How to Boost Your Effectiveness by
400 Percent
Want
to reach your goals four times faster this year than you did in 2013? You can
make it happen by treating every quarter as though it were a year unto itself,
says Brian Moran, author of "The 12 Week Year."
This insight came to him, he says,
after he observed his executive coaching clients had lots of great ideas but
fell down when it came time to execute them. Now, he says, "Everything we
do is designed to help people execute better. "Knowledge is only power if
you act on it."
To
help people act on their plans more effectively, Moran suggests thinking
of the "year" as 12 weeks instead of 12 months. Otherwise, you may
fall victim to what he calls "annualized thinking."
"In January, December looks a
long way off," he explains. "Most people start the year with big
goals. By the end of January they're a little behind, but they don't worry
about it." In Moran's experience, most don't start worrying until October
or November and by then it's too late.
"If you embrace 12 weeks as a
year, it changes your thinking," he adds. "It creates a healthy sense
of urgency. Twelve weeks is long enough to make significant progress, but near
enough that you don't lose sight of the deadline."
If 12-week planning sounds like
something you'd like to try, here's how to get started:
1. Begin with a vision.
You can't get where you want to go
until you know exactly where that is. "We work with life vision because
business is just part of life," Moran says. "What do you want your
life to look like in three years? What do you need to make happen to create
that life? Without a compelling vision of the future, it's too easy to choose
what's comfortable and that's why companies go out of business."
So
how do you get out of your own comfort zone? "We believe it starts with a
personal vision and that emotional connection," Moran says. "I'm
willing to be uncomfortable because I've got this
vision of where I want to be further down the road. If I want to create a
different result I have to do different stuff."
2. Create a plan.
Once
you've got a clear vision for where you want to go, put together a
plan to
get you there. If you've ever done any sort of career or business planning,
this part of the process may seem familiar: Figure out where you need to be in
a year so as to reach your five-year goal within five years. Only this time is
different since your "year" is only 12 weeks long. "Set 12-week
goals: Where do I need to be to be on pace with the long-term vision?"
Moran asks. And, he stresses, less is more. "Most plans have too much in
them. People are overwhelmed at the start, then the plans get diffused
throughout the year. Instead, let's be great at a few things."
Another problem with most plans, he
says, is that they're too strategic, providing only a direction. "I'll
literally spell out the action I need to take: 'Ask for referrals at every
meeting,' versus 'Build referrals,'" Moran says. "Build a tactical
plan with the critical few tasks in it."
3. Set your process.
Mike Tyson famously said,
"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face," Moran
notes. Knowing that your daily and weekly responsibilities are going to punch
you in the face means that you can better prepare and avoid getting derailed
from your goals.
That's why, Moran says, you need
process control. "I'm pulling what is due on a weekly basis from the
12-week plan," Moran says. "Simple as that sounds, it's powerful. I'm
maintaining a discipline I'm working from. By default, everything in the weekly
plan is priority A, and everything else is priority B."
What about urgent matters that
arise? "Most of the urgent stuff isn't as urgent as we make it," he
says. "Often the urgent is a great excuse not to work on the more
important." People tend to be tempted to work in reaction to what comes up
rather than in accordance with a plan he says, but it's bad to be sucked into
the urgent more often than necessary. "If the day's controlling me, I have
no power over my destiny."
4. Get some metrics.
"Measurement is the anchor of
reality," Moran says. "Are my actions having the impact I
wanted?" Look for lead results rather than lag indicators, he adds. For
instance, a lag indicator might be increased sales, but if your sales pipeline
is long, it may take a while before you see that result. Such metrics as a
larger number of appointments or more traffic in your store or your website are
lead indicators that a sales increase may be coming, Moran says.
He also advises measuring execution
rather than your results. "Did you do what you said you needed to do to be
where you want to be?" he asks. "We control our actions, not their
outcomes. If I'm not getting the result I need, it's because either the plan is
flawed or the execution is flawed, and 65 percent of the time, the problem is
the execution. Nevertheless, most people go look for a new plan because that's
easier."
5. Take control of your time.
"Most people use their time the
way they save money," Moran says: "If there's any extra time left
over I'll work on strategic goals." But if you want to make progress
toward those goals, you have to take the opposite approach, he says: Carve out time for strategic initiatives and fill in with other tasks
afterward.
"Carve out a time when you turn
off your email, shut off your phone, and lock your door," he advises.
"In those strategic blocks, your ability to concentrate is dramatically
improved. Most of that strategic activity doesn't have a payoff today, but if I
don't carve out that time to do the strategic work, it never happens." And
it's imperative that you find that time for strategic work, he says.
"These are the things that are positioning you for the future."
BY Minda Zetlin
http://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/how-to-increase-your-effectiveness-by-400-percent.html?cid=em01020week02a
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