Planning from the Future

by | For Business Owners, How to Set Goals

 

 

One of the things I’ve noticed as a characteristic of the great [athletic] coaches, is that they start with their commitment to a result first and then they’ve looked at the circumstances they’ve needed to deal with from the perspective of the result.

The people who did not make it into the league of the great coaches were often just as articulate, just as smart but they were focused on the circumstances they needed to deal with and then they looked at the result from the circumstances.

— Werner Erhard in conversation with
John Wooden, Red Auerbach,
George Allen, &  Tim Gallwey

 

 

See also Managing Yourself (from the future) with Specific Measurable Results, on this blog.

 

 

You can’t manage time, so manage your priorities

by | For Business Owners, How to Set Goals

 

 

The most valuable time management skill is recognizing the important tasks and ignoring the rest. I first observed it early in my consulting career, at Arthur Andersen & Co in New York, after a meeting with my manager and our client, the Vice President of a large energy company. After the client left, my manager and I reviewed the meeting and planned our tasks. I mentioned one of the client’s requests from my notes and asked, “How are we going to do this?” I was shocked by his reply, “Don’t worry about that.”

“What do you mean?” I replied, “He specifically asked us to do that.”

“I know, but trust me, It’ll go away.” He was right. That task was never mentioned again and the client was entirely pleased with our work.

Not taking on everything you could do or want to do is the only way to reserve resources for the key activities.

 

 

One Page Business Plan

by | For Business Owners, How to Set Goals

 

 


findAspace business plan coverI apologize for the length of this letter/speech/memo/blog post. If I had more time it would have been shorter.

That keen insight into effective writing has been attributed to many great communicators, from Virgil to Voltaire. Respect for the reader’s time requires the writer to carefully pare all but the most essential aspects of the message. Editing has the added benefit of helping the writer clarify and sharpen his or her own thinking. If you cannot express the essentials briefly and accurately your confusion and uncertainty will distract and annoy the reader. To write fewer words, think more.

Physicist Richard Feynman, for example, admitted to a colleague that he did not have an adequate understanding of Quantum ElectroDynamics, despite the fact that he had won the Nobel Prize for inventing it.
 
Feynman’s criterium for understanding was to express it in a lecture comprehensible by a college freshman.

 

Your business plan is the document that most deserves intense thought and editing to make it concise, persuasive, and motivating. Everyone in your business needs to (more…)

Are you rowing, riding, or resisting?

by | For Business Owners, How to Set Goals, Quotes and Aphorisms

 

 

If you’ve done any white water rafting, you know how exciting it can be. On the first rapid of my first trip I remember the guide yelling, “Row. Row! Row fast!!!” But I did not want to go fast. I wanted to slow down, I preferred to try passing through the rapid “nice and easy.”

That was a mistake. We spun and bounced and nearly capsized. On the next rapid, I dug in with my paddle and rowed like mad. We shot through like an arrow.

I learned the hard way that if you travel down a river at or below the speed of the river’s current, you have no control over where you’re going. You can see the rocks and whirlpools ahead but you have no say as to whether you hit them or go around. Plus, it takes more energy to slow your boat than to speed up. By going slower than the current, you might get through the rapids unscathed but you will feel as significant as a leaf in the wind and know, “I was lucky that time.” By exceeding the speed of the current, the person operating the rudder can give direction to the raft and make sure the raft takes the safest route through the rapids. I remember after that first run, we gave each other “high fives” like a bunch of kids. We were proud and excited, not merely lucky.

That’s called taking control of your life. Your direction. Your destiny. We are only victims if we choose to be. Everyone encounters rocks, rapids, and whirlpools. It’s a fact of life. The choice is to work with the power of the river to make our own path, to exhaust ourselves resisting the flow, or to let it toss us randomly. I prefer to add my own preferences and efforts to the circumstances.

I may not control the outcome but I do have a role.

 

 

 

Improved Goal Thermometer

by | For Business Owners, How to Set Goals, Technology Tips

 

 

Thermometer
I frequently encourage my top executive coaching clients to set specific measurable goals and to chart their progress visually. For example, my free trailing twelve month Excel template is very popular. Download it by clicking here.

Here is an even simpler and more visually striking graphic you can use. Enter your own title, goal amount and current status and get a one-page, printable thermometer to display your progress for yourself or the entire team. This is similar to my earlier goal thermometer with the added feature of showing the time elapsed since the project was started.

Click here to download your free copy now. No registration required.

Feel free to share this with your friends and colleagues. Please do not remove my name or web address from the Excel spreadsheet.

 

 

Keep me informed about Tony’s webinars, in-person coaching sessions, and free Life Planning & Goal Setting tools.


 






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See also Tony’s complete goal setting kit, with audio and workbook,
free on this blog.

 

 

Turning Your Goals into Habits

by | For Business Owners, How to Set Goals

 

 

The number one problem with business books, self-improvement programs, and even executive coaching is the excess of insights and ideas that could help, that would help, but do not help because the ideas do not produce action.

Here are the two most important methods that I, as a top executive coach, use with clients to help them get results with new ideas.

First, we have a detailed, concrete conversation about their daily habits and history of abandoned “good ideas.” We explore together and define simple, specific changes to their routine that will help integrate the new practice into their lives. For example, a client with a well-established habit of using his home gym immediately after arising in the morning hung a sign on the TV over his treadmill to remind him to meditate first.

For a simple trick to help you establish beneficial new habits click here.

Second, and even more powerful, is (more…)