Achieve More in 2022 - 5 Key Steps

Set your sights - This is the fun part. So enjoy it. Create a clear, articulate vision of what you want the outcome of your year, your business, etc. to be. In business, perhaps that outcome looks like a new building, location, equipment, shift in your lifestyle, your confidence level, reliable staff to carry some of the load. Did you notice that I didn't mention Revenue - not even once? For now, I want you to think of revenue as only a means to something. It's an achievement tool - not an actual achievement. That might need to sink in for a bit. Action: It's really important at this stage that you focus the vision of the "something" first. Think of it as designing your destination. What does that destination look like, feel like. Write it down, dissect it, understand what it really means on different levels, live with it for a bit, change it if necessary. Then get ready to launch.

Reverse Engineer - RE'ing is a very simple, valuable process of figuring what needs to happen in what order to achieve the big picture outcome that you've set your sights on. The fact that the term sounds impressive to your staff and colleagues is just a bonus. Reverse Engineering success is the heart and muscle of achievement. Action: As a leader, consider and capture the contribution of each division / department / team / role of your business in order to achieve the desired organizational outcome (the target). Think of baking a cake. What ingredients do you need, who are your team can deliver each of those ingredients (their contribution). Consider the components of each contributing area; skills of team members, required resources (time, materials, budget...); milestone targets, etc. Once you've created the high level framework, engage your team to further consider the details of exactly what it will take for them to hit their contribution targets. This is a great place to gain the buy-in for the plan and allow each member to understand the value and necessity of their contribution. Build the plan, the expected outcome, the milestones, the accountability framework together with each individual / team. This process, when done well will grow excitement, commitment, and anticipation of good things to come as well a build the structure to keep the organization communicating and on track.

Simple Focus - intense intention for today's action only. Once the navigational steps are laid out, the most necessary and possibly challenging discipline to adopt is the practice and skill of minimizing distraction maintaining intentional focus on the next action. When the focus mindset is leveraged uniformly throughout an organization, the "urgent" interruptions, disruptions, distractions will dissipate - sky-rocketing productivity and morale at the same time - it's a truly beautiful thing. Action: Focus is the discipline of concentration, of discerning the important from the unimportant rather than just the urgent vs non-urgent. The "important" and therefore the ideal subject of focus, is on the very next, most valuable action, that joins together with future next-steps that comprise the full journey to achievement. The discipline of discerning and focusing on the "important" above all else is perhaps the most elusive and powerful keys to meaningful achievement in business. We've been programmed to believe that focus is simple. It is not. It is a skill that requires development, but is well worth the investment.

Individual Record of Progress - you can't get much more straight forward and simple than a simple log of action. The concept is that every contributing individual keeps their own daily records of key planned action vs actual actions taken. While these serve as personal action plan and accountability, they easily roll up decision driving data for you the leader. When expected outcomes are (let's take the positive side of this) far exceeding expectations, analyzing the log of data can identify the source(s) of this "miracle." On the flip side, and one that is too familiar, if outcomes are falling short of expectations, that same data is the source of solutions... "where is progress falling off course," "which methods of execution are underperforming," "what teams are floundering and why," "what resources are underutilized or lacking" and so on. Action: When Reverse Engineering with team members, establish the most valuable points of action that will impact the outcome of their contribution. Those will become data points for each to log. Daily actions and outcomes converting to organizational improvement data. This simple structure gives you the leader the opportunity to see when progress if off track sooner, and allows you to help make adjustments BEFORE targets are actually missed. (see cSuiteAchieve's Leadership Modules on Roll-Up Accountability and ProActive Leadership Navigation of Achievement for more detail)

Learn & Adjust - All the data in the world won't help anyone if it's not leveraged for positive change. As outlined in the previous rationale for keeping an Individual Record of Progress, insight gained through timely and specific data is the ability to drive proactive change with agility, precision, purpose and laser precision. Action: If you want consistent, reliable, confident achievement in your business, this cycle of record, learn, adjust, repeat is the foundational key. Keep it going.