Stop Making Excuses and Create Your Success

It’s typical to start the year off ambitious, with a fresh start toward new annual goals. Yet, by the end of January, many of our resolutions start to fall by the wayside and we return to our old habits and traditional excuses (not to mention residual gun shyness from 2020’s mayhem). When the economy is strong, it doesn’t take much effort to succeed. When the economy is challenging, like we are currently facing, it magnifies our weaknesses. Now is the time to reset and refocus on your priorities for a strong 2021.

This year, I’ve seen quite a few CEOs, executive teams and business owners holding off working towards annual goals. Why? They are waiting for looser COVID-19 restrictions, for the general population to be vaccinated, for the government to become more stable, for the market to improve, for the competition to fail… all the while other businesses are taking advantage of the hesitancy to make their own success. So, what are YOU waiting for? If you haven’t started working towards your annual goals for 2021, stop playing the blame game and take control of your success.

For success in 2021, you must have the right beliefs and focus

There are five disciplines in business for exponential growth: strategy, business development, people, execution and mission. What disciplines are you focusing on in 2021?

Remember the formula Be x Do = Have. To have the success you want in life, you need to start by being who you need to be to achieve it. Develop the inner beliefs and values needed to match the reality you seek to have. Visualize and accept your ideal self as real and believe what you want is already yours. Re-train your mind to accept a new reality to adjust how you behave, think and act to achieve your results.

Are you struggling to understand what your beliefs are, and are looking for clarity and direction on which disciplines to focusing on? Contact me about the 5 Discipline Assessment! The assessment will help you focus on identifying strong points, weaknesses and areas of improvement in your organization.

What actions will get you the best results?

Do more of what works for your business! If you didn’t do a good job tracking goal progression and ROI in 2020, make that a priority this year. But, don’t just measure results. Measure the actions that create the results. Developing a performance measurement system will help you to stay on top of your organization’s goals and better understand the current state of your business.

Everyone in your organization plays a role in your company’s success, therefore each individual should have quantifiable expectations that define success. Key Performance Indicators are measurable values that determine how effectively an employee is achieving their key business objectives in a specific timeframe. Your KPIs should be the actions that create the results you desire. Some examples could include: the number of monthly sales appointments set, percentage of overdue project tasks, or number of outbound calls handled per representative.

What actions are keeping you from your best results?

We all know Einstein’s definition of insanity. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. What can you improve upon in 2021?

When tracking your goal progress this year, use the Green-Yellow-Red success criteria. Green means you are on track to meeting your goal. Yellow means you are a little behind on your goal and need to reevaluate what actions are needed to get back on track, identifying specific actions you will take to make it Green. Red means you will not reach your goal and will need to identify a new solution or a new timeframe. KPIs should be watched and reviewed on a daily or weekly basis depending on the KPI and its impact. This can help you identify what actions or methods are not working to get you where you need to be to reach your goal.

Here's to kicking off a strong 2021! If you need help with clarity in how to set or reach your annual goals, call 515-222-9193  or message me for a complimentary strategy session to get you, your team, and your organization on the right track.