Accelerate Your Success, Without All The BS (PART 2)
Who wants to accelerate success without all the bull***?
Uh, who doesn't?
In last week's blog we dipped into the most important topic for business owners who want to accelerate their success -- strategy. Yes, I said it...again. It is the business owner with a strategy, then one who has a map and knows the direction to follow, who will celebrate the most accelerated success.
We also discussed the first three steps of a strategic plan -- your mission, vision, and a look into what's happening both in and outside of your business.
So now what?
The next three steps map out the heart and soul of a businesses accelerated success...without all the BS, of course.
Why Do You Behave Like That?
Step four towards accelerated success is defined by your business beliefs and values. Like a mission or vision statement, it’s important to craft value statements to help you, your team and all those who come in contact with you, determine how you will behave and interface with the world.
Value statements can take a number of things into consideration, but you will want to create value statements around how your behavior will be with people (customers and your workforce), your business operations and efficiencies, your vendors or partners, and your community and the surrounding environment.
EXERCISE:
An exercise I like to have clients explore is writing down what emotional reactions and opinions they would like to feel with their businesses, as well as how they would like others to feel about their business. I then ask them to highlight all words that are an absolute must to the success of their business. This, my friends, is clarity and pay close attention to what results you start to experience soon after.
Value statements, when created with depth and a clear understanding of a greater purpose than money, will help you attract the right customers, systems, employees and opportunities. Without a value statement, you leave everything vulnerable to potentially the wrong influences.
Time To Wake Up And Get Creative!
The next step towards acceleration allows us to get the most creative in our efforts. The strategic development canvas finally becomes a priority only after you have crafted your mission, vision and values statements, and have taken a deep look at your current state. Combine all of these and now you’re ready to create the milestones in your company’s future success path.
a. What do you want?
Creating strategic goals for your company is vital. These goals must be created around how you want to grow. How much more money or profit are you hoping to make this year? How much more of the market do you want to celebrate twelve to eighteen months from now? What about the systems and operations of your company? And finally, what’s your goal for your employees and your workforce.
How do you plan to grow them?
b. Getting SMARTer?
My assumption is that if you are reading this blog, you have already had experience with setting and hopefully achieving goals. SMART goals should be tied to each of your strategic objectives listed above. For those who need a refresher, SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, responsible people and timely. Most people associate the “R” with reasonable or realistic, but for those of us “4 Hour Workweek” subscribers, the “R” should list the person you will make responsible for the successful completion of each goal.
c. Top Down, Bottom Up - Makes No Difference To Me
What’s great about the strategic canvas is that once you create your objectives and smart goals, you can decide where you want to start. Some business first start with a focus on profit, which then leads to a great market share, followed by a focus on growing better systems and operations, which always then lead to a growing, thriving and stronger workforce.
Other companies, now more than ever, are putting profits last by focusing first on investing in their people. Some of the greatest companies to work for are allocated resources first to creating the most unforgettable employment opportunities and experiences for the people who come to work for them. Because of this, the employees are usually more driven to quickly turn to solving the operational and efficiency issues that the company is having. And fixing these inefficiencies quickly leads to happier customers and a constantly growing market share. And guess what? A growing market share leads to impressive growth in revenue and profits.
So which direction are you going to start with?
Last But Not Least!
We made it to the last step of your acceleration plan. Right on! Now there’s no plan that could be complete without an additional plan to keep checking into your progress and measuring your success. This last step is all about creating a critical action plan and then scheduling a quarterly review.
Action is critical:
Your critical action plan should consider every detail of your SWOT analysis with priorities attached to each one. All strengths need to capitalized on, with a clear measure of success, as well as the person’s name who will be responsible for this success. All weaknesses need to be shored up, with priority and measure of success, as well as who should and will be responsible for this action. Your opportunities should be invested in, with crystalized growth goals and a person identified who will maintain that success. And finally, make sure you understand your threats and identify them with your team. Prioritize the threats that need to take priority and make sure you have someone assigned to keep checking in on these.
Review, Review, Review
Like all who seek results, make sure you are making and scheduling the time every three months to ensure your goals are on track to a place of success and celebration. If you want to speed up your success, make a plan to check in with your goals every month. I always use the first day of each month as the day to check in with the goals of the previous month, while taking inventory of the goals that need the most attention for the following month. Not aggressive enough? Alright, then make a plan to check in with your goals once a week. How do you like them apples?
Yeah, I get it. That’s a lot of work to do just to get a business to grow. Well, I’m not sure how to make it any easier to get your plane off the ground and flying high. Remember, just six steps to get you to start accelerating your success. Trust me, just get started. Focus on one of these six steps each week and you’ll soon start to see, feel and share that momentum with all who are around you. Enjoy that momentum, keep going, and remember that all good things come to those who hustle.
Now, #goDo!
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