Achieving Accountability With Talk of Infidelity

February 8, 2012 by

AccountabilityAccountability – I consider myself an expert on accountability and execution (I did write a book on it…), but recently I received a lesson in accountability that I will never forget. Each week after I do my weekly planning, I determine my 3 most valuable goals for the week and I then send these goals to my “personal performance partner,” in some circles this would be called an “accountability partner.” Mine is both a friend and a colleague. Each week he performs the same routine and sends his goals to me. We do this to keep each other accountable. So a couple days after sending my goals for that particular week, he sent me an email and asked me how I was coming on my number one goal for the week. That week was a very busy week, and I responded with this message:

“I have not done it . I got busy with a bunch of other things. I need to do it …so much to do. I am going to try and do it tonight.”

Two hours later I received a lesson in accountability that I plan on using over and over. This is what my accountability partner said:

“I don’t like the word ‘TRY.’ What would your wife say if you would have said ‘I will TRY to be faithful to you?’ Either make it your number one goal or don’t, but don’t try to fool yourself, as your smarter than that! Commit my friend!”

I almost fell out of my chair. I was stunned and laughing at the same time. I had never seen this tactic used in accountability. So do you think I completed my goal that week…..um, hell yeah!

Accountability & “Try”

I learned a valuable lesson from this experience, and it was not so much about accountability, it was actually about the word “try” and my ability to get goals done. There are so many distractions in life that take us away from achieving what is important. No one knows this better than a leader. We could have a number one goal for ourselves, a number one for our organization, a number one for each department or region, etc… Juggling these can be difficult

The particular goal for that week was not a very pleasant goal, but was necessary for the future security of my family. It took a lot of time, in a week that I did not have much time. I was up until the wee hours of the morning one day completing this goal, and while I was tired the next morning, I felt a lot better than if I would have excused my goal away and rationalized the non-completion of it. I learned two lessons from this experience: First that when something is really important to me and the “why” is big enough, that I will move mountains to complete my goal; and secondly that no matter the circumstances, I usually do have the will power and energy to make sure I complete my goal. It might not be easy, but focus can bring about amazing successes.

I have worked on accountability with many business owners that very easily rationalize the non-completion of their goals. With some, no matter how much I try to bring accountability into the goal completion, they will just make excuses for all that they did not get done. Usually though we have the power to overcome the word “try.” Sure there are valid reasons sometimes, for not completing goals, but many use these for what they really are, lame excuses.

I believe we have the power to define our future, and overcoming our mental blocks and excuses is necesary to bring about a future that looks the same way we imagine it to be.

Accountability Takeaway’s

1.   Find yourself an accountability partner that cares as much about your success as you do. Help to keep each other accountable for each other’s goal completion.

2.    Reading. My favorite book on accountability, and one of my favorite books period, is The Oz Principle, by Roger Connors, Tom Smith, Craig Hickman. I highly recommend reading this book, it will change your outlook on the meaning of accountability. This book is so important to me that my child will read it when he is old enough to understand it. So this is not a frivolous recommendation.

3.    When you find yourself making excuses for not getting goals done, think twice on if you really have the power and energy to complete it. Don’t give in to excuses. Focus, make a plan, and make it happen.

4.    When you find yourself failing on goals, review the reasons or the “why” to determine if it is strong enough to motivate you to action.

5.   If all else fails, compare your own “try” to something really bad and is against your values, like …infidelity.

On last thought. My accountability partner really knows me. He knew that I was making excuses and letting other things get in the way. It was not that I was not accomplishing things. I was accomplishing a lot of things, but I was ignoring my number one. Make sure you have a good enough relationship to get this serious in your accountability efforts, otherwise your good accountability intentions could backfire.

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So, now that you’ve read this article, how are you going to use this information to bring greater accountability to your goals?

Please take a moment and share your ideas in the comments section below, share this with your social media friends, and subscribe to receive A Slice of Leadership notices, and occasional leadership advice, articles, tips and freebies.
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Filed Under: Accountability Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

A Successful Leaders Guide To Getting Lucky

January 18, 2012 by

Successful LeadersHave you ever been envious of successful leaders? Have you ever wondered why all the good things happen to them? Have you ever questioned yourself and thought, “why can’t I be as  lucky as those successful leaders?” Do you wonder why good things happen to those successful leaders and why good fortune seems to follow them around?

The Secret of Successful Leaders

Well, I will tell you the secret of successful leaders …they get lucky because they do the work to create opportunities that appear to others as luck. Yeah, it is not really luck is it. Shamrocks, rainbows, and rabbit feet will not make successful leaders. Luck comes from creating opportunies that come to us as we get out of our comfort zone, take risks, and do the work that is necesary to create those opportunities.

I realized this week that as hard as my personal success plan is for me, there was something I still was not doing. I was not getting out of my comfort zone and creating opportunites. My personal success plan is hard for sure. I have a ton of goals and they require a large amount of discipline and focus to achieve. But therein lies the problem, I am doing a bunch of things, but very few of them require me to get out of my comfort zone, they just require me to work harder. There is no doubt that they will make me better, but “better” has never really been good enough for me.

A Successful Leaders Takeway to Creating Luck

So I challenge all you leaders, wheter you consider yourself a successful leader or not, to dig deep, figure out what you want to achieve and what opportunies you could create by stepping out and doing one thing everyday that will help to bring greater success. Keep at it, keep at it, and sooner or later, you’ll get lucky too, because as Elmer Leterman said, “Luck is what happens when preparation, meets opportunity.”

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So, now that you’ve read this article, how are you going to use this information to create “luck?”

Please take a moment and share your ideas in the comment section below, share this with your social media friends, and subscribe to receive A Slice of Leadership notices, and occasional leadership advice, articles, tips and freebies.
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Filed Under: Leadership Opportunities Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Ultimate Personal Success Plan

December 30, 2011 by

Success PlanThe blogosphere is currently flooded with information on goal setting and New Year’s resolutions, but lets be honest, goal setting is not enough to be successful…you need a plan. At the beginning of 2011 I wrote about my 2011 Personal Success Plan.  I had a many wins and some losses in my 2011 goals, but overall, I am a better person and I achieved a lot more because of my plan. This year I have made a number of changes to help guarantee a successful 2012. The changes are not just aesthetic, but in how I manage my success, execute on the goals, keep motivation, track progress, and hold myself accountable.

Ben Stein beautifully said, “The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this:  Decide what you want.” This image to the left serves as the basis for stating what you, “want out of life”, or more specifically, what you want out of the year.  I value this document because it serves as a singular focal point to all I want to accomplish in the year (Read on to receive a template for yourself). Each of the parts are important to the success of the whole. I suggest you open up the image in another window to lok at as you read.

The Success Plan

The first part of the success plan is this success plan document. This is a Microsoft Word document that holds everything that is important for defining my goals. I will not use this document for tracking, but for defining and planning. Tracking comes later. Here are the parts of this “defining” document:

1. Annual Vision

I debated on what to call this section, but ultimately decided it was almost like a mini BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal). It was not a definite goal, because goals ultimately define what your overall success looks like.  It is a statement that is meant to define what I will become and what I will look like when I complete all my goals. It serves as the inspiration to WHY I’m doing this and WHAT I will become when I am successful. It is written as if it already happened, setting the mental image and motivation for the hard-work ahead.  My vision statement for 2012 is “2012 was a launching-point for a better future and a better me. I have set positive habits for the future that will make me a better father, a better husband, and a better friend. I have strengthened my professional reputation as an innovative, solid, and proven leader and I have become more spiritually in-tune and financially stable.”

2. Mission Statement

Developing a personal mission statement takes some time, but once you have it, it will serve as a guide for all your actions. I feel it is important to state this on the personal success plan because it is my “code of conduct” and guides me as I execute and as I come to problems throughout the year. Leaving this out leaves a big hole in the plan. My personal mission statement is, “I will not accept status quo and as such will seek after that which is efficient and effective in all areas my life, but never at the expense of my relationships.  I will focus on that which is important versus that which is critical.  I will be teachable and will strive to always learn new things that will help me reach my full-potential.  I will act with Integrity at all times and will treat others as they would like to be treated.  I will look for the good in all I experience, and remember all the blessings that I have been given.” Take the time to develop your own, it will be well worth it.

3. Values (Areas of Focus)

My values are actually listed in 2 places, for 2 different reasons. In my mission statement I actually list values that are important to me. You do not have to do this, but you can. These values are more guiding to my life. Right above my mission statement I list the values that I will be focusing on in 2012. These could be called my areas of focus. My focus’ for 2012 are: Relationships, Spirituality, Intellectual Stimulation, Financial Success, Physical Wellness, Professional Growth, Giving Back, & Renewal. These help me to categorize my lower-level goals into groups that are easier to track and help me to see how everything fits together. The image is meant to remind me that everything contributes to the whole of who I am and who I want to become.

4. Lead Measures (Goals)

Lead measures are something I talk about in detail in my book. But basically they are smaller goals that predict the success of a higher goal. In my case, the higher goal is my annual vision. The beauty of a lead measure is that, assuming you set the right lead measures, when you complete them, you will have accomplished your goal. My lead measures are organized according to my areas of focus. They are all written as if I was in the future looking back. They are positive and stated what I have accomplished, not what I want to accomplish. Kind of the same thing but a mental difference.

5. Vision Board

Below my lead measures is a small vision board with images that remind me why I am doing these goals. I did not change this over last year, because my focus areas are the same. I know a lot of people put a crazy amount of effort into this part alone, but for me it is a mental reminder of the what is important in this plan.

6. The Reward (The Clincher)

This is probably the biggest change to the plan this year. One of the problems I saw with this plan was motivation. The thrill of achievement sometimes just isn’t enough, even for those like myself that are motivated by achievement. So the reward concept was brought in. It took me a while to come-up with a reward that would be motivational enough to keep me going, but a trip to Europe or Asia is what did it for me. There was one other problem with the reward. You see the vision accomplishment could be subjective. I don’t necessarily have to complete ALL my lead measures to accomplish my annual vision. So I am going to have to prove myself to a board of 4 people. I am going to have to keep records and track my progress. My “board” will consist of a financial expert, a business expert, a relationship expert and one other wild-card.  Only a unanimous decision will result in the reward. This is a kind of kick-in-the-rear, motivation also. I have to be a success in others’ eyes, not just my own.

Some Important Steps in Creating Your Success Plan

1. Take time to make sure the goals are right for you and what you want to accomplish. It took me over a month to nail down all my goals.

2. Talk to others about your goals. I have a personal performance partner that spent loads of time questioning me and helping me to narrow and define my goals better. The best thing I did was have a meeting with my wife to talk to her about my goals and get her feedback. Some of my goals changed because of that meeting and she is now vested in my success and we worked out some details to the execution that I had not thought of. Depending on who your goals touch, will determine who you should talk to.

3. Push yourself. I told a friend the other day that I felt like a very small person about to climb a very big mountain.  I am scared of my goals. Once that fear came on, I knew I had pushed my goals far enough to make me a much better person. I know they are all achievable as well. If you are not scared of your goals, you are probably not reaching far enough, and therefore you are limiting your capacity to grow.

Execution & Tracking of your Success Plan

I spent a lot of time setting up the processes to make sure that nothing will prevent me from hitting the ground running when I start. I am using a service at http://www.sendrecurring.com/ to schedule emails and text message reminders to myself and to my wife for certain things we need to remind ourselves to do. Until everything becomes a habit and second nature I want to be bugged about it.

The next and most important thing is I let my personal performance partner or accountability partner know about my goals. He will push me, make sure I am on track and not let me waiver. I will be sending reports to him on a weekly basis and we talk on a weekly basis via phone on the goals.  We also email each other on a daily basis regarding important weekly and daily goals or things we are struggling with. I am doing the same for him. This type of relationship is really important to the success of a plan that pushes your comfort level.

Success PlanThe last thing I needed was a system of tracking and measuring my progress. Everyone has to do what is best for them on this.  Some people like to track things on paper, not me. I am in front of the computer most of the time, I prefer typing and I like charts and graphs and percentages and other hard data to look at. I thought about using Excel, but it was going to be too much of a pain. I use Outlook all the time, and while I will be using it for task management and calendaring, it is not good for managing goals and running reports. I ultimately settled on a software program called Goal Enforcer (http://www.goalenforcer.com/).

Goal Enforcer is a mind map based program that’s sole purpose is Goal Management. There are a couple reasons why I chose it. First is because it allowed me a quicker method of inputting (or really importing from excel) my goals. When all my goals are broken down into daily tasks and weekly tasks and unit based tasks I had 3,448 tasks for the year just involving my success plan.  That does not include other things I do. Using excel I was able to knock all the goals into a spreadsheet in a couple hours and import that into Goal Enforcer.

Success PlanGoal Enforcer  integrates with Outlook tasks and beautifully setup all my tasks for the entire year on the appropriate days. It also imports from Outlook, so I can complete my tasks in Outlook and it will update Goal Enforcer.  It also allows me to email a report from within and save it to a remote location, which is good for me as I travel a lot.

Because I have some sub-goals that are daily, resulting in 366 circles under a task, I will not be using the mind-map very much. Instead I will be using the tree view. The tree view allows me to quickly click tasks that are done, update the percentage, if it is that type of goal, and easily add notes or logs to the task. I will be using this daily and weekly in my planning sessions. I can also attach files or website links to a task if I am using another type of log or agenda for something. It is reasonably priced and you can get a free demo and purchase it from http://www.goalenforcer.com/.

Another thing to prevent barriers was I systematized and created processes and checklists for various tasks such as my daily planning agenda, my weekly planning agenda and my social media strategy.

This was a long post and a lot to take in, but I believe there is not anything more important to do for your success, than to develop your own 2012 Personal Success Plan.  I would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section.

If you would like a blank 2012 Success Plan to work your own plan, subscribe the the Slice of Leadership list on the top-right side of this page. I am happy to provide my Daily Planning Agenda, Weekly Planning Agenda, and Social Media /Personal Branding Checklist for those that would like a copy. Just subscribe and request it in the comments below.

I hope that everyone has the most successful year in 2012 that they have ever had.

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How Hellboy Helped me be an Inspirational Leader & 5 Keys to Inspirational Communication

November 20, 2011 by

Inspirational LeaderLately I have been thinking a lot about inspirational leadership. In this world that focuses on the bad, weak, and the diminishing returns; inspirational leadership can be what separates mediocre performance from exceptional performance, poor morale from positive and productive morale.

Let’s face it, work is not always fun.  That, compounded with the grim hope that many feel in this economy, i.e. that they might never see a brighter future because of the poor performance of their organization, can cause many employees and even leaders to forget about what they are capable of.  They lose sight of their objectives and wallow in the drudgery of daily firefighting.

I recently had the opportunity to speak to an organization whose net worth had dropped a staggering 20% in the last 11 months from an already negative net worth.  Morale was low, trust in the leaders was low and there were a whole host of other problems. After significant financial and operational analysis, we called a company meeting. For hours the night before the meeting, I prepared what I was going to say.  I knew I could not “sugar coat” the problems.  The employees knew it was bad.  At the same time I did not want to point fingers or make the current management look bad.  They were talented and capable people, who just needed some direction. I felt that I needed to inspire them to look beyond the problems and see what the company was capable of.

I used to think that not every leader or manager could be inspirational; I have doubted my ability, like any other leader. I know I can write inspirational and while I have spoken many times to groups, companies or executives and inspired them to look beyond their problems, for some reason this was different too me.  It was a mixed group of people, morale was horribly low, performance was low and the stakes were higher.

The meeting turned out great.  Employees, who we previously thought were hopeless, told members of the management team at various times in the day that they were excited. The hope, that I had yearned to convey, pierced everyone’s mind and a new entity began to emerge out of the dark shroud it had been engulfed in. A line had been drawn in the sand, and everyone knew it was time to forget the past and focus on the future.

Being the process oriented person that I am, I kept thinking about this experience and other presentations I have done in the past, both inspirational and non-inspirational, to see what the keys were to creating inspirational communication.  I know there are many more qualified than I. But I figured that if I could break this down to a process, then I could be abundantly more successful in motivating others to get things done.

Well not just motivating, but inspiring.  I see motivation as getting people moving in a positive direction, I see inspiring them as getting them to move also in a positive direction, but with purpose.  Here is what I came up with that I think should be inclusive items to making one’s communication inspirational.

5 Steps to Inspirational Communication & Becoming An Inspirational Leader

1.       Genuineness
I believe in order to inspire others, you have to believe in what you are trying to convey. If you are trying to be inspirational just for the sake of making yourself look good then people will see through you.  I think genuineness is what can separate a pep talk from inspiring communication.  Being genuine is just being honest about the situation and showing your staff that you understand what is going on and that you care about it.

2.       Facts & Data
Maybe I am odd, but when explaining a situation, I always love a good fact thrown out to back-up the claim. I think that most staff members out there of most companies just have a huge distrust of management. A good fact will help drive your point home and for those not feeling the genuineness, the number will help convert them to the plan you are about to convey. Don’t go overboard on data points, 1 to 3 should be sufficient to help drive your point home.

3.       Labeling
I learned labeling many years ago and it was an eye opener to me. We generally think of labeling as negative, but it can be an amazing tool if used in a positive way. Labeling is easy, you imagine what you want, and you put that label of it on a person or persons. For example saying something like, “You guys are some of the most talented people I have had the privileged of working with; you’re loyal, dedicated, hardworking, and I know that if we can help focus all that talent, we will be <<insert goal>>, (i.e., the largest and most successful…..)”.

You can also use it to insert company qualities that might not be present, but that you want to inspire others to work for, “I can picture a company that has full benefits, generous compensation packages, and where the employees all respect each other and work together to efficiently solve any problem that comes our way.”

The idea with those two examples is to lift one’s vision out of the gutter and make people want to work toward the quality that you just described. This can be very powerful.

4.       Vulnerability
Depending on what type of presentation…. and the audience; vulnerability may be necessary to get through to those that have been severely hurt by your or your companies mismanagement.  Most experts usually preach that a leader has to be confident. I think you can be confident but still show vulnerability.  Vulnerability, when done right, puts your sacrifices and feelings about the condition on par with everyone else’s. It says to them that, we are all in this together.

5.       History and the Heart
History is full of inspiration. Giving people examples of organizations that were able to get out of similar problems or achieve similar types of goals, shows people that you’re not full of hot air and that what you are trying to convey is possible. But there is something that history can do even more, it can touch the heart.  You can see from my other points that they all involve an emotion. When people feel something in their heart, it gives them energy, focus, and the drive to perform better.  It can be a story, a quote or even a video or audio clip.

Late one evening a few days before the presentation I described at the beginning of this post, I was flipping through the channels on the TV in my hotel room.  I came across the end of the movie “Hellboy.”  I don’t watch much TV, but it grabbed my attention. In the last scene of the movie the character John Meyers in a closing narration says: “What makes a man a man? A friend of mine once wondered. Is it his origins? The way he comes to life? I don’t think so. It’s the choices he makes. Not how he starts things, but how he decides to end them.”

Call me crazy, but that was what I needed.  The group I was talking to could connect to that. I needed to draw a symbolic line in the sand. A line that signified that the past was the past, that the ways of the past were the past, and that we were crossing this line into a new future. That quote from a crazy movie helped to strike the emotion I needed to touch.

History and media is full of inspirational tidbits of information to back any principle that you need to drive into the hearts of your listeners.

6.       Structure & Direction
Those that know me know I am a huge proponent of structure in many forms.  I believe you must have it in order to produce scalability, change and ultimately, profitability. In this instance of inspirational communication in leadership, what I mean is that there has to be some kind of plan. Fancy words, genuineness and an emotional touching story will only get you so far.

You don’t have to have all the answers, but you need to have the beginnings of a plan, even if those beginnings are to figure out the plan. For me this “plan” was nothing more than some scribbles on a small whiteboard that showed how the organization was going to start the process of fixing things.  I also explained what the staff should expect. I did not sugar-coat anything and told them it was not going to be easy.

In the end the staff knew what was expected, they knew how things were going to change, what their organization could achieve, and they had a reason burned in their hearts on why they needed to act.  Inspirational communication is not something that only needs to be used in a turnaround situation.  It can be used to take motivation to the next level, it can be used to bring about greater execution, it can be used to improve morale and turn hidden ‘A Players’ into real ones. Lastly, it will turn you into a more effective leader.

Filed Under: Inspirational Leadership Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Imagine Leadership

May 19, 2011 by

Nitin Nohria and Amanda Pepper of Harvard Business School’s Leadership Initiative collaborated with XPLANE to create this video in order to generate a discussion of the value and importance of leadership to address some of societys most pressing problems.

“It is my desire to inspire people of all ages and social demographics to think about leadership on a broad level, contemplate what it means to them and what individual impact they can have when it comes to leading,” says Nohria.

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As A Leader, Do you Fulfill Dreams or Create Nightmares?

February 8, 2011 by

Summer Dream

Have you ever read a book or heard a speech and the idea that was presented made you kick yourself and think, why did I not think of that?  Well that is how I felt after reading The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly a few months ago.

The book is written as a business fable.  For those that have not discovered business fables they are  a great format for helping one to visualize a methodology and how it will play out in an organization.  They also are pretty easy reads between the more monotonous reads that business books can sometimes be.

Anyways, the book follows a fictional janitorial service company.  The company has horrible turnover and horrible employee engagement.  I will not spoil it for you, but the book goes through a simplistic yet powerful method that simply deals with helping others fulfill their dreams.

The reason why I kicked myself is because this is something I already do with colleagues and friends.  I have given referrals and testimonials, made connections and helped colleagues in a wide range of areas to help them fulfill their dreams, but never thought of doing this for my employees.  I felt pretty stupid.

So let’s think about this.  Say you have an employee, let’s call him John.  Through some discussions you learn that John has always wanted to take his family to Walt Disney World.  To John, this seems like an impossible feet of which he will never have the time nor the money to bring his dream to fruition. 

So you dig into your contacts and realize you have a colleague in Orlando.  You call him up and through the conversation you come to find he has a guest house.  You tell your colleague of what you are doing and he tells you that the guest house is his for 2 weeks if he comes during the off-season.

You then figure out with John what his expenses will be and you use your financial skills to teach him about budgeting, and you plan out a savings plan for the next year to get the money needed.  You help him find deals online and as the time draws near you make sure that his duties are taken care of at work and home and you send him off.

It did not cost you a dime, other than your time.  How grateful do you think John will be?  Also, before I go too far, do not think that you can replace proper compensation with helping employees fulfill their dreams.  Properly compensating staff is a given.

Let’s say you have another employee that has always wanted to own a home.  To them the idea of owning a home is something that they will never see.  You once again dive into your contacts and find a realtor that specializes in low-income housing.  This realtor puts you in contact with a mortgage broker that specializes in such situations.  You work with this employee and put them in touch with your financial advisor who helps them to budget and get a savings plan together.

As their savings grows and they see you truly care about them, what do you think happens with their engagement?

The ideas are endless, I think as leaders we naturally are problem solvers.  But we are so busy solving problems for our company, that we do nothing to solve problems for our staff.  Yet if we actually showed them we cared, the financial benefits to our organizations are unlimited.  Our employees are the ones on the front-line.  They see things we do not always see.  If you think about them and help them, they will generally think about us and will help to make sure our organizations are successful.

We all have dreams we want out of life.  Some of them are big and some are small.  I think we all have some of both.  As leaders I think we naturally have the knowledge and network to make things happen, but I think to the disengaged employee that thinks you do not care about them, their dreams are just that.    We have the knowledge and resources to coach and help our staff fulfill dreams that we may take for granted.

In the book, What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There, by Marshall Goldsmith, he states: “In the past, the key to wealth may have been control of land, material, plants, and tools.  In that environment, the worker needed the company more than the company needed the worker.  Today, the key to wealth is knowledge.  As a result, the company needs the knowledge worker far more than the knowledge worker needs them.  To make matters worse, they know this!  They see themselves as fungible assets – no longer at the mercy of the company whim – rather than dispensable commodities.  The difference is real: As a fungible asset, the free agent sees himself as always getting a better job somewhere else; if he were merely a commodity, anyone could replace him (which we know is not true anymore).”

I read What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There, after The Dream Manager and that paragraph hit me hard. Leaders that see their employees as fungible assets will find themselves leading mediocre organizations and will have problems with employee engagement, low morale and possibly turn-over.  While leaders that understand and value their employees to the extent of helping them fulfill their dreams, will find employees that are engaged, happy and willing to help the organization succeed.

This concept of The Dream Manager does not diminish the value of accountability and execution, but it may help you realize why those items might not be as high as they should b.  I challenge you to look back at your career and think about how The Dream Manager concept could have been helpful for you and then, become a dream manager yourself.

Please comment and let me know your thoughts.

Filed Under: Dream / Nightmare Leadership Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Planning Your Personal Success with a Personal Success Plan

January 31, 2011 by

A few months ago, I looked at the New Year fast approaching, and was driven to start the year running.  I did not want to just create the normal annual resolutions that many tend to make, including me, but I really wanted to create something that had some teeth, had an element of accountability and execution and would really help me to achieve greater success in 2011.

I have received great feedback from this and have even had a few business consultants ask me if they could use the format with their clients.  I think it is important as leaders that we are not only leaders of our organizations, but leaders of our own life’s as well.

This idea of becoming leader or CEO of your life, was one of those, “Why did I not think of that” moments.  Kris Cavanaugh, wrote the book, Stuck to CEO, her “specialty” and primary message in the book and her practice is to help people become “CEO of their Life”.  I will be doing an interview with Kris sometime in the next few months.  Please check out her website and get to know her.  She is a wonderful person.

This success plan was inspired from several things I have read, heard or seen, with the main ideas coming from, Who’s Got Your Back, by Keith Ferrazzi.

Let me describe what I have done:
On the lower left-hand side, I have placed my personal vision statement: “I will not accept status quo and as such will seek after that which is efficient and effective in all areas my life, but never at the expense of my relationships.  I will focus on that which is important versus that which is critical.  I will be teachable and will strive to always learn new things that will help me reach my full-potential.  I will act with Integrity at all times and will treat others as they would like to be treated.  I will look for the good in all I experience, and remember all the blessings that I have been given.”

I placed this on the document because it is something I need to remember and keep in focus, every time I plan my schedule and look at this document, which is at least daily.  If you do not have a personal mission or vision statement, start working on it, no matter what your station in life is.

In the top-left I have placed a diagram with all the elements that I feel are important to a well-balanced life.  They are in order clockwise by personal priority.  You have to figure out what are the most important elements for balance in your life.

The right side of the image is the “meat”.  This is in order of personal priority as well.  Here I have placed actionable items that I feel must be accomplished in order to “claim” success in those areas.  I have put a LOT of thought and I requested feedback from those important to me before I finalized on these.  This is the part that takes some effort and deep thinking. It is important to get feedback from those close to you and those that will be honest and look through the reasons why you may be putting some things down.

In the bottom-right, I have placed images of things that tie back into my goals.  There is much research on the value of imagery in fostering motivation and goal achievement.

Now onto the execution side of this; the key to this are several accountability partners.  I meet with one each week and another every other week.  Each of my accountability partners is genuinely concerned about my success and they call me out when I am doing something that is not in alignment with my goals.

I also look at this daily and weekly when I do my planning.  In addition I have printed out and laminated a few copies, one to keep with me in my portfolio binder and one that is shrunk down and serves as a bookmark while reading.

Even though the year has already started, it is never too late to plan out your success.

I would love to hear your comments, if you would like a Microsoft Word copy of this document to edit for yourself, please leave a comment, share your thoughts, and I will email you a copy.

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