The Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan – My Confession, A Lesson Learned, & A Super Cool Sneak Peek

Success-Plan-EmbarrassedFor those that have been following the ultimate success plans posts, you know that this has been a pursuit that I have been perfecting for over 3 years. I have a big and embarrassing confession to make though. You see, when I first started preparing to write the Ultimate Personal Success Plan e-Book and the posts for this new version; I actually wasn’t sure how it was going to end. Due to some successes, failures, and struggles I had in 2012, I knew I needed to make some changes to the plan, but I wasn’t sure what to do. So I delayed, and delayed as long as I could.

The really embarrassing part of this is that I consult with organizations on creating a culture of execution in organizations, and here I found myself, utterly failing to execute because I was not sure of the direction I was going in. I tell my clients when they are struggling with this same problem that it is usually better to start executing in any direction, than no direction. I also felt compelled, OK stressed to start the posts because many were asking me for it.

So I took my own advice and just started writing, i.e. executing, in hopes that the answer would work itself out. Two weeks and 4 posts into the writing and I still was not sure exactly where this was going, nor what I was missing. Then it all came together. A friend sent me something that gave me an idea. That idea then blossomed, and then blossomed again, and again, and again until I had created something I was passionate about and confident about. Now I truly feel like I have the recipe for the ULTIMATE ANNUAL PERSONAL SUCCESS PLAN, and IT’S AWESOME!

Everything that has been written so far is valuable for this plan. So don’t worry if you think I wasted your time. I have greatly extended the power of the plan and built huge changes to make for a more successful year, but more than that, I have created an execution structure for your success plan. The images below are of a self-contained excel workbook. This is a thing of beauty, because it not only lets you define everything, and there are some important new parts to define, but it lets you track your progress the whole way. It has a completely self-contained dynamic database to keep the sheet clean throughout the year.

Images for the NEW Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan!

This is the page where you will define all the parts of the success plan for the year. I’ll be writing more about the components in another post.

Success-Plan

 

This is the monthly goals sheet. This is where you will track your your progress each month. Again, I will be writing more about this in another post.

Success-Plan-Monthly-Goals

Next is the most important sheet and the one you will use the most. It is the Weekly Planning, Tracking & Review sheet. This is the first part of the sheet. There is a drop down that connects to an internal excel “database” so you can track your goals all year long.  It’s super cool, and provides part of the execution structure I mentioned earlier. I will explain this in more detail in a later post.

Success-Plan-Weekly-Goals-Part-1

The second part of the sheet is for tracking habits and reviewing your week. How can you be a success without mastering your habits and constantly reviewing your progress. More on this in a future post!

Success-Plan-Weekly-Goals-Part-2

Below is a report for reviewing all of your consolidated reports from the weekly review section. This will be great to tracking yoru progress over the course of the year. More in another post…

Success-Plan-Notes-Report

You can’t have a cool excel workbook, nor success plans, without a dashboard. This dashboard tracks your achievement ability over the course of the year. Much more on this is forthcoming…

Success-Plan-Dashboard

 

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. I hope you are excited to have the best year you have ever had!

The Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan – Part 4 – Goals, Vision, Focus

Success-Plan-Vision-Goals-FocusSometimes the best laid plans get derailed, which is exactly what happened to me last week. I had a epiphany that completely changed the outcome of the Ultimate Personal Success Plan. It took me a week to figure out exactly what I was going to do, but the result of this blast of revelation makes the Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan so much more powerful. So for a week posts were not published and I have been pretty silent as I developed this plan, more on this later…

So let’s get back on track now you should have a bunch of notes and thoughts from the previous three posts.

  1. You should have all your focus areas defined and narrowed down to 5 to 7 important areas. My focus areas for the coming year are:  Family, Spirituality, Health, Professional Growth, Writing, & Renewal.
  2. You should have a document of your hopes and dreams and thoughts for high-level goals for 2013.

We are going to use that information to narrow down and define the path for the next year. There are three things that we will focus on next. They are the Annual Goals, the Focus Area Goals, and the Annual Vision. Let me explain these.

The Annual Goals

Last year I did not have top annual goals, I only had the vision and the focus area goals. The fallacy I found is that the vision did not really define an absolute and definite ending in mind. It had an end in mind but it was somewhat subjective. My focus area goals were measurable and very well defined, yet the vision left room for argument. I still think the vision is very important, we’ll talk about that in a moment. This year I have added annual goals to the line-up. In order to keep myself focused I chose to not have more than 3 annual goals. These will not be easy goals, but I wanted to focus so precisely that it would make me keep those goals front and center. After the last post you might consider this a bit contradictory with what I said about the focus areas, but in reality the focus areas should help in defining your annual goals.

These three goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. In other words they should be a S.M.A.R.T goals. My annual goals for this year are personal, but they go into three areas of my life: family, financial and professional. They reinforce my focus areas and will help to bring greater purpose to them.

So your homework is to define 1 to 3 top annual goals for the next year.

The Focus Area Goals

Last year I had 8 focus areas and between 2 and 5 goals per focus area and it was just way too much. I felt very unbalanced and overwhelmed.  Sure I got a lot done, but the sacrifices were too much. So this year I simplified it even more. I limited myself to only 5 focus areas, I suggest you do the same. This was not easy to do, because it meant sacrificing something for the success of something else. Not only did I narrow the number of focus areas, but I also limited the number of goals per focus areas to a maximum of 3 per area. In some cases this was even harder. These goals should be definite and measurable, so you know when they have been achieved.

***Warning!  I want to make you aware of one thing that I find difficult and many people I have worked with also find difficult. When writing your annual goals and focus area goals, be very careful about goals that span the entire year. For example instead of saying “I will exercise 5 days a week for 20 minutes,” perhaps think about changing the goal to: “I will exercise for 100 minutes a week.” I am all about setting up positive habits, but life comes in ups and downs and I have seen too many people give-up on their goals, when they have a little failure on these habit type of goals.

So your homework will be to define the 1 to 3 focus area goals for each of your focus areas. 

The Annual Vision

The annual vision should be written in past tense as if it already had occurred. The annual vision is not so much a goal, as it is a place where you will end up at the end of the year. It might describe the person you became, the accomplishments you achieved, or even the way you feel after the successful year you have experienced. It encompasses, at least in part, your focus areas and your annual goals, but it is not a repeat of them. Like the other thing I have laid out, this also needs to be focused. I suggest keeping it to 3 sentences or shorter.

For example, my vision for 2013 is as follows, “This was the most successful year I have ever had. I grew closer to my family, and became a better husband and father. I  achieved the most financial success I have ever had in my life and established myself as THE execution expert for organizations. My health and spirituality have increased exponentially, making me a better person both inside and out.

If you look at these three areas you can see that they are creating alignment from top to bottom. That is a critical aspect of this plan and will help to make your goal achievement more powerful and focused.

For your homework, develop your own 2013 personal vision.

Summary & Things to Come

These three things will take a bit of a different role this year, but you have to have these three things established before you can move onto the other areas. I am really excited to share with you the epiphany I had this last week. It includes a whole new mechanism to track and accomplish your goals. I actually had to hire a programmer to make this functionality. I showed this to someone that is highly successful and has succeeded a lot in their life and their response was, “WOW, when can I get it!

The Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan – Part 3 – Define Your Focus Areas

Focus-Areas-Utimate-Success-PlanAfter the last post, I hope you have a bunch of things written down that you want to accomplish in your life and in more specifically in the next year. We are going to come back to that list shortly. I firmly believe that success in certain areas of one’s life can equal extreme failure in other areas of one’s life, if one is not careful. For example, how successful would I really be if I wrote 4 books next year; but at the same time, alienated my family and friends because I never spent time with them? I also believe that the synergy of success from one area, can fuel passion and greater achievement in another area. So take that same example, if I met the needs and wishes of my spouse and family, and thus ended up improving my relationships, that joy and success would carry over and make me more passionate and motivated to duplicate that success in another area of my life, like writing books. Plus I would probably have more support from my wife and family for doing so.

It is important then to figure out what are those areas of your life that need attention. You cannot have  a couple of annual goals without taking into account the areas of your life that will require attention during the year and like I mentioned, it would be a failure to achieve your annual goals, but then ruin your relationships, your health, or some other important area.

This next exercise will help to bring more focus and balance to your annual goals. You need to determine the “life areas” that you want to focus on, together, that will in-turn make you successful all around.  At this point we are not concerned with the specifics of what kind of goals you will have under these life areas; you just need to determine what they are. Here are some examples:

Annual Goal Focus Areas

There could be a lot of other options, but you don’t want to have more than 7 or 8 focus areas to work on. More than that and you might be spreading yourself too thin, ideally around 5 focus areas is ideal. These focus areas are really important, because they help define what your will be your balancing act of the next year. Plus they will help you determine your top annual goals.

The annual goals will encompasses all these things. It helps to focus you, and it helps you to determine what is not important in the coming year. This list of focus areas is not all-inclusive, as there are bound to be many directions you are pulled in, but this really helps to limit that pulling from the many areas of your life and to focus on what will make you the best you can be at the end of the coming year.

Here is your homework:

  1. Think about the focus areas that are important in your life. Ask yourself, what things if I accomplished this year would make me feel more successful and have a greater sense of satisfaction with my life? You may want to read this  with your spouse, children, or other stakeholders, and go through the exercises together. Ask what areas you and your stakeholders feel would produce the greatest level of satisfaction?
  2. After you come up with all your focus areas, you need to now focus further. It is likely you will come up with a lot of areas. You need to slim this down to only 5 to 7 focus areas. More than that and it will be difficult to create any balance.

In the next post we will discuss annual goals, annual vision and drill down more on the focus areas. Good Luck! Please share your thoughts below, your wisdom might help another.

The Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan – Part 2 – How High Are You Aiming?

Aim-High-Climb-HighOn June 1st of 2012, I released a guest post on a personal branding site that went viral. I couldn’t believe how much it was shared on Twitter and other social networks in such a short amount of time. I was invited to start-off the first day this Personal Branding Blogathon, put on by Peter Sterlacci at http://www.PeterSterlacci.com. I think the reason the post went viral is because it touched upon the desire that we all have in life – TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE.  As we begin this journey of creating the Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan, I want to share a portion of this post with you, because I think it will help you in determining how high you really want to go with your own goals. If you don’t know how high, it is hard to create a plan to get there.

The full text of this article is located here: http://petersterlacci.com/2012/06/01/screw-dents-im-aiming-immense-gaping-hole/

Screw “Dents”… I’m Aiming for an Immense Gaping Hole!

“I have many regrets about the life I’ve lived—coupled with equal failures to accompany those regrets. But the biggest failure—and the regret that leads them all—was the failure to grasp my full potential earlier in life.

“ I’ve always worked hard, but I haven’t always worked smart. I’ve sought success, but I didn’t always plan for that success. Since I failed to grasp all that I could become; I never defined what success looked like, nor focused my actions toward it.

“A handful of years ago I experienced a “renewal.” After selling a company I had founded, I began to realize that I needed something more. I desired more: wisdom, success, and meaning—in every area of my life. I consumed knowledge, and I worked even harder. I wrote my first book, started a very successful leadership blog, and extended myself into every opportunity that pushed me higher.

Success came slowly, but it wasn’t enough. Soon, I realized I needed to focus my energy. I could not find any guidance to help me do this in a way that was right for me, so I created The Ultimate Personal Success Plan. For two years, I have used that, updated it, and tweaked it to fit my aspirations.

“Then recently, I saw the title of an article that had something to do with making a dent in the world. I didn’t read the article, or see who the author was. But the concept stayed with me; the thought kept piercing my mind: “What kind of dent am I making? I was struggling with the way my life was going. The success I was having was good, but it wasn’t enough—or maybe it just wasn’t …meaningful.

“As I pondered this one night, thinking about how a dent is the result of an impact (a hammer striking a wall, a heavy object dropping to the ground), and how the size of the impact determines the dimension and depth of the dent, the thought struck me:

 “Screw ‘Dents’…I want to make an ‘Immense Gaping Hole.’”

“What’s the gaping hole that I want to create in the world? I am still working on that, but I want to make a difference in people’s lives, do something useful, create something meaningful …be somebody who makes other people’s lives better, and of course improve the quality of my life and that of my family.

“So I find myself again redefining my Ultimate Personal Success Plan, almost halfway through the year. In doing this, I recognized that my aspirations needed greater impact. I couldn’t settle for slow, small impacts.

 “Now is the time to start ripping open a cavernous, gaping hole! Because simply making “a dent,”…just isn’t adequate.”

 

I share that message because I want you to do some hard thinking about what you want out of your life, and more importantly, what you want out of the next year of your life. This is a tough question that took me months to figure out. But exploring the path of determining who you are, and where you are going is amazingly fulfilling, and clarifying.

Pondering this question, can be both enlightening, yet at the same time stressful. The idea of what we want out of life (or the next year) or what we are capable of, are often limited by our own thinking. So as you explore this question for the next few days, it is important to bring others into your thought process.

I am not suggesting that you do not have a grand enough dream, but often what we want is highly influenced by what other people close to us want, and often other people have a greater vision and hope for us than we will ever have for ourselves.

When I created the last version of the Ultimate Success Plan, I knew that it would be a crummy plan if at the end of the year my wife was unhappy. I had to review my plan with her and make some adjustments. My vision of being a good husband is severely limited in my mind, but the vision (or hope 🙂 ) that my wife has for me – is greatly expanded.

You may have portions of your plan that have to do with lifestyle, health, career, spirituality and a bunch of other things. Balancing all this can be overwhelming if you do not take the time to talk with important stakeholders or “experts” about your goals in that area. Perhaps you need to speak with an “expert” for a health portion of your plan, which could be a personal trainer or nutritionist. For a professional growth area, it might be a coach or mentor.  For a financial success area it might be a financial planner. A stakeholder in a relationship area might be the person you want to develop the relationship with, like your spouse, or a friend.

When setting your goals, set your sights high. I hope you realize what you are capable of, because all of us, including you – are always capable of more, and better. Set that vision high, and make sure to work with stakeholders and experts, because they may have a vision of you that is even higher than your own!

So your homework for the next few days is to to write down all your hopes and dreams for 2013. Aim high, but make them realistic. When you think you have them figured out, talk with key stakeholders to verify that you are not short-changing yourself. The elements of what you create will come together as we move farther along with the creation of your success plan.

Please leave comments or questions below if you need help. If you are willing, please share some of your dreams and aspirations as well. Don’t forget to subscribe to get notices of all the posts as soon as they are released.

The Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan – Part 1 – Let’s Get Started!

The-Ultimate-Annual-Personal-Success-PlanSuccess Plan, Personal Success Plan, Annual Plan, Resolutions, Goals… nope, lets combine it all into The Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan, now is the time! As many of my readers have seen I have been working on an e-book for the Ultimate Personal Success Plan. As I have been working on it there has been one thing that kept bugging me. – I hate e-books… Usually when someone gives away an e-book, I download it, I browse through it, and then it goes in a folder where e-books go to rest and ultimately sit unopened forever more.

So I decided to do something different than what I had set out to do. I decided that I would release the Ultimate Personal Success Plan content as a series of self-study blog posts. Delivering the content this way will allow you to take the content in bites and be able to digest it, ask questions, and have time to really put the time and effort into developing each part for yourself. I will still give away the completed e-book at the end of the blog post series. The completed e-book will be greatly enhanced by participation and questions that come up during the course of these posts. This will allow me to add this content to the e-book for those wanting the compiled version of all these posts.

Why The Personal Success Plan

For the last 3 years I have been obsessed with finding a format or a model that would help to organize, track and guarantee the success of my annual goals. I have a grand vision of success for my life, and I knew that if I did not consistently execute on my annual goals, that I would never reach the success I was dreaming of. This search was much harder than I had anticipated. I read books, purchased material on life-plans, kept up with blogs of experts, researched annual resolutions, and much, much more. In the end, nothing satisfied me, so I decided to create my own plan.

The plan started in 2011 on my blog as the “Personal Success Plan.” During that year I learned a lot about what worked and didn’t work in the plan I created. While I had a lot of success that year, the next year brought more changes. In 2012 I updated the model I was working on and created the “Ultimate Personal Success Plan.” Again this year I learned a lot more about how to achieve goals and create better success in my own life. These include a deeper understanding of various parts of the model as well as more background information to make sure that I executed on the plan. I also learned a lot more about managing the constant balancing act between my personal goals, family goals, and professional goals.

What is the Personal Success Plan

When I set out to create the ultimate personal success plan, there was one overriding principle that I really tried to maintain throughout the plan. That principle was, SIMPLICITY. If a plan is tough to manage, administer, or track, it’s doomed to failure. No one, not the least of those is me, wants to fail because we could not keep up with the work of maintaining and tracking a plan.

So the concept of a one-page annual success plan spurred into my mind. This one-page document would not be for tracking, but for defining what one wants to achieve. I felt that if I could not fit my annual goals onto a single 8.5″ x 11″ sheet of paper, than I was probably making too many goals. I further knew that this one-page, had to hold ALL of the information about my goals, the reason I was doing them, the high-level steps, my purpose, my destination, and everything else to clearly define what the year really was going to be about.

As I explore the plan, I will go deep into the components of the plan to make sure you have a comprehensive understanding. In all honesty, I did not have a good understanding of some components until recently, because in the middle of this year I basically scrapped my plan and changed course because of some personal changes I was making in my life. This caused me to do a lot of reflection and adjustment on various parts of the plan.

In this series of blog posts (Probably 12 Parts) and ultimately the e-book, I will lay out the changes for the NEW Annual One-Page Success Plan. It has various modifications this year that may seem to be only aesthetic, but are extremely powerful to one’s success. I’ll go very deep into each section, and into the tools and systems that you can use to monitor your success throughout the year. I’ll be providing worksheets that you can download for different parts, to build the elements of what will become YOUR personal success plan.

Furthermore, I will be providing many new constructive ideas for organizing your plan, figuring out what should be in it, and a lot more on how to actually execute and achieve your goals. So stay tuned and get ready to start working the next month on creating your 2013 Personal Success Plan.

Let’s Get Started on YOUR Personal Success Plan!

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Please share your thoughts and hopes below. What do you want to make sure I touch upon? What have you specifically struggled with in achieving your goals?

Dream or Die, That’s Just How the World Turns

Dreams-Personal-LeadershipJim Valvano said, “Be a dreamer. If you don’t know how to dream, you’re dead.” No matter how you feel after the election, and no matter what comes out of the next few weeks; you must keep YOUR dream alive. Governments, kings, rulers, and bad relationships cannot kill your dream. They may dampen your spirits, crush your hopes, and cut into your nerves; but they cannot take away YOUR dream.

Norman Cousins stated, “People are never more insecure, than when they become obsessed with their fears at the expense of their dreams.” Many people have fears about the next 4 years. I have fears about the next 4 years. If we spend too much time worrying about those fears, and worrying about what we cannot control, we will be spending less time in making our dreams a reality.

Execute on your dreams, not your worries.” Tweet This!

Michael Phelps stated, “You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.” How many achievements have been accomplished in the last century that far surpasses the dreams of previous generations? If you dream, dream big, no …DREAM AUDACIOUS. Dreamers are the creators,, they never limit themselves to what is possible.

You may be dealing with a hard financial situation, stuck in a crappy job, struggling through a difficult relationship, or besieged with a painful health problem. Keep your dream alive! Your dream may be THAT THING, which pushes you through the pain, struggle and heartache.  Don’t let anyone tell you what is possible and what is not.

No matter how you feel today, Dream On, all is not lost; the future is ours to create.

How I Royally Screwed My Job Search & Came Out on Top

Doing-it-BigBack in 2011 I was working for a company as Chief Operations Officer. In 2009 I had sold my company to this organization, but after the first year or so, I knew that it wasn’t going to be the place to hang my hat for the rest of my career. So I began thinking about and preparing for a career change. I had sold my company because I had created a cloud computing model that had huge potential. I was passionate about cloud computing and technology and felt I was on the forefront of the industry (which I was).

At this time the economy was not great, so I looked at ways to differentiate myself from other executives. I wanted to stand out from the crowd. I decided on 4 things that ultimately screwed me …sort-of.

  1. I started a blog on leadership at aSliceOfLeadership.com (Now ToddNielsen.com). The part of the technology industry that I was in had a poor reputation for leadership acumen. I felt that if I started writing on leadership and management it would help to differentiate myself from many of the executives that existed in the industry. I felt I had to make a name for myself, and not just create some random blog that no one visited.
  2. I started really focusing on social media. I figured the more followers I got; the more potential touches there were for someone to notice me. I want to clarify that I did not buy followers. I did however focus on strategies to grow my following, specifically on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
  3. I started writing for industry websites and periodicals to establish myself as an expert in the industry.
  4. I finished the book I had started the year before about creating a culture of execution. Heck, how many executives out there have written a book? This was going to be the icing on the cake …so I thought.

So What Did I Do Wrong?

Easy – I OVER DID IT!

  1. My blog became recognized, by many, as one of the top leadership blogs on the Internet. I was recognized as one of the top 10 leadership experts to follow on Twitter.
  2. My social media following grew from practically ZERO, to over 60,000 today.
  3. Within a few months of writing technology articles – Wired Magazine saw my writing and contacted me to ask if I would write on Cloud Computing for wired.com. Let’s see – only one of the most widely recognized and read publications in the world. I also started writing for other print and online publications on technology, cloud computing, and the IT Channel.
  4. The book – well I sent it out for advanced reviews, and people were coming back to me saying, it was the best and most valuable business book they had ever read.

“If You Are Going to do Something, Do it Big!”

Earlier this year I was invited to an exclusive speech and book signing, by Jack Abramoff. Jack wrote a book about his wrong-doings as a political lobbyist, which ultimately put him in prison. At that speech, he said he used to have a motto he lived by, “If you are going to do something, do it big!” When I heard that I realized that I had unknowingly followed that motto. I have never felt like doing something half-assed would get me anything out of life.

So Where Does That Leave Me?

When I resigned in 2011, I had several offers on the table, but none of them worked out quite right. So did I sit around and collect unemployment, NO! Did I try to be innovative and do something better with my life, YES! Where does it leave me? Well, it leaves me here at ToddNielsen.com. It leaves me helping other companies experience record growth and profitability like TDCNet (Watch the Video Testimonial). I could sit around and do nothing, but I chose to stay busy, and help others with my expertise and knowledge. If the right executive position came along, I’d probably take it; but for now, I choose to stand-up, lead, and help others achieve miracles of success and profitability through the power of execution. I had not even considered this a year ago, but by overdoing it, I discovered other rewards.

Your Choice: Success or Death in the Digital World | The Leadership Book Corner

The-Digital-Dollar-Joe-WoznyAbout 4 or 5 years ago, I wrote an article for a site and discussed the idea that it seems like everyone and their dogs are becoming social media experts. Over the years I have read books about Twitter, Facebook, Blogging, Social Media, and Search Engine Optimization; and to be frank, most of them are not that good, especially for the most important demographic of this knowledge – leaders and business owners trying to grasp this new digital landscape. I was afraid that the right book was not going to come along.

That was until I read, The Digital Dollar: Sustainable Strategies for Online Success by Joe Wozny. It is easily the most valuable book I have found to teach leaders, executives, and business owners to comprehend and thrive in the online digital world. The difference between it and the many other books I have read is that Joe speaks and writes – in “leadership speak.” He speaks our language about a topic that is mystifying to many.  He understands and uses terms like: Investment, ROI, Value, Quality, Strategy, Measurements, Deliverables, Collaboration, Planning, Objectives. It’s refreshing to find a social media expert that really understands business and how to bridge the gap that often exists between business and the online world.

The book is written in a very creative way, in that one can read only certain parts of it if they only need help with certain aspects of the online digital world. For example in the beginning of the book there is a section called “How to Get the Most from The Digital Dollar.” He mentions various industries and the chapters one could read to focus on one’s particular business type. If your goals are engagement, he mentions the best chapters on that. If you are new to social media and the Internet, he tells you where to start. It is a brilliant concept, especially for the busy executive or leader that might not want to read an entire book to extract the knowledge they’re looking for.

The most important part of the book, for me at least, is directly related to the title of creating a sustainable strategy. I’ve had trouble bringing all the different aspects of my online presence together to make it work in a more cohesive manner to drive engagement and attract new readers. He offers several different “Digital Roadmaps,” with examples for different situations. These roadmaps are the strategy plan for your online success. Using the content of the book in each of the digital roadmap sections, makes it pretty easy to develop the pieces of the right digital roadmap for your organization, and create a successful strategy.

I spoke with Joe Wozny this week about the book, and not only has he written a great book that is extremely valuable; but he is friendly, passionate, and knowledgeable about both the online world, and business in general.

In an ever changing digital world, having a roadmap for your organization’s success is indispensable! Tweet This!

Free Books:

I encourage you to check out The Digital Dollar if you care about understanding and surviving in the digital world. Joe has graciously offered to give away a few books to readers of this article located in the US or Canada. I think I am going to pull in a few friends from Africa and the U.K. to help me choose the winners. Here is what you have to do to win a free book:

  1. Subscribe to my blog. You can do so by going here, subscribing on the widget at the top right of the page, or by clicking the appropriate checkbox when you fill out the comment.
  2. Leave a well-thought out comment on one or more of the following:
    • What  fears do you have about transitioning to the online world?
    • What are the best online strategies you have implemented to drive success for yourself or your organization?
    •  Explain your thoughts about the relationship between money (“the dollar”) and the online world (“Digital”) and why that is important for your organization.

On Saturday November 10th, 2012, I and a few online friends will choose 2 or 3 of the most thought out and valuable comments to receive the book. I am excited to hear your thoughts!

You Think Flip-Flop Leadership is Bad? – You Might Be Ignorant!

Inconsistent flipflop leadership
It’s frustrating to hear individuals complain about a leader who has changed their mind on a topic, when they haven’t taken the time to consider why the change of mind took place. They crucify this leader for “flip-flopping” and being inconsistent. The world is full of the stigma that consistency is an admirable trait and that to be a good leader you must be consistent, that’s just a bunch of hogwash. Consistency is only a good thing if you are perfect. I love the quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, when he said “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

Consistency is Not Necessarily a Good Thing!

Consistency is just another way to that one “could” describe the status-quo. If we all were consistent, we would all still be pooping in diapers and wearing onesies. I have met consistent sales people that pull in amazingly consistent below margin deals. I have worked with business owners who are remarkably consistent about not executing, and not setting goals. I have worked with employees that are bizarrely consistent about never growing their skills or reading a book that would help them.

Sure consistency could be described as a good thing …in some ways. But it also signifies the lack of change. The very definition of ‘consistent’ is: “(of a person, behavior, or process) Unchanging in achievement or effect over a period of time.” I don’t want to be a consistent leader, a consistent husband, or a consistent father; I want to be always improving – no matter how good I become. One of my core values in life is achievement. I’m motivated by achievement. If I was consistent I think I might shrivel up and into a lifeless, depressed corpse.

Embrace Flip-Flop Leadership

The definition of ‘Flip-flop’ in the context I am discussing is, “Make an abrupt reversal of policy.” So as a leader are you afraid of changing a policy or process for fear of being thought of as a flip-flop?

If you make a decision and it sucks, then make a better decision – FLIP-FLOP!

If you make a bad hire, hire someone better – FLIP-FLOP!

If your sales strategy is not bringing in the numbers you need, don’t ride the storm out for 12 more months; make a better strategy – FLIP-FLOP!

If it is not improving, change it.

One aspect of a flip-flop is correcting a bad decision. Another aspect though is flip-flopping because something has changed. Changes like: your industry, your market, buying patterns, a crisis, technology, competition, etc… There are thousands of things that could push the button for needing to change a policy, process, or way of doing things.

Good leaders are strong enough to make the right decision, despite what others think.” Tweet This

There is an art to the flip-flop. But it comes down to the ‘WHY.’ As a leader it is important to explain why you are changing your mind and explain the background information that led to the change.

Don’t be an ignoramus, embrace the flip-flop and achieve great things!

Are You Making Your Employees Stupid?

Stupid-LeadershipAccording to Merrill Lynch, “50% of employee skills become outdated in 3 to 5 years.” WOW, when I read this statistic, it really surprised me. Many leaders think that the experience of just doing the required work, day in and day out, is enough to keep their employees knowledgeable to optimally perform their duties. Unfortunately that is not true at all.

On the job training, meaning training that is acquired by just doing your job, interacting with clients, and talking with colleagues is hardly enough to create productive and engaged employees that are on the cutting edge of their disciplines. Many leaders and managers struggle with training programs because they are often tasked with reducing costs. So training programs are often the first to go.

Consider this though, according to a Saratoga Institute study, “Workers who have good training and professional development paths average 12% turnover; workers who don’t have learning and growth opportunities average 41% turnover.” That is not even the worst of it; consider additionally that the average cost of replacing an employee is 150% of their salary.

Those numbers mean that eliminating a training budget will probably cost you much more than you can save. To support that statement, Motorola has discovered that, “…for every $1 spent on training, there will be $30 in productivity gains in 3 years.” Why then would anyone cut training?

There is a lot of hidden meaning in these numbers that whisper of leadership, culture, productivity, cost savings, and innovation; but they all point to the fact that an organization will be less successful if they operate without formal training and coaching opportunities for their employees.

There are a lot of different training programs available that can train employees on a multitude of things, such as: Leadership, Execution, Productivity, Customer Service, Management, Teamwork, Collaboration, Innovation, Social Media, Financial Management, Technology, etc…

These programs are not always expensive and really could just involve reading a book in a quiet room of the office to hone a specific skill.

I challenge you, before the year is out, to put together a training program for next year, for your employees that will make them, and you, more successful in building the organization. Don’t make your employees “stupid” by failing to give them proper training.

Shameless plug, but if you are interested in execution and leadership training, be sure to check out all my programs that are half-off until the release of my book about execution.

Do you agree with these statistics about training programs? Please share your experience with training and development programs that you have experienced or implemented.