Is Your Leadership Boxed In?

What box are you in? How does your box effect your corporate profits, your leadership, your decision making, and your employees?

How Do You Measure Success? Servant Leader Round Table

How do you measure success in your business? What kind of measurement tools are you using? Do you use Biblical Principles?

Sharpen Up — Quantum Leaps for Leaders

Sharpen your leadership edge with the skill of listening. Engage with the people you lead and help them accomplish your goals.

A Powerful Approach to Accomplishing Your Goals

Here’s a simple yet powerful approach to accomplishing your goals. Start by thinking of the word “goals.” Envision the word “goals” as an acrostic, with each letter standing for a word or phrase.

For example:

Goals
Objective results
Activity results
Length of time
Schedule

Now let’s explore what you would do in each step.

1. Goals
List a few specific goals you want to accomplish. Write them so they are clear and measurable. Now, pick one of your goals and apply the following steps.

2. Objective results
Define the results you hope to obtain as you accomplish this goal. Since many goals are large and overwhelming, break the goal down into small, measureable steps.

(A side note. . . Train yourself to think in terms of results. That is, focus first on the results required to accomplish your goal, instead of the activities needed,)

3. Activity results
Next, define the activities you must accomplish to achieve your first step. For instance, your first step may be “To develop my overall plan to accomplish this goal.” Other steps may include smaller projects, assignments to others, or “to-do” activities.

4. Length of time
It’s critical to make each goal time-sensitive. Specify both the time you will need to achieve your results and the completion date. Be realistic and allow ample time to get the job done. In addition, if your next action step requires someone else’s help, make sure you get their “buy-in” and commitment.

5. Schedule
Finally, block out the time you need on your calendar to accomplish your goals. Begin by blocking out half-hour to an hour (at the most). Remember, you still have all of your normal activities to perform, too.

Now that you have your GOALS and steps recorded, you will need to visit them periodically. I recommend reviewing them and assessing your progress on a weekly basis.

Tracking your progress is what helps you become a top performer.

To Plan or Not to Plan, that is the Question

By Carl Moellering

When asked about planning, the famed comedian Will Rogers said, “Planning is critical… cause you gotta remember to always drink upstream from the herd.”

I think all of us would ascribe to the Will Rogers thoughts about planning. The urge to plan comes after we’ve tasted the water ” below the herd” and decided is not what we want. Suddenly, planning takes on a new urgency.

I remember the first strategic planning exercise that I attempted when I owned a construction company. We hired a well-known Chicago firm and they came in and developed pages and pages of useless material in big binders. The fee they charged was astronomical. The binders stayed on the shelf gathering dust.

I decided there had to be a more effective way to strategic planning. For me, it started with understanding the purpose of developing the strategic plan.

Simply stated, it is simply good business practice. The purpose is to be able to develop the best overall course for the organization and proactively determine how we can best utilize and maximize our resources.

Next, it is vitally important to remember that this is a continuous process. Not only is it a continuing process, but it is a learning process for the entire organization. The business plan and the budget must be derivatives of the strategic plan.

In short, a good strategic plan answers these questions:
• What are the results needed to accomplish and follow our vision?
• What products and services do we offer to meet these results?
• What products and services should we be offering in the future?
• How can we best maximize our resources?

The outcome should be a handful of strategies that the business can undertake over the next one to three years.

The benefits are that the business will become more on to the oriented and the team of more focused. The process itself builds team spirit and morale. A good facilitated process should encourage stretch among the people and consensus among the team.

Our facilitated process is designed be very interactive, focused on results, and produces useable strategies that can position your organization for the future. It is your way to “drink upstream from the herd.”