Exceptional Results - Using 4Ps
Entrepreneurs and business owners have various challenges along their journey and there is always a thinking which makes them to ponder - "Why good results are not being achieved although tremendous efforts are being invested".
There is a simple formula to get to a stage where results from your efforts change, from ordinary to good, and even more, to Exceptional!
How to do this, let’s make a game plan and set – Purpose, Priority, and Productivity to gain Profit, resulting in Exceptional outcomes.
The last two elements – Productivity and Profit are the ones every business wants and are the ones only visible to the public, the rest are invisible means they are underlying trigger of productivity and profit. We therefore consider them as foundations to reap exceptional results. Every business owner and leader wish to have productivity and profit, but most of the time they fail to understand and plan a road map to achieve through purpose-driven priority.
George Bernard Shaw says – ‘Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself’.
Purpose:
For most the purpose may sound heavy but this is where they get lost. How do we use purpose to create exceptional results in the business. How do you set the purpose? It has two elements;
- Where we’re going and;
- What’s important to us.
We probably have heard this many times before, but we have not taken it very seriously.
Why?
Because many of us don’t know the straight answers to these questions. Honestly, we need to go little deeper before we let our attention to scroll too quickly over these questions. We set our priority where we place the greatest importance and our productivity results from the actions we decide to take. That means our business is a series of connected choices where our purpose forces us to set certain priority and that determines the productivity our actions produce, and reap reasonable profit from all other 3Ps.
Try writing down something you like to accomplish and then describe how you would do it.
Purpose keeps you on the simple path to the power, tremendous source of personal strength, conviction and persevere. Exceptional result is knowing what is important to you and taking daily doses of actions in alignment with it.
When you set a definite purpose for your business, clarity comes faster, provides more conviction in your direction, makes you better at faster decisions, and that provide more choices, then the best experiences.
That means setting purpose leads to the best possible outcomes and experiences. Purpose also helps you to stick with it if things don’t go your way and acts as a glue, provides inspiration and motivation to stay persevere. The fundamental requirement is to stick with something long enough for achieving exceptional results.
So doing should match with your purpose and that way your life feels in rhythm. That means the path you walk with your feet seems to match sound in your head and heart. Walk with purpose and don’t be surprised if your heart hum more and even whistles when you march on it.
Everyone wants lasting happiness, but it comes when you set something bigger, which brings meaning and purpose to your everyday actions.
Ask yourself Big Why - what drives you and what’s the things that gets you up in the morning and keeps you going when you are tired and worn down?
Choose a direction and start following the road map and review how you enjoy it. The clarity will come on the way as the path is followed. You can tweak the direction and road map if you don’t enjoy it, ultimately its your game!
Priority:
We have different choices in a day to tackle a number of tasks. Without direction, without purpose, whatever you do will always get you somewhere. However, when you make your path with purpose and priority, the path will take you where you must go, and it takes precedence.
The real truth about success is about gaining future major goals but present small success is more important than the major future goals.
If you had to choose ￡200 today over ￡400 next year, which one would you choose? You are likely to choose ￡200 today.
In the economics this is called ‘Hyperbolic Discounting’.
Although people have preference for big rewards over small one, they have even stronger preferences for present rewards over the future rewards. That means the gains that are farther away appear smaller and reduce their value. That is the reason why people choose ￡200 today over twice the amount in the future.
We need to devise simple thinking to save our future goals, define the right priority and go closer towards accomplishing our purpose.
There is much written about writing down goals and it’s because - It works!
In 2008, Dominican university of California researcher Dr Gail Matthews revealed – after recruiting 267 participants from a wide range of professions and from various countries – they were all accountants, lawyers, marketers, non-profit employees etc. And it was clear from those who wrote down their goals were 39.5% more likely to achieve them.
Listing your goals and sticking to it with purpose will make your life easier to set the most important priority and is your final step to walking with priority. The top priority at a time will help you achieve what matters most to you. Dig deep into each priority to relish its achievement.
What you need to do now to achieve future goals:
Once you know your future goals, devising the steps to achieve them makes your thinking clear while you identify the right priority you need to act right now.
So, bring your purpose through to the top, as your top priority, and work on it at a time so that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary.
Once you know what to do, the only thing left is to do from knowing to doing – it will bring exceptional results
Productivity:
Productivity is more about priorities, planning and fiercely protecting your time.
It is said ‘Productive action improves confidence and satisfaction, which ultimately leads to the transformation of lives'.
We are doing many activities in a day – eating, sleeping, standing, working, playing, breathing, sitting. Sometime what we do and how we do define our life especially when those activities do matter. That means pulling exceptional results come out when we get most out of what we do, especially when, what you do matter!
What type of time-management system we use, the reason to ask – everyone has same amount of time and yet some earn more than others. We can also say it’s how we use our time that determines the money we make. That really make the old saying true – ‘time is money’. So it is clear that time-management system’s success can be judged by the productivity it produces!
It is also true that the most successful people are the most productive people, it is because they get far more done in the available hours and achieve better results. They do it more purposefully and devote maximum time to being productive in the top priority. They Time Block their top priority.
Here, another word pop up - Time Blocking.
Time blocking is a very productive-oriented way of viewing and using time, ensuring you get done what has to be done. It’s like – the Sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus. Time blocking harnesses your energy and focuses on your most important priority.
Top tip – Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand.
What is difference between typical day and productive day
Typical Day – the most average people devote less time on what matters most and their day is full of unproductive tasks without realising where they are going!
Productive Day - the most successful people devote their time on most leveraged activity for most leveraged work.
In our experience, the people who follows the productive day rituals become the most successful people and have most opportunities.
This is how results become exceptional!
Once you block your time for the priority task you also need to protect those time blocks, which is the hardest part. The world isn’t aware of your purpose and priorities and isn’t care about either– but you are responsible to protect your time blocks
There are plenty of ways your time block can get taken away. The following can be tried;
- Get away from the disruption and interruption – find the isolation
- Your priority deserves 100% of your attention and time so shutdown your internet browser, emails, turn-off your phone
- A simple trip to the kitchen and coffee machine can distract your day if you come across with someone seeking your help. Keep enough provision of snacks, beverages, materials etc.
- Inform your team your availability, when you are embarking on the most privileged work ASDFS you may surprise how accommodating they are when they see your purpose and availability
Profit:
The primary goal for any businesses is to have as much profit as possible and its measurement is quite crucial in every company and without it the business will not survive. The standard way of measuring profitability is weighing income against expenses.
But the key to running a business is understanding how profit relates with productivity, priority and purpose. It is difficult to have profit without other 3Ps. That means setting high goals with right purpose, will position you to set priority for the work which matters most. This eventually renders high productivity as discussed above, and so the overall performance which produces the profit.
Research shows that the most successful and profitable businesses are those that maintain high level of other 3Ps. With all other 3Ps, it has better chance for business owner to create a culture and set an example of work environments where employees are more likely to feel have a vested interest in the success of the business and are inspired to perform at a high rate of productivity.
Most probably they all want to go above and beyond, feel valuable, share innovative ideas, and build value and trust with their co-workers. All of this positive outcomes then ultimately generate more profit to the business and then business believes more in sharing their profit back to the employees.
In summary, business owners and entrepreneurs would need to consider 4Ps in running their businesses. Without purpose, the businesses would not be focusing on their priority, similarly, without setting priority you and your employees won't be able to create culture of productive environment, and therefore, ultimately business couldn't be operating in profit as the work environment is with little employee engagement. Employee care very little in overall business performance because they do not feel valued, don't feel the need to go the extra mile, surrounded by distractions, and are not inspired to share innovative ideas thereby decreasing profitability.
What are your thoughts and how do you go about 4Ps?
?Interested to know more about 4Ps and how it can be implemented systematically in your business? Reach out to me on LinkedIn
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