It may not suit you. You may be a smell-the-roses person, in the moment, not future-focused. Well, the future’s focused on you and it’s coming at you, one inexorable second at a time.
Bondage…
But a plan is not a straight jacket. Your plan is a roadmap to your desired goal. Your plan may not withstand first contact with reality, but it’s the planning that counts. When you have a plan, obstacles are smaller, setbacks more minor. You will find a detour. Your drive and motivation are higher. You are more win-able; more able to win.
Note to self…
…when was the last time I hit a barrier? If you cannot remember, a siren should be going off in your head. Maybe you have a do-nothing plan. Sometimes this is appropriate. Maybe in the short-term. Seldom in the medium and beyond-term.
Set goals in stone…
…and plans in the sand. You need to know what your goals are and what you need to do to make them happen – the high payoff activities I go on about incessantly. Then you need to fill your available time with these activities. This is where planning fits…it’s the bit between goal setting and achievement. It’s about a) defining your high payoff activities and b) making sure you have the space and resources to execute them. That’s it. Simple.
Stop the clock…
But you need to be crystal clear on your goals. Don’t skip this bit. Without this, you can only plan to get through all the stuff that’s already surrounding you. Your to-do list. Then, you are indulging in what is laughably called time management. As if you can manage time. This is like being busy on the Titanic.
Abandon ship…
But if you are clear on your goals, and then plan, plan, plan…then you’re not time-managing, you are self-managing.
And in first place we have…
The number one high payoff activity for everyone is planning. So plan to plan. Schedule time for it. Give it space. You will free up infinitely more time by planning than the planning process itself will consume. Spend time to save time. Planning is the turbo charger on your productivity. Do it yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily.
So – what to do?
Start small. Plan for tomorrow…today. Ten minutes with your notebook, diary, whatever you use. Write down the high payoff activities that will consume 60 to 70% of your day tomorrow. The things you will do that will deliver what you want, come hell or high water. The things you will do first.
Then, in the morning, pursue these activities with maximum prejudice.
Do you think this will make a difference to you?
In a month?
A year?
A decade?
This is self-management. Maybe it’s even self-leadership. After which, all is easy.
Mark

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

Goal Setting

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.”

- Michelangelo

Our success is measured by the extent to which we reach our goals.

It’s easy to write a goal, but effective goal setting is a wee bit more involved.

Does our goal tell us what to do tomorrow? If it doesn’t we may never get started. So we need to develop smaller, sub-goals, e.g. 90 day goals.

Do we fully understand what’s in it for us – all the benefits gained and losses avoided by achievement of our goal? This drives our motivation. Write them all down, by hand.

Have we considered the barriers that may block us? Working out how to overcome them beforehand makes us much more psychologically robust when barriers appear.

Have we considered the critical actions we need to do to achieve our goal and make sure that every day we do enough of them and do them first?

We must track our progress using a measure.

Developing an affirmation is beneficial: a positive statement in the present tense that we can believe, for example, “I am a winner!” We say this to ourselves every morning. We feel stupid at first, but it passes.

Visualisation – last Tuesday night on the radio I heard the footballer Wayne Rooney say “the day before a match I ask the kit man what strip we’ll be wearing. Then I imagine scoring a goal wearing that strip, over and over, in my head”. That’s visualisation.

This is effective goal setting. And success is goal-directed action. So let’s give ourselves the best chance of success. Aim high!

Get a Goal Planning Sheet by emailing me: mark@weareppp.com

Next week…..High Payoff Activies

Achieving goals is all about identifying our High Payoff Activities – and doing them – all of them. Regardless of our comfort zone.