Ever considered why successful people are successful or how successful businesses achieve their success? There are a number of common beliefs amongst successful people and organisations, and one of them certainly is that the only constant is change. Unfortunately, this sometimes leads to change being made just for the sake of change and without the right foundation.
‘If you don’t change what you are doing, you won’t change what you are getting’ – Greg Phillips
Question: What do buildings and structures need in order to stand the test of time?
Answer: Strong foundations.
However, a great deal of planning precedes construction commencement:
- Much creative thinking
- Exacting analysis
- Considered strategy
- Checking and cross-checking
- Detailed plans drawn up
- Schedules and goals planned
Consider the planning you put into building a new house. Every last detail is considered, right down to taps and doorknobs. Once construction commences you visit the site and inspect the work of the builder, you check that everything is happening according to your specifications. You know that the quality of the workmanship and materials determines the quality of the house.
And so it is with your future or the future of your business. If you’re not carefully laying the right foundations and nurturing the process, you are leaving your life or the fortunes of your business to chance. You wouldn’t do it if you were building a house. In fact, you wouldn’t even leave your annual holidays to chance – you carefully consider every detail about the destination, accommodation etc. Yet, some people and businesses are not putting the same effort into their entire life or their business.
Most people spend more time planning their annual holidays than they spend planning their lives!
Individuals must have a plan for life.
Businesses must have a plan for success and the individuals within it must have an individual plan and be part of a team plan.
Individuals need to ask themselves, ‘how satisfied am I with every area of my life?’.
Businesses need to examine the present and plan the future – and I don’t mean plan for the future – I mean
create the future. If you’re not the market leader, why not? If you’re not achieving double-digit growth in revenues and profits annually, why not? If employees are not loyal, inspired and driven to achieve company objectives, why not? If product reliability is not the industry’s best, why not? If the best people don’t aspire to work in our business, why not? If productivity is not the best and most efficient in the industry, why not? If the wages to revenue ratio is not the best in the industry, why not? If the return on investment doesn’t make other organisations envious, why not? If individuals or teams cannot complete objectives and responsibilities within a reasonable time frame and with complete success, why not? If there is not complete harmony and cooperation between all divisions, why not? Funny how some organisations call various departments ‘divisions’. In many organisations that’s just what they are – divisive!
So, how do individuals and businesses achieve everything they want to? Well, obviously there are a number of strategies about which much could be written, however it all starts with one step – setting goals.
A story about successful people on Channel 7’s, Today Tonight, 25th April 2002, stated that the one common attribute all successful people have is the ability to set a goal and focus on it.
‘People with goals succeed because they know where they are going. It’s as simple as that’ – Earl Nightingale
Most people have heard of goal setting and maybe even tried it a little. The unfortunate situation here is that most people have never learned the correct and complete method of goal setting that will guarantee achievement.
“An unwritten goal is nothing more than a wish”. – Greg Phillips
While the above quotation is absolutely accurate, it is only the start. For many people however this is the only step they take. They do not learn all the steps required in goal setting and most don’t even write their goals down correctly. This is generally because they just don’t know, so while it is commendable that these people at least had a go, there is a problem in that because they have not learned the correct techniques, they give up, thinking that goal setting doesn’t work for them.
If I jump in an aeroplane and try to fly it without proper instruction, would you like to be my passenger? Not likely! Does that means that aeroplanes can’t fly? Many personnel are reluctant passengers on dangerous planes headed for disaster. Think about that for a moment.
It’s very difficult to be good at anything without some instruction and the correct methods – 75% of the Australian population can’t even program their VCR, and that’s with an instruction manual!
The message in this article is ‘set goals but first commit to learning the correct procedures’.
Every success story I’ve ever read about individuals or great organisations has the same common theme – they set and achieve goals. Surely, everyone can learn from this fact – if you’re not regularly setting and achieving goals, you’re simply not in the race!
For businesses, it is absolutely critical that everyone in the organisation is setting goals using the correct methods. I guarantee that if they do, all objectives will be achieved. What about those company goals that often aren’t achieved, even in relatively successful organisations? Usually it’s a question of ownership of the goals by company personnel. If individuals don’t have ownership of company goals, the goals often won’t be achieved – people must have a desire to achieve goals. This is achieved by educating personnel about the goal setting process, involving them in it and having them set individual and team goals.
If only one person isn’t ‘in sync’ with the goal setting, it often leads to failure. Consider for example a competing orienteering team – everyone must get to the finish for the team to win. Goal setting for organisations is like that.
Unfortunately you can’t just go to the supermarket and buy a can of success.
Success however, does come in cans. I can, we can, the company can, you can, the team can.
When goals are correctly set, people develop a ‘can do’ attitude. Focussing on goals opens up a world of possibilities, an air of expectation, an environment of creativity.
People’s minds become imbued with the possible and the way forward – the path to victory!
John Naisbitt of Megatrends said,
‘train them in the technical skills that they need in which to do the job. More importantly, teach them the skills that they need to shape their minds and spirits. These are the skills that will make them successful.’
‘At first dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable’. – Christopher Reeve.
So take some action today, whether it’s for you personally or for your organisation – do it now!
‘The distance of the road to success becomes shorter as soon as you take the first step’. – Greg Phillips
The skills and tools of successful goal setting can’t be taught in a brief article however to get started, check out the article,
‘Goal Setting’