Last week we had our annual ANZAC coaching conference with a number of excellent national and international speakers. The theme of the conference was Adaptability. In reflecting on the many messages around adaptability that each speaker shared, there was one thing that really stood out for me. That one thing was, your own internal ability to become really focused on the thing that you are aiming to achieve .
When you become single mindedly focused with purpose and passion in achieving a goal you can adapt to any challenge that presents itself and easily move mountains and roadblocks on that journey. We see this happen time and time again with high achievers. Let me give an example …
Several years ago I was approached by a business owner who was wanting to sell their business and move back to their Home Country. Their goal was to achieve this in the next three months. Upon asking a number of questions, we quickly established that selling the business in three months would be a huge ask, especially as it was not completely set up to run without them.
After a few more questions, we quickly identified that it would be more relevant to set the business up to run under management in the short term and then place the business on the market in 12 to 18 months time. This would give the business time to settle into being run under management and provide a much better proposition for potential investors to invest in the business.
The business owner quickly made a decision that this was indeed the best path to follow and asked me to work with them to achieve the goal of having the business being run under management within three months. In finalising the review of what was needed to be done to achieve this goal, we identified that it was essentially systems that needed to be developed and implemented as the structure of the business and its operations was working very well.
We focused on the nine steps to systematising the business to achieve this goal.
Step 1 Vision - defining the big picture of what the business looks like when it is finished, the vision is the goal that all team members understand and a striving to achieve
Step 2 Mission - the mission statement states how the business is going to accomplish its vision
Step 3 Culture Statement - this defines the culture that you are establishing in the business based on the owner's values and beliefs. It is also used to define the rules of the game that all team members play by
Step 4 Goals - setting the longer term three to five year goals and then breaking those down into 12 month and 90 day goals that are broken down to smaller goals in achieving the longer term goals and results
Step 5 Organisational Chart - this is about defining the positions that the business will need, 5 plus years out
Step 6 Positional Contracts - clearly defining what each team member's responsibilities are and what part they play in the overall operation of the business
Step 7 KPI's - establishing suitable KPI's that will enable the owner to see how the business is running at a glance. KPI's should be limited to five and no more than 10 in each area of finance, operations and individual team member KPI's
Step 8 SOP's - establish standard operating procedures (SOP's) to ensure that everyone is doing the same task the same way. SOP's also become an effective training tool
Step 9 Management Systems - utilising technology to systematise the routine whilst humanising the exceptions, for example bookkeeping systems, project management systems etc.
Once we had established the ‘Right Things’ that the business owner needed to apply their Focus, Energy and Attention to, the desired results were quickly achieved. With the right focus, energy and attention combined with the purpose and passion for achieving the goal of returning to their Home Country ,the business owner achieved a goal within their time frame of three months.
Over the years I have seen numerous examples where business owners have achieved outstanding results when they have applied Purpose and Passion in achieving their goals, no matter how far out of their comfort zone they may have had to go.
We all have a Choice on how much and how quickly we can achieve our goals by choosing the degree of Purpose and Passion that we apply to the specific Goal. When we really NEED something to happen, we can and will move mountains to make it happen.
My question for you is: ‘ Why don’t we approach every day and every goal, with the same high degree of Purpose and Passion?’ I would love to see your comments on this subject …