Have you tried lately to orchestrate achievement of an important goal? Is there trouble getting everyone on board? Implementing a strategy that involves large teams is not easy. The more people involved, the more complicated it is to communicate the goals(s) and cast a vision for success. Whether trying to achieve personal goals or goals for a large company, the formula for implementation is the same. There are 4 steps to successfully achieve your wildly important goals.
1. Identify 1-2 goals that are the MOST important for future success. This is not easy to do, and takes focus on your part, but this is worth it. Being able to identify the most important goals from a long list of goals is a critical leadership skill. It’s where less is more. When you set 3 or more goals and ask your entire organization to focus on them, they won’t stick. When the days get busy and your people can’t remember all 3, they may lose focus on any of the goals. This is where a lot of quarters end; we tried to do too much, so we didn’t do anything. Be smart. Pick 1-2 goals and get ready to be laser focused.
2. Find your lead indicators. Most of us spend too much time looking at lag indicators, which have happened in the past. They indicate if a goal was achieved or not. It’s usually a sales number or a number of new clients. However, a lead indicator is a measure of the activities that feed success with the lag indicators. For the sales goals, it may be the number of sales calls made. For client satisfaction, it may be the number of thank you cards sent. For referrals, it may be your current client’s success with your product.
3. Create scoreboards. Scoreboards should help your team keep track of everyone’s own lead indicators. Everyone should update their own numbers on the scoreboard. Somehow, it’s not as motivating if someone else is tracking your numbers. Start by making your own scoreboard and share it with your primary team, then invite them to do the same with their teams.
4. Create accountability. Pair up team members with an accountability partner. This isn’t their boss. It’s a peer that will help them remember the goal and cheer them on. This can be very motivating and keeps goals top of mind. At the end of each week they should report success and discuss roadblocks.
Achieving important goals requires an extraordinary amount of focus from leaders, but it’s possible, and probable. Team members want to help achieve the goals, and this process outlined above will keep them involved in a healthy, productive way. Then, everyone can truly celebrate success as a team effort. These 4 steps to achieve important goals are from The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey and Jim Huling.
