DxGxPxLxA
The above is a simple equation for success. It starts with D for Dream. Dreaming is something that’s beaten out of us as children and in fact most people overestimate what they can do in the short term – (i.e. today) and grossly underestimate what they can do in the long term (1, 2, 3, 5years+).
Dreams (5-10 years out) x Goals (1 year out) x Learn x Plan x Act
What’s your longer-term Dream first then what are the Goals you need to achieve to get you there?
A Goal you know how to achieve is a Task
A real goal will have elements you don’t know how to do. Expect some fear here and to experience some doubt, that’s normal. A good Goal will fill you with fear and excitement. Part of your plan should contain a learning goal connected to your goals. Ie Your goal may be to improve productivity in your business. A learning goal may be to watch videos or read books on motivating your team or effective leadership and management.
Plans fail upon contact with the enemy!
When you know where you want to be in 5 years you can decide where you need to be in 12 months. From there you just need to work out what are the four key steps (quarterly plans) to get you there?
Each quarter we put on a full day event for our clients called GrowthCLUB which is a strategic planning workshop. This environment helps you learn proven strategies to grow your business, share best practices with your peers in business but the most important thing is to have some thinking time away from your business.
If you cannot attend an event like this, at the minimum once a quarter take time to think about what you have achieved in the last 90 days and what you need to achieve in the next quarter then set out the actions needed to achieve that plan.
The planning is more important than the plan. Eisenhower said plans usually don’t survive contact with the enemy, therefore they can change. If you have spent time to plan you know what you want to achieve and can adjust the plan as you go so you still hit your goal.
Pro-tip – get your team involved. Inviting them to be part of the planning process will give them more responsibility and ownership of the finished plan. Meaning they are more likely to get the required actions done, people own something they play a part in creating.
SMART Goals
You should be able to reflect on your goals at the end of the quarter to see how you have done and adjust for future quarters.
SMART Goals help you to do this. A common mistake is to set a goal as – to be better at X or to improve Y. The problem here is it’s difficult to know if you have achieved what you set out to do as it’s not specific enough or measurable. SMART Goals are Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.
A specific and measurable example would be – we are at 100 new clients per month now and we want to increase that to 150.
Is this attainable and realistic? If I set a goal to run 20 marathons in 10 days next week and I have never run before that is not attainable or realistic. This will have a negative impact on the team and fail to get the buy in you need.
Finally, you need to set a time measure for when you want to hit the goal. I.e. 50 more new customers by the end of the quarter is a SMART goal.
Daily / weekly progress meetings
Most plans in business are done to secure funding or to get a business off the ground when they start. These are usually left in a drawer and rarely viewed. An effective business plan is an Action Plan and is reviewed regularly to track progress towards those goals. It tells you who is doing what and when.
Have regular meetings with your team at least weekly to track progress. Make sure someone is responsible solely for each task. If more than one person is responsible, then no one is responsible. This helps to breed accountability in your team, specifically for their part of the plan.
What measurements do you need to set to know you are on track to hit your goals. I.e. You want sales to increase by 100 by the end of the month, they must be increased by 25 each week to know you are on track to hit your target. If you are not on track, what can you do differently to get you there?
Pro-tip – Habits breed success. Create the habit for reviewing the plan and DO NOT miss a weekly meeting. Create a culture of reviewing the meeting even if you are not there. Have someone else responsibility for running the meeting in your absence.
KISS (Keep It Simple Silly!)
My clients know I like to keep things simple and that’s all you need to do too. Your action plan should have a goal (or 3), the tasks or activities needed to achieve that goal, who will be doing each task and when they will be doing it. See attached for a simple template to follow.
Pro-tip – once you’ve thought about the priorities for the next quarter it’s easy to think that everything is a priority and to front load all the tasks for the first few weeks. You cannot get everything done right away so spread the tasks out over the quarter. It’s better to get one goal nailed rather than half finish 4 or 5 goals because you were too ambitious. It’s a learning process and you will get better each time you do it.
Get started – start small. If you’ve never made a plan before schedule some thinking time first – then build from there. I’d love to know your thoughts on this article please give me some feedback good or bad. Also let me know how you get on with your next plan. And if you’d like to know more – get in touch.
