Goal Focus

Lesson Fourteen

I did a program once with former heavyweight champion George Foreman.  Even though he is the former champion, I still called him Champ.  As we had lunch together that day, I studied his nose from across the table.  A heavyweight boxer’s nose is a work of art.  George Foreman’s nose is a monument to goal orientation.  It has been sculpted by some of the strongest, meanest punchers ever to step into a ring.  I wondered how any man could endure the incredible pain that George Foreman must have endured with so many heavyweight boxers hammering on his nose over the years, so I asked him. 

"If I see what I want real good," he answered.  "I don't notice any pain in gettin' it."

A new reality is an achieved goal.  We are headed into the future at the same rate the second hand sweeps around the clock, whether we like it or not.  We can’t hold back time.  So, given that the future is coming, how are we endeavoring to shape it?  What are we doing now that will leave our mark on our future?  Here are my steps to shaping a new reality:

Visualize Your Goal Vividly  

You must clearly see what you are intending toward.  Generalizations about your intended goals do you no good.  The greater the clarity of your vision, the more focused and efficient your efforts toward it will be.  The more diffused your vision, the less efficient your efforts will be.  I don’t know of anyone who gains value through wasted effort.

Break Your Goal Down into Doable Daily Tasks

When goals loom enormous on the horizon, it’s natural to feel intimidated and to become reluctant to even approach them.  Be realistic about what a human being can accomplish in a day and don’t expect any more of yourself or others.  Realizing goals is far less dramatic that way, but you will eventually get there.

Act on Your Goals Every Day

I'm not suggesting that you work seven days per week.  But, don’t let a workday go by without taking even a small step toward a specific goal.  Progress is progress, no matter how small, and the feeling of accomplishment is just as sweet in many small doses as it is in one large one.  However, breaking the task down into smaller disappointments will not minimize the feeling of disappointment at never achieving the big goal.

Here are some of my guidelines for goal achievement:

·      Make sure your goals are measurable, realistic, and challenging.

·      Write down your goals and divide them into short-, mid-, or long-term categories.

·      Set a timetable for achievement, begin and don't stop, concentrate on results, and celebrate when a goal is achieved.   Then immediately replace it with a new goal.

"If you don't know what to do on a daily basis to

achieve your goal, then it is not a goal--it's a fantasy.”

Set Goals When the Heat's On

 Lesson 13

Come back a few years and picture you and me standing beside my fighter that is capable of speeds near twice the speed of sound.  You’re about ready to crawl into the rear cockpit for a ride with me as your pilot-in-command.  Before climbing up the side of this sleek, needle nosed, high performance fighter, you might have a few questions.  The first is, “Which way are we going to take off?”

“We’re parked in this direction," I answer.  "We might as well take off the same way."

“Which way are we going to go once we’re airborne?” you ask.

“This direction’s as good as the other 359 available to us,” I respond.

“How high are we going to go?”

“Until the jet quits climbing.”

“How far are we going to go?”

“I guess until we run out of fuel.”

That’s when you would quit using the word “we” and instead ask, “What are you going to do when you run out of fuel?”

“Maybe there’ll be an air field under us.”

Then you’d ask, “What if there isn’t?”

My response would be, “Look, I don’t even want to think about that! Go ahead and get in.”

Would you?  I don’t think so.

Many managers plan like that and can’t figure out why they can’t get a long-term commitment from their team.  To build a strong, committed high performance team, each individual must be able to describe in detail what the leaders’ vision is for the organization and how it will be accomplished.  Equally important is the vision the team members have for themselves.  

        

The vision we invite our people to share with us is the future as it best suits the organization and the people who make up the organization.  Helping your people experience the future through their own eyes is critical to effective leadership.  Do you know what you’re working for?  Can you see it in great detail?  If you can’t, how can you help your people to see what they’re working for?  Helping your people truly see what they’re working for is one of the greatest, life-long gifts you can ever give them. 

The great Mad Magazine cover boy philosopher, Alfred E. Newman, said, “Most folks don’t know what they want, but they’re pretty sure they don’t have it.”  Leading your team blindly without clear goals renders all of your sophisticated navigation equipment useless.  Being driven by a sense of dissatisfaction with the present is not enough if there is no clear course established.  A clearly charted course or plan is the second best thing to having a distinct goal. With a clearly charted course, you and your organization know in which direction you want to go.  You are intending toward something, even if the something is not well defined.

Here are four important questions that will help you get started in setting goals:

·      What do I really want?

·      What will it cost me in time, money, and energy?

·      Am I willing to pay that price?

·      When should I start paying the price?

“Deciding not to have a specific goal is a specific goal.”

Continue to Grow as a Leader

Continue to Grow as a Leader

Lesson 12

Right now, I’m extending my arm four to six years into the future and plucking something out to give you.  It's the Yellow Pages from the future.  For some people, it’s the stock exchange index or Dunn and Bradstreet directory.  For many, it’s the company organization chart.  Is your name listed?  In what capacity?  Are you surprised at what you see?  If you have a sense of urgency about growth and effectiveness as a leader, you and your organization should be in a prominent position.  If you don’t, chances are good that there won’t be a trace of you left.  Your attitude, shaped by your sense of urgency, will be largely responsible for producing the results you’re looking for.

Do you have room to grow?  Look at it this way: what are your team members saying about you to their spouses and children at home?  You're not a topic of conversation.  You're the topic of conversation.  When someone comes to work for you, he or she is essentially laying his or her life on your desk and saying, “I trust you and this organization to do right by me and my family.”  That is a heavy responsibility.  If that person wastes a year or two of his or her life, that time will never be recovered.  People’s lives should be enhanced and opportunities should abound for them and their families because they had the good sense to come to work for you.  Working successfully with you can mean a college education for the kids or simply an overall quality of life they might not otherwise enjoy.  Your effectiveness as a leader affects people’s lives. 

A strong desire to do the right thing, beginning with ourselves and permeating every personal and professional relationship we have, marks our commitment to excellence.  A healthy discontent for the way things are is like a little burr under the saddle making it slightly uncomfortable to sit back and coast.  When Walt Disney told his people not to rest on their laurels, it was because he was a leader who understood the consequences of complacency.  Constantly looking for new directions and ways to improve what we’re doing doesn’t need to spoil the pride and sense of accomplishment that comes from a job well done.  But, we must continue to grow in new directions.

Walt Disney illustrated the need to constantly scan the horizon for growth opportunities when he resisted his advisers’ urging to produce a sequel to the enormously successful Three Little Pigs.  They pressured him and he reluctantly agreed.  After the sequel turned out to be a box office bust, Disney called his advisers together and announced a new law that is heard around the Disney organization to this very day.  "You can’t top pigs with pigs.”

Invest some time and energy in developing the following three important leadership characteristics:

• Develop a sense of urgency.
• Develop a healthy discontent with the way things are.
• Develop an appreciation for the awesome responsibilities of leadership.

“An organization will never rise above the quality of its leadership.”  NEVER.

The Leader as an Effective Motivator

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Lesson 11

Motivation is the by-product of desire.  Desire and motivation can’t be separated.  They are always at the same level.  Motivation, true motivation, can't be cranked up any higher than the level of desire.  To best understand how desire increases, and motivation along with it, you must know the three levels of motivation.

Level One: COMPLIANCE

The lowest level is compliance.  Compliance is doing something because you were told to, without much motivation or personal desire.  Character is not built at the compliance level. 

·      "Because I said so," is about all of the management ability needed to get somebody to Level One.  Simply order the person around as if s/he can’t think or reason for himself or herself and has no special ability or investment in getting the job done other than to avoid being fired. 

Level Two: GOAL IDENTIFICATION

The next higher level is identification with the goal.  Identification gives the individual a feeling of investment in the goal and produces increased desire and motivation. 

·      To help people reach Level Two, you must clearly and simply communicate the benefits of achieving the goal.  Discuss with them why the job needs to be done and how it is in the best interest for all to do it well.  When there is something to gain, people invest more.  Many a company turnaround has started at this level.

Level Three: COMMITMENT

The highest level of motivation is commitment.  There is no greater motivation than when someone feels the goal is truly their own.

·      To reach Level Three, a person needs to understand why she is uniquely suited for the task.  Show that person how his or her strengths (not yours) can be used to help achieve their part of the goal.  Not only will that person feel there is a personal benefit for a job well done, she or he will also bring a part of himself or herself to the job.

Nobody in your organization will be able to sustain a level of motivation higher than you have as the leader.  These three activities will help you motivate to the next highest level:

·      List each of your team members on the level of motivation you feel they're on.

·      Find out from each team member what his or her personal goals are keeping in mind that if they'll work on personal goals they are more apt to work on company goals.

·      Coach each person, using the individual strengths you now know that each has, to achieve the desired personal or company goal.

“We’re tied by straw and think it’s chain.”

Building a High Performance Team Part 2 of 2

Lesson 10

While still out on the beach, I laid out a plan.  After listing the people in order by respect, I drew two columns.  The first column was labeled, Weaknesses.  This column can get very long, very quickly because we notice weaknesses first and then have a tendency to concentrate on them.  You might ask, "Why write down all those terribly negative things?"  This list will become a map through the minefield.

The other column was labeled, Strengths.  I stared at the blank column and it stared back at me.  It was as though I had writers block.  Perhaps I hated to admit this person had any.  But, she was the most respected person in the office.  She had to have strengths.  I forced myself to concentrate on her strengths, which included mathematical ability, loyalty to the company, a good sense of humor, an appreciation for the finer things in life, and so on. 

Things I wouldn’t have necessarily associated with strengths on the job began to add up.  I began to realize the things that added strength to a person as a whole were strengths he or she could apply to his or her job.  My focus began to shift from the huge pile of weaknesses to the huge stack of strengths just beside it within each person.  The old dog was learning a new trick.

Once I realized how many strengths this woman had, strengths that weren’t being recognized or put to use in our organization, I was bursting at the seams with enthusiasm the next time I had the chance to talk to her strengths.  The strengths column was as long as the weaknesses column.  She immediately noticed I was enthusiastic about her potential.  I reflected back to her the things she felt were important and valuable.  What she thought and felt became my priority instead of ramming my priorities down her throat. 

We can transplant hearts and other vital organs from one person to another, but we can’t transplant strengths.  Nevertheless, managers and parents try every day and there has never been a successful operation.  Our job, therefore, is to be a catalyst between their strengths and the way we'd like to see the job done.  You’ll keep adding to both lists over time. 

A word of caution: The responsible leader does not leave these lists lying around the office.  This is an exercise for you and you alone.  Keep your lists at home.  Each evening take only a few minutes to pick a couple of your team members from your chart to connect with individually the next day in a coaching session.  Select one or two of the strengths from their individual lists that you can show them how to use more of in some part of their jobs.  Here are some ways to get started:

• Make a list of the most respected person's weaknesses and a second list of the same person's strengths.
• Keep in mind that the second list will be more difficult because of the long-term propensity to focus on weaknesses.
• Lay out a coaching strategy for each person, based on your awareness of their weaknesses, but emphasizing communication with their strengths.

“Be aware of their weaknesses, but talk to their strengths.”

Building a High Performance Team - Part 1 of 2

         Lesson 9

When my boss announced that the search for my replacement was on, I did what any sane and logical manager would have done.  I went to the beach.  My salespeople needed some breathing space, as much as I needed to be alone with my thoughts, the waves, the sand, and a legal pad of paper.  That's where I realized that there was a barrier or fence in my organization.  My people were on one side of the fence and I was on the other.  And the fence looked different, depending on which side you were on.  With this revelation came my first major team-building technique.

There was only one uniting factor in all of the people on the other side of the fence.  They all hated me.  It wasn’t a healthy bond, but it was strong.  I needed to end our segregation.  I could have invoked the power of my position and ordered my people to join me on my side of the fence.  But, I knew that yelling at people doesn't produce real cooperation.  Another option available to me was to crawl over to their side of the fence and try to recreate the wonderful camaraderie we had when I first came on board as the new sales person and they took me under their collective wing.  But, that wouldn’t be leadership either.

Then I realized that I was not going to reunite with all of my people at one time.  At best, I was only going to earn their trust on an individual-by-individual basis.  My first thought was to go after the highest producer in the office.  But, something told me that could foster professional jealousy among the other team members.  The situation could become even more divisive.  I needed to get someone over on my side of the fence that the others would listen to.

It dawned on me that the most influential member of the team was the person whom the others respected the most--not necessarily the superstar--but the person most respected by his or her peers.  Using this new criteria, I rated my team members starting with the most respected, the next most respected and so on.  I was incorporating the values of my people into my thinking.  The ratings I used were their ratings, not mine. 

So, I went to work on the number one most respected person on my list.  Before long, that person was actually saying some decent things about me.  Why?  Because that person was beginning to truly feel as if I was open and receptive to the team’s way of thinking.  Soon, number two on my list headed for my side of the fence, then numbers three, four, and so on.  Once I won about a third of the people over, the most respected third, others started heading my way from the far side of the fence.  Your people vote every day to decide which side of the fence to be on.

Here's how to get started on the Fence Technique: 

• Determine who is the most respected among my team members.
• Identify which qualities make this person so trusted.
• Rank your team members in order of peer respect, but keep the list for your eyes only.

“Determination makes failure impossible.”

Take Steps to Grow as a Leader

	Lesson 8

You shouldn’t wait to start learning how successful leaders think and act until your boss tells you he or she is looking for your replacement.  If I had known then what I know now, my boss would have never come in and set my pants on fire.  I would have paid $10,000 for a single copy of this book back then.  Maybe even twice that.

The way others successfully handle pressure can be an education and ensure that you’ll never have to experience similar situations.  When we observe someone who never seems to be on the hot seat, it might well be that, while we were scrambling around with our nose to the grindstone, that person’s head was up where he or she could look around and learn a thing or two from other people’s experiences.  A head that’s up and looking around means:

• Attending seminars, live or on-line
• Reading books, magazines, and newspapers
• Taking to lunch people from whom you can learn
• Monitoring your own people for things you can learn
• Gobbling up audio/video multimedia training programs
• Regularly analyze what’s working and what isn’t

      

It’s not enough to merely study.  True learning is the application of knowledge.  Things get exciting for everybody when successful techniques are put into practice.  Keeping all of your great new knowledge in your head won’t do a thing to increase productivity.  I speak three to five times every week, all over North America plus a few other countries, and I've never been in front of an audience that didn’t have at least a few educated failures.  Some of them possess enormous amounts of information about the latest leadership methods, yet they’re stagnated or failing.  When I ask them how many of the new techniques and strategies they have incorporated into their organization’s daily routines, they hesitate to answer.  The truth hurts.  The fact is that most of us leave a gap between how we do our jobs and the way we know how to do our jobs.

How did you score yourself on the ten earlier leadership characteristics?  Using a scale 1-10 with 10 being highest, go back and score yourself again the way your people would probably rate you as a leader.  See yourself through their eyes.  If you’re gutsy, you might want one or more of your people who have read that chapter to do the rating.  The score your people give you is the real one.  You're only as effective as your people’s perception of you.  The rating the staff gives their leader is always the most accurate measure of effectiveness. 

Here are three tough questions to ask yourself.  Journal your answers:

• If I were to ask my team members to graph out the improvement they've seen from me as a leader of people in the past year, what would the graph look like?
• What do I need to start planning in order to grow as a leader in the next twelve months?
• Where has my leadership solved a problem and what did I learn from it?

"Take a mentor to lunch before somebody else eats yours!"