Even SMART Goals Need Smart Action Steps to Succeed
Goals are fundamental to turning a business dream into business success, and SMART goals are the standard in business planning. Most of my clients have heard of SMART goals, and I suspect you have too. But just as a refresher, let me remind you that SMART goals are: Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Tangible Even SMART goals can fail you unless they’re accompanied by smart action strategies, and that’s what I want to talk about today: Smart Action Steps to Achieving Goals. Put Your Business Goals on Your Calendar The easiest and one of the most effective action steps you can take is to put your goal on your calendar. In other words: Give yourself a deadline. When should this goal be attained? Until you move action steps and your goals onto your calendar, you have great ideas but no real means of achieving them. Make Time to Succeed Set aside the time to reach your goal. Too often, we ‘add’ goals to our business days, somehow hoping our days will expand to meet them. (Wishful thinking!) As long as goals have no time allotted to them, we have no plan to achieve them. How to Plan Your Steps and Checkpoints For most business goals – whether it’s sales, productivity, or other business-related goals – you’ll increase your chance of success exponentially if you have prioritized action steps and checkpoints to keep you on track. So, block out the time for the action steps you need to take to reach your goal. Creating successful action steps: Think through the steps you need to take to reach your goals; make them specific. Prioritize your action steps and set target dates. Identify checkpoints along the way to your ultimate goal. Move your action steps and checkpoints onto your calendar, allowing sufficient time for…
Realizing the Personal Aspect of All Productivity
Recently in one of my business coaching workshops, a client hit the nail right on the head when it comes to company productivity. “Let me see if I’ve got this right,” he said, “What you’re saying is that company productivity is really all about personal productivity. It’s all about us.” You can imagine my response: “Excellent,” I said. “Gold Stars.” All productivity, whether your company is a small firm or a global corporation, derives from the personal. And what does that mean to you, the leader or owner of a company? It means that your company’s productivity begins (or ends) with your personal leadership and productivity. You get your team to be more productive by setting an example of personal productivity. Leadership Matters in Productivity Productivity starts at the top, in your office. Think of who has the most invested in your company or department. I’d wager that that person is you. If you own the business, it’s your money on the line. If you’re the managing executive of a department, it’s your career and reputation on the line. Your investment in productivity is huge. Now, consider the essential nature of productivity. If I’m on your sales force, I can bring in all the work in the world, but if it can’t be done within budget and without cost overruns or rework or, at worst, orders cannot even be filled, then we do not get the net result we’re looking for. In fact, we do our business more harm than good when we over-sell and under-deliver; i.e., when productivity cannot meet needs. This is no small order, either, and is especially challenging now that many workforces have been reduced and everyone has to be more productive without having a nervous breakdown. Productivity can mean the difference between survival or not…
Business Motivation – November 6, 2009
DO THE NEXT THING Keeping a little ahead of conditions is one of the secrets of business. The time to repair your roof is when the sun is shining. So, do things before they need to be done. Let your advance worrying become advance thinking and planning. Position yourself ahead of time in the best place for you. You’ll gain the advantage in any situation through the medium of time. When you think ahead of any approaching action you’ll always have the advantage. You’ll be the winner. When you do what is necessary, all the odds are in your favor. (Reprinted with permission, Sam Maitz, Director of Marketing Technology, Leadership Management® International, Inc.)
Business Motivation – November 4, 2009
Opportunity Knocks All The Time The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, for time and chance happen to everyone. Take a second look at what appears to be someone’s “good luck.” You’ll find not luck but preparation, planning and success-producing thinking. Opportunity is around you all the time, but you have to be ready for it. When your chance comes, you must have the equipment to take advantage of it. When you’re prepared for opportunity, your chance for success is sure to come. The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success. The tide of opportunity comes to everyone. (Reprinted with permission, Sam Maitz, Director of Marketing Technology, Leadership Management® International, Inc.)
Getting Excited About Productivity
— the best-kept secret to business success in any economy Many businesspeople I consult with hear the word productivity and immediately fall into a deep sleep. There’s just nothing exciting about the word. But I have to tell you that the difference productivity can make in your life and business is very, very exciting. Improve your productivity and you improve your chances of spending quality time away from business, leaving you more time with the ones you love. How to Improve Productivity Productivity is fundamental to meeting any business goal. And in challenging economic times, being strong on the fundamentals can be a make or break for a business. But how do you improve and increase your productivity? This is one of the essential business concepts I tackle during some of my first meetings with clients. We go through many steps and use several different tools to reveal the truth underlying the hours spent at the office. When we do, we almost always discover that too many of the hours we spend at work are virtually “lost hours”, which in turn contribute to long days – and weekends – at work instead of play. I want to share with you one of the first steps toward discovering these lost hours and the holes in your own productivity: Know – and understand – what your time is worth. Your productivity will always be tied to how you spend your time, so seriously evaluate how you spend each minute and hour at work. What are your high-payoff activities, and how much time do you spend on them? How much time are you spending on low-payoff activities? How much time is lost to no-payoff activities? Once you’ve taken this step, you should see some opportunities for increasing your productivity. And when you increase…
Business Motivation – November 2, 2009
You Can Make Up Your Mind To Be Anything You’re special and unique among all the creatures on the planet earth. You’ve been endowed with the capacity and the power to create desirable pictures inside your mind and to find them automatically printed in the outer world of your environment. You’ll gradually grow into any condition you desire, provided you first make yourself in habitual mental attitude the person who corresponds to that condition. Picture yourself vividly as winning, and that alone will contribute immeasurably to your success. All your dreams can come true, if you have the courage to pursue them. (Reprinted with permission, Sam Maitz, Director of Marketing Technology, Leadership Management® International, Inc.)
Business Motivation – October 30, 2009
You Always Have A Choice You don’t have to buy from anyone. You don’t have to work at any particular job. You don’t have to participate in any given relationship. You can choose. You steer the course you choose in the direction of where you want to be today, tomorrow, or in a distant time to come. You hold the tiller. You can decide to alter the course of your life at any time. No one can ever take that away from you. You can decide what you want and go after it. It’s always your next move. === Reprinted with permission Sam Maitz, Director of Marketing Technology Leadership Management® International, Inc. For more information about Strategic Essentials small business training and education programs or our coaching and consultation services please call 775.826.8282 today! Strategic Essentials primarily serves business owners, business leaders, entrepreneurs, managers, supervisors and decision makers in Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Tahoe, Truckee Meadows and surrounding communities. Strategic Essentials is a Managing Partner for Leadership Management International.
Business Motivation – October 26, 2009
You Have Unlimited Potential No matter what the level of your ability is, you have more potential than you can ever develop in a lifetime. Don’t think about the things you can’t do. Think about the things you can do. There is no such thing as no chance. You have powers you never dreamed of. You can do things you never thought you could do. There are no limitations to what you can do except the limitations of your own mind. Your range of available choices right now is limitless. Look at things as they can be. Never say never. === Reprinted with permission Sam Maitz, Director of Marketing Technology Leadership Management® International, Inc. For more information about Strategic Essentials small business training and education programs or our coaching and consultation services please call 775.826.8282 today! Strategic Essentials primarily serves business owners, business leaders, entrepreneurs, managers, supervisors and decision makers in Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Tahoe, Truckee Meadows and surrounding communities. Strategic Essentials is a Managing Partner for Leadership Management International.
Business Motivation – October 23, 2009
Success Is Closer Than You Think Every situation, properly perceived, becomes an opportunity. But you have to act on them if you’re going to be successful. Distant pastures always look greener than those close at hand, but real opportunities are right where you are. You must simply take advantage of them when they appear. You can start where you are at any time. Success is all around you. It’s not in your environment, it’s not in luck or chance, or in the help of others. Success is in yourself alone. You don’t need more strength or more ability or greater opportunity. What you need is to use what you have. Learn to seize good fortune, for it is always around you. You must go to success, it doesn’t come to you. Open your own doors to opportunity. === Reprinted with permission Sam Maitz, Director of Marketing Technology Leadership Management® International, Inc. For more information about Strategic Essentials small business training and education programs or our coaching and consultation services please call 775.826.8282 today! Strategic Essentials primarily serves business owners, business leaders, entrepreneurs, managers, supervisors and decision makers in Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Tahoe, Truckee Meadows and surrounding communities. Strategic Essentials is a Managing Partner for Leadership Management International.
