I said in my last Pearl of 2010 that I was going to take off the first week in January to “sharpen the saw” as Stephen Covey recommends in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”.

He talks about a man spending all day struggling to fell trees with a blunt saw. When asked why he doesn’t sharpen the saw, he says “I don’t have time for that.”

Sound familiar?

Covey advocates taking some time out to rethink what we do, to refresh and to exercise. And to come back sharper, stronger and more focused. Ready for 2011.

We’ll, I did it, properly for the first time ever. In 22 years of business.

What did I do in my four days of saw sharpening?

I reviewed my business performance in 2010. Fully and honestly. Where my business came from. How I won it. Whether the business I won played to my strengths. Were the customers really in my target market segment? Did they truly value what I did? Did the commissioning managers engage with me, or did they just want me to “sort that lot out”?

And the really fabulous customers…did I give them as much as I could have? Could I have loved them even more?

I then planned for 2011. To go back to my values and to derive a strategy based on them. With planning better than ever before. And fewer, better, performance measures. With goals that are challenging but achievable. To decide what to do and, critically, to decide what not to do.

And I exercised. Almost every day (since mid December). In the fresh air, in the snow, in the rain. Fabulously head-clearing.

Was all this worthwhile? A resounding “yes” to that.

So, what did I get out of this outrageously indulgent activity over the last week?

1. I know what worked for me in 2010, and what didn’t. And I have resolved to do more of what worked and, of course, to stop doing what didn’t work. And this involves key relationship management…I have many more business relationships than those that are truly key.

2. I know some of my customers are great for my business and some less so. This is a perennial issue in smaller organisations (and big ones, but often more debilitating in the former). But it’s my fault, and I will fix it. Better definition of target market segment is the answer, coupled with a default “no” to those outside it, rather than a default “yes”. To those inside it – give them ever more love and attention.

3. I have an excellent plan for 2011 to significantly grow my business and I feel that it is achievable. This will require some real changes. Of course it will. Scary? A bit. But it is wildly motivational. Wildly!

4. I have really experimented in 2010 with delegating which for me means outsourcing – if I can get someone to do all the stuff that is not immediately and directly linked to me delivering my plan, then get them to do it. This has been a success in 2010 and I shall continue to do it.

5. After four days with only a pad, a pen and some books, and little or no activity with anything involving a screen, no matter how sexy (the screen, that is), I am astonished, anew, at the power of spending uninterrupted time on the important stuff. And doing this stuff first, rather than “clearing the decks” of the trivia, which is the same as prioritising the small stuff over the big stuff. Now that really is bizarre.

6. The default position of just getting on with things and having the same year as last year is a powerful force that most succumb to and I certainly have many times. This force is with me, but will be defeated!

7. I do too much. Have been doing this for years. I get involved in things because they might make money or are interesting or new. But they do not accord with my values. Which means I don’t follow through effectively, they turn into chores and I end up having to back out…

Hence my 2011 strategy derived from my values and a zero-tolerance approach to all other business activity.

8. Waiting another year (or, shamefully, much longer…) to sharpen again the saw is not an option.

I’ll wait 13 weeks. Once a quarter to sharpen the saw…it’s not a luxury, it’s a necessity. And it’s already in the diary.

9. Keeping a journal is a great idea. Not a diary. But a journal of regular reflections on personal performance and a place to assess new directions and opportunities…on an ongoing basis to fill the gaps between dedicated saw-sharpening time.

10. I’ve always been a “learner” – educating myself, for fun and profit. But sometimes learning goes on the back burner. And “on-the-job” learning is a poor surrogate for the real thing. No more – I have now formalised learning into a high-payoff activity, to take pride-of-place in my diary alongside the other high-payoff activities.

So…I got all of this out of four days (less than 2% of my working year). Possibly the greatest investment with the highest return I will make this year, I suspect.

Happy New Year to you. I wish you your best ever year.

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.