Monthly Archives: January 2016

Non Profits & Small Business – 3 Keys to Finance Basics

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Businesses of all sizes will eventually need to prepare and manage three basic financial statements.  They are included in any comprehensive Business Plan and I will show you how they are commonly used for business strategy and routine Operations Management decisions.  These are the Profit & Loss Statement (P&L), the Balance Sheet, and the Cash Flow Statement.  I admit these can be both intimidating and confusing yet the sooner a business can use these as a compass the sooner they can be financially independent.

They will be asked for by any Business Analyst, Loan Officer, or Financial Advisor of your business so what are they?

Defined

Profit & Loss Statement (P&L) –  Also called an income statement.  This is a consolidated record showing how much you have spent (expenses) and how much you have made in revenue.  The two are calculated showing what your net income is over a specific period of time.  The period of time these show may depend on the industry you are in and typically are either by calander months, fiscal period(typically 28 days), or weekly.  It is also very common to have quarterly P&L showing a consolidated series of numbers that help you determine if it is time to sound the alarm or not.

Balance Sheet – This is a dashboard of your companies overall health.  It provides a summary of the businesses assets, liabilities and net worth.  Essentially the balance sheet tells you what you own and what you owe.  Assets are resources your business controls such as cash, equipment, buildings, furniture, inventory and money owed to you.  Your Liabilities will be the obligations you owe to others such as payroll, taxes,  Accounts payables or loans.  Your net worth is what is left over.

Cash Flow Statement –  This report demonstrates how cash has flowed in and out of your business over that time period.  Typical software programs to produce all of these would be Quicken or  Peachtree if you do your numbers your self (opposed to an Accounting Firm) or for smaller or really savvy businesses Excel works just fine.

How you use them – the 101

P&L – Depending on the scope of your business the P&L Statement can be very complicated or extremely simple.  The key is to have it inclusive of money going in and out of the business over a set period of time.  All expenses should be categorized so that at a glance you can tell why and where they are up or down from a previous period or the “forecast” budgeted amount .  Similar with revenue.  The more information the better because this tool will not only help track history, but it will help you predict future spending in most areas.  The expenses are commonly broken down into two categories; “Controllable and Non Controllable”.  Examples of non controllable expenses would be rent, loans & taxes.  Controllables are pretty much anything you can say “NO” to (much more on that another time).  This report will subtract the expenses from the revenues and show your “net profit” at the bottom.  This is a very important report for the Operations Management team to utilize and if used properly it can be very effective in containing costs and contribute to a positive cash flow for the company.   But it is not all inclusive and needs to be used in conjunction with the other two forms.

Tip – A “best practice” I have all my clients do is when using a P&L is to have all expenses broken down as a percentage of total revenue that is expected.  Manage by using the percentages and not necessarily the dollars on the form.  Ex:  (Forecasted Revenue is always 100%).  Say labor is expected to be 15% of your revenue $.  Then lets say Revenue is down a little.  The manager can either adjust labor or not during that month.  Well if labor comes in at 14% of  projected revenue, you may still be ok in that category.  If labor comes in at 20% because the manager did not use the P&L to make adjustments, then you have lost money.  Same goes for every line on the P&L.  The more information you have, the better your daily decsions could be!

Balance Sheet –  This report is generally broken into a few areas.  Assests will be broken into categories depending on how accessible they are or how quickly you may expect to use them.  “Current or Fixed”  is common terminology.  Current assets, often referred to as “Liquid” means you could use it today if needed (cash, accounts receivables, or short term investments) and are usually listed first.  Followed by Fixed assets which may be a building or equipment you own.  While you could free up money invested in these it may take some time to access it.  Under Fixed assets you are likely to find “Depreciation” which is the amount of money estimated to be used up from the fixed assets. Meaning,  if you had to sell them today, what would they actually be worth?  If you subtract the depreciation from the Fixed assets you will determine how much is available or “net Assets”

Liabilities are listed next and they are everything that the business owes to someone else.  Accounts payable, taxes, loans, wages, etc.  Similar to assets these are also categorized by time frames, although Liabilities are listed by due dates.  If your business has a invoice that has 90 days on it, it won’t be listed on your P&L, but will be listed on your balance sheet.

Both the assets and the liabilities are then subtracted from the assets to determine a businesses “Net worth” or “Owner Equity”.  In short it is a snapshot of what you would have left if you had to sell the business today after you paid everything off that you owed.  Most would agree, it is a good idea to keep an eye on this figure!

Cash Flow Sheet –  depending what type of business you are will determine the frequency in which you use this report.  Any organization that may have an unpredictable revenue stream will rely on it more frequently.  As one Non Profit client put it, “this report essentially shows you how much air you have left”.  This report will not only list what cash is expect to come in and go out of the business, but it calculates a time frame of how long the business could continue should things change drastically.  Generally measured in days weeks or months depending on the size of the Balance Sheet numbers.  In a larger corporate environment this is only reviewed by the most senior level Executives but for Small Businesses and Non Profits, who tend to live “day to day” this can be a helpful report to review quarterly.  Because using just a P&L, like so many companies do, can be deceiving.  It may look like you made money during a specific period but other expenses not appearing on a monthly P&L may come to terms.  Remember the 90 day invoice I mentioned earlier?  Well that may also need to be paid which can throw off your cash accounts.  A Cash Flow sheet would show what will be due and help you plan for it so you don’t become over extended.  As mentioned this is particularly important for many small or seasonal based businesses and pretty much all Non Profits.

As mentioned most software packages on the market will take a lot of the work out of creating these important reports for you.  All it takes is a small time investment to load all the information on a daily basis.  If you prefer to hire an Accounting Firm to get you started, I work with several I would be happy to recommend.  I guarantee that using these standard Financial tools will improve your businesses ability to generate revenue.

For more business basics click here for information on our Business Boot Camp Workshop

Carpe diem!

Ask an Expert – Creating a “Hiring model”

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Stephanie asked-

“I need to hire for a new retail venture in 2016.  When I heard you speak, you referred to a “Model” to use when recruiting.  Where can I find those?”

The “model” needs to be created by you specifically for a position or department.  It is a fairly easy process to develop and one that will pay off in the long run.  It helps build a sustainable workforce well suited to help generate revenue.    A hiring model captures the key strengths and attitudes (skills, personality, work experience and even core values) of an ideal candidate for a particular position.  Stephanie you need to literally make a list ahead of time of what will be needed by a candidate to succeed at this job in your environment.  You can then formulate questions for you or your team (open ended ofcourse) to ask during the interview or simply use the “model” as a litmus test when reviewing a candidate.

Let me break these areas down further and show you how I have used them on Hiring Models and or looked for them during Interviews.  Be sure to read my 3 tips at the end!

Skills –

Hiring Model -really look at what is needed to get the job done proficiently.  Skills simply illustrate someones capabilities and knowledge base.  If you need a person to be extremely detailed, don’t just look for that skill listed in their work experiences, look for it IN the person.

Examples (customer service, computers, time management, organizational, communication, detailed, analytical, etc)

Interview – perhaps their work isn’t a great example of what they can provide. Lets say they also volunteer and run large events for a charity or church, that takes a lot of organization, attention to detail and coordinating,  so they may very well be capable of performing what you need.  That person may have not brought this experience up because it didn’t seem relevant to the job to them or they thought bringing up religion opened the wrong door.    So listen to what they offer in “icebreaker” questions, because you often get great information you can follow up on.  Asking someone to “tell me about yourself” can provide you very useful information that is technically unsolicited (which protects the interviewer).  People often have many skills that may not be used in past work experiences but may help your business.  You challenge in the interview is to find them!

-The better you know what it takes to complete a given job, and the better you can break it down to a set of skills, the higher the chances of finding someone who can excel at their job.

Personality & Attitude-

Hiring Model  – culture is important and culture isn’t found in your book of Policies and Procedures, it is found in the heart of the business on a daily basis.  Personalities help drive your culture and diverse personalities can either strengthen or break down the teams dynamic.  Personalities and attitudes are an important part of your businesses ability to generate revenue.   We have all been on those teams where either someone else on it became our best friend or we found a person that we couldn’t stand and made us want to leave the job .  So how does it fit in the Hiring Model?  Well if you are adding to an existing team,  you need to have an understanding of the interpersonal dynamics on your team.  What type of person do they want to work with?  While it has nothing to do with completing the job, it has a lot to do with how comfortable that person will be with the existing group of workers.  If the person is uncomfortable or makes others uncomfortable, quality and productivity may go down and turnover may go up.  I am not suggesting clones, but similar or complementing styles.  Building a new team for a new venture like Stephanie mentioned is a great time to build a synergistic team because you are hiring everyone at the same time.   Read a case study where this had a huge impact.

Interview – One great way to assess this is to have a “key” employee(s) interview the candidate also.  If all parties think they can work with this person,  you can feel much more comfortable with the “fit”.  Lastly, as a manager you do not manage peoples personalities you manage or correct their behaviors.   You only get one chance to make a decision based on someones personality and that is in the Hiring process.  Terminating based on personality can get a business owner into legal hot water.

Work Experience –

Hiring Model – this one really depends on what job you need filled.  Regulatory or certified level employee’s need a certain level of experience to show they can perform and are competent.   But for most positions, if you focus on a candidates experience you are really focusing on the level of training the past job(s) provided this person and the management staff of each location.  I have seen people work their way through levels of management that weren’t really qualified to even be a supervisor on my team.  Titles are nice but don’t hire primarily on the titles someone has attained.  Many hiring managers falsely assume that experience implies competence.  Competency is what you really need to look for in this category.  In forming your Hiring Mode think about two things;

  1. What do you need this person to be competent at?  Which of the skills you listed will this person need to use most frequently?  Pick the top 2 or 3 and focus on those.
  2. think of the Top companies you may want to see candidates from, or key positions that are similar to what you have available.  You will find particular companies that share Hiring, Training & Development styles with your company, and those typically provide good candidates.

 

Interview – Form questions around how they got those jobs, what they felt they learned while doing them, and how those experiences help them be a better employee today.  Quiz them a little in areas they need to know to do this job to help gauge competency.  Usually in this area you can also get a good sense of what they are like to work with by asking questions around co workers or how they responded to a supervisors feedback.

When assessing professional experiences I always look for progression.  Do they aspire to move up the ladder?  or are they comfortable doing the same thing day in and day out?It is important to match this to your position yet ambition is important to a degree in all candidates because you need your new hire to have ambition in there new position.  Do they seek resources when faced with a challenge or take an easy way out like “just do as I am told” or my favorite “not my job”.  Clearly you need to insure their level of ambition is realistic also, someone who thinks they will be promoted next month may not be what you need!  History WILL repeat itself here I promise.

I strongly recommend questioning about jobs they have had that may not even be pertinent to what you want this person to do.  Ask “how they achieved, why they wanted that, what did they take away from it” and you may be very surprised in what you find.  But do not disqualify someone just because of certian job experiences, this can be a huge mistake for an interviewer.  Sometimes great people have to accept jobs at mediocre companies and often large companies hire and promote people for the wrong reasons, it is just to hard to tell which it is on an application you are looking at.

Lastly, consider how long it may take in the positions listed from a candidate to be competent and what the persons next roll was.  Ultimately think of what accomplishments you would like your candidate to have as it relates to there Work Experiences as a gauge.

Values –

Hiring Model– probably the single most important part of a Hiring model in my opinion.  What are the core values of your company ?  Core values should be a guiding force behind all hiring and firing in your company.  You may have 3 or 15 of these, figuring our which ones may be most beneficial to the position you are hiring for can help build a great  Hiring model.

Some examples of commonly found “Core Values”.

  •  If hiring for a service based position, you may want a person to exhibit “Loyalty” or “Passion to serve others”.
  • Someone who will be working with the public and excepting cash needs to be “Customer Focused” yet firm enough  to “Protect company interests” in the event of a small confrontation.
  • Someone in sales needs to demonstrate “Patience” yet assertive and “Willingness to listen” is critical to close a sale.

If you don’t have these printed on your wall somewhere, jot down single words or small phrases ahead of time to help you keep focused during an interview and give others a better idea of what type of person you are looking for.  Another method that works is to have a tick sheet with you when you interview.  Have all the Core Values as column headers.  Every time you feel someone exhibited that value in your interview(s), mark it down to review later.   Get people talking and telling stories about work, school, or even volunteer work  and you will probably find common links.  The more you hear a particular value the more genuine it usually is.

3 tips on matching your model employee to candidates

  1. Sometimes the best employees are the ones with little “work experience” and huge similarities with the values, personality, and attitude you need in this position.  
  2. Skills can be taught, and I would rather teach someone how to do it then someone else doing it.
  3. Training on Values, Attitude, and Personality won’t happen.  People generally don’t learn these, they only conform to company policy.  Having a natural fit will benefit the workplace greatly.  Assuming you have the means (time, resources, systems, etc) to provide skills train, this can help you build a sustainable workforce the helps generate revenue for your business.

Questions?

 

 

Maximizing Millennial engagement

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Statistically the Millennial/Gen Y’s are the most diverse and the most socially aware generation yet.  If you sell a product or employee more than a few people, you need to have a strategy on how to communicate and engage this growing population.  Doing this correctly will amplify your message, value and ability to generate revenue significantly.

In 2014, 36% of the workforce was comprised of Millennial’s (born 1976-2001) and by 2020 46% of the workforce will be.  A majority of these 80 million adults are in the workforce today.  Of them 64% are reported to ask about social policies of a company during interviews and 24% indicate it as a key factor when accepting a job.

Businesses who adapt messaging, management practices and policy the earliest may win the loyalty of this critical group.  Loyalty translates into engagement and retention, and is a great motivator.  In my personal experience, this is the most savvy and hardest working generation that I have managed.  In my 25 years of management I have managed boomers, Gen X, Y /Millenials and each clearly have different values and goals.  Building a program around a workforce’s values and goals so they feel as though they are contributing may be the best motivator.  Read a case study

Synergy seldom happens through “old school” management. 

The common denominator for attracting this group as followers is through the corporate leadership strategy.  One thing needed is that a Millenial generally needs to feel comfortable that a company is adding to society in some way.  This is vital for recruiting and this workforce may be the most productive group to date, so some companies need to rethink the benefits they offer.  The Benefits program is where the money comes from for many companies that offer the types of programs that attract this workforce.  The trend to decrease company match in 401K’s by a point or two, decreasing vacation or sick days, even eliminating cafeterias in the building frees up finances to point towards newer benefits that are more valuable to this generations.  Benefits exist to attract workforce, they(benefits)are an added value to working for a particular company.

How to attract or engage this group? – Learn from Disney

Walt Disney was not exactly known for taking care of his employee’s.  Early strikes from artists nearly shut down his studio.  Yet, he taught us the key to managing the millennial population…….

In the mid to late 1980’s the restaurant industry saw how important it was to not only serve food quickly to their guests but they realized the value of creating an “experience” for there patrons.  Theme restaurants boomed and dominated the industry.  This started with Ground Round and TGI Frdays but was perfected by Applebee’s.  Applebee’s International grew to over 1400 restaurants worldwide in record time and they did it by creating an “experience” the diner was comfortable with.  When the kids say “lets go to Applebee’s”, parents generally didn’t argue.  This was all inspired by the “experience” the guest received when going to a Disney theme park.  Roy Disney understood the importance of creating an escape and what a lasting impression it made.  If you focus efforts on executing the “experience”, loyalty will follow.

After Lloyd Hill popularized the “customer experience” motif with Applebee’s, the Healthcare industry was next.  To this day most hospitals place a great emphasis on the “Patient Experience”.  There have been departments created around tracking it with surveys, hour upon hour of staff training, and the bed side visit has been completely re-scripted, and it has all worked!  Studies show that hospitals that create the best overall “experience” for the patient have less open beds than those that don’t and they have a greater number of Outpatient procedures booked while also enjoying a much lower cancellation rate.  When the healthcare industry shifted it focus to the “experience” of their guests, it increased loyalty.

Many businesses need to start focusing on what I call the “Employee experience”  and go to lengths to include it as part of the culture.  Millenials grew up knowing this environment as the norm.  Everywhere they went someone was competing for them to have the best experience, so why should work be any different?  Focusing your company on the “employee experience” will increase engagement, productivity and satisfaction and isn’t that what you want?  One of the Core Values of Applebee’s was “Fun”.  That’s not only cool, I guarantee it works by building employee loyalty.

Whether you are looking to recruit or promote sales; here are                          5 tips to engage this group and start creating a successful         “Experience”
  1. Speak to a flexible workplace, environment and culture
  2. Demonstrate dedication to career growth through support, feedback and goal setting
  3. Boast a culture of collaboration
  4. Design opportunities to contribute to society both as individuals and as a corporate structure
  5. Competitive Compensation structure

 

Bonus – #3 is worth repeating, it is that important – Promote a climate of leadership and development, this group doesn’t respond well to being managed and micromanaged.

In my experience Millenial/Gen Y’s are attracted to a company for what I mentioned in the first part of this blog, and choose to leave because of one or more of the bottom 5 points.  Incorporate those points into your culture, manage this group by results and mentor them so they succeed and you will be as amazed as I at how this will help your company build loyalty and generate the revenue you were hoping for.

 

Carpe diem!

Progressive Discipline – A great coaching tool

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The first role of a Leader is to effectively communicate.  A great leader will recognize the variety of ways they have to communicate.  Conversely, an employee wants to follow someone that knows where they are going.  Employees only want a few things out of a job, certainly pay and stability, but employees also want to contribute, they want to make sure they are doing a good job.  Training, Coaching and development tools are often used while Onboarding a new employee, but once that 90 day grace period is up how corrections are communicated are critical to developing each employee.

Many I have spoken with view the Progressive Discipline process as a means to an end.  “It’s how you fire someone, right?”  It is looked at a tool to document when employees have not performed, broken policy or exhibit unacceptable behavior.  While this is true, it does all that, the Progressive Discipline process is a much greater tool to both employees and management.

Progressive Discipline is a great coaching tool

The Progressive Discipline process dates back to the 1930’s and was instituted as a way for EMPLOYEES to know that a business would treat them fairly.  This is a policy that is designed to protect individuals from being treated differently than others with in that company and it holds all parties (both management & employees) accountable.  It is a process that forces a supervisor to be progressive with both coaching and accountability, thus improving leadership with in an organization.  A process that levels the playing field for employees because it assures them they are not being singled out and that everyone would be treated consistently.  Lastly, it is a process that should teach and hold all employees accountable for job performance, following company policy, and matters relating to company culture or work environment.

One problem is that employees generally first hear of this policy when they are in trouble.  It is referred to by the “boss” who says that “HR is making me do this, sign here”.  This is lazy management in my opinion.  I became notorious for conducting a very long employee orientation class wherever I have worked.  It is the best way to set expectations(but more on that another time).  I ALWAYS go into detail about the Progressive Discipline policy and that it is there for their protection, and I can tell you that people like hearing that.

What is Progressive Discipline?  – a quick overview

A Progressive Discipline policy exists in most companies and is usually found in the Human Resource Policy and Procedures.  It states that when employees exhibit certain actions or behaviors contrary to policy, regulations or municipal laws that the company will respond in a specific way.  Most occurrences fall under a “Progressive” category and most policy’s also list certain actions that could mean immediate discharge.  I like to refer to that section “the deadly sins” because most people understand that severe consequence are associated with it.

For the instances that fall under a progressive category, the policy outlines a course of action to take each one being more severe than the last, hence “progressive”.  This is for 2 reasons.  To guide the managers and to inform the employee of potential consequence.  The law is clear to state that the business needs to inform an employee of the consequence should they repeat that action.  Failing to do so will likely mean that you could lose in court if sued by the employee.  Losing in court can cost you a lot of money (and pride) and the court is generally on the side of the employee, so you better be prepared.  Here is a generally accepted hierarchy of the progressive steps taken.

First offense – Simple conversation, nothing for the employee to sign.  But a pointed conversation stating what was wrong and what will happen if it happens again.  Once you have done this, it is up to the employee to manage their own actions.

TIP – The manager should make notes to “record” this conversation.  You may have to prove down the road that you had this conversation and accurate notes are the accepted medium of proof.  Date and time should be included.

Second offense – Generally called a “Verbal Warning”.  This is the first official session.  You sit with the employee in a private location.  Make sure their privacy is secure and respected.  You reiterate that you spoke about this before (time & date), and that it happened again which is why you are speaking.  This time you will have something in writing speaking to the policy they broke if possible.  Again, you state what happened and what the next step will be if they repeat the action.

Third offense – Escalates to a “Written Warning”.  Same process, tell them what other times they were spoken to about this, that they did it again, and what will happen should it occur again.

In each of these instances do not scold the employee.  This is not emotional, it should be very matter of fact.  You did this, your not supposed to do that, if you do it again then this will happen.  Do you understand, thank you bye bye.  Raising your voice, using gestures or even looking angry can look bad in a court of law.  Be smart.

Each company’s policy may be different as to how many chances an employee will get prior to the last warning.  Smaller companies may terminate on second written warning, larger companies may wait until 3rd written warning and it may require a managers superior being involved.  This is for the employees protection.  It ensures that multiple people in the company are in agreement that it is a justified action.  It makes it more difficult for a manager to terminate an employee, thus creating more protection.

So why is this a good Coaching tool?
  1. This is designed to insure that an employee knows what is expected and gives ample time to correct the behavior in question.  During this time the supervisor should not be looking at this as discipline but as a corrective tool.  Perhaps it identifies where additional training is needed or makes them reassess job responsibilities and workloads.  The supervisor wants the employees to succeed in completing their tasks on time and is held accountable by their supervisor for doing so.  Clearly the supervisor should have a vested interest in making whatever happened not repeat.  This process helps clarify expectations to the employee and is a Leadership “best practice  “ It is really just an opportunity for training.
  2. Other employees are aware long before management that someone is not doing there job correctly.  They are upset by this because they work hard to meet the standards but this other person “gets away” with not doing the same.  Correcting that problem WILL be noticed by other employee’s, guaranteed.  Of course, you never tell the other employees that you wrote someone up, they notice because the problem went away.  This sends a message that all the rules/policies apply to all of the employees.
  3. Discussion of a particular policy (what ever you had to address) often leads to discussion of other policies.  The employee may come to you with questions on another policy or standard.  Welcome this, it is good discussion and will increase everyones awareness of policies.  Policies are the expectations of the company and discussing expectations is clear leadership.  Discussion leads to conformity, and conformity generally means employees are more productive.
  4. This process will create open communication in the workplace
  5. Open communication tends to decrease turnover
  6. If a team is properly Coached it tends to be more effiecient, which saves money
The Downside of the Progressive Discipline process
  1. Time demanding
  2. Must be consistently utilized throughout organization
  3. Easy for Managers to misuse
  4. Employees can “play” the system
  5. Needs an in-house examiner for escalations and approvals
  6. Can negatively affect Unemployment Insurance when not consistent
Advantages of the Progressive Discipline process
  1. Increases productivity
  2. Decreases turnover and avoids expensive replacement costs
  3. Lays the groundwork for defensible employee terminations by recording history
  4. Allows an accepted way for earlier intervention at first sign a problem is developing

Progressive Discipline is more of a mindset than a policy and it should be part of the culture in an organization.

CEO’s I work with are amazed at how many of their managers don’t know how to use this. It’s in the policy book and assumed to be used.  This is seldom even thought of until a problem erupts and then the policy is referred to like everyone uses it.  It needs to be developed into daily interactions rather than a way to rectify a problem employee in order to be effective.  Lastly, as with most of what I post, utilizing this tool effectively is directly related to your businesses ability to generate revenue.  It helps you get the most from your staff and is well worth the time investment needed.

Few other tools help you manage THE most important aspect of your business effectively as the Progressive Discipline policy.

 

When incorporated into a culture, it vastly improves accountability and believe me, everyone is watching.  Correction is part of training and development and is often a process.  If your organization can approach this as a tool that you can use to Coach your team better rather than a series of signatures needed prior to a termination you, your employees and the organization will be much better off.

 

This is a large topic yet I only touched on it here, you are welcome to contact me with any questions.

Carpe diem!

 

Why Goals Fail

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Being a “realist” helps create worthy goals and many confuse what they wish to accomplish as the targeted goal in place of what will actually have a valuable contribution or a permanent solution to the issue.  Many look at problem solving as a bandaid, as a method to get them by or kick the can rather than finding the root cause to eliminating the issue.  The only real solution is to stop a problem at its source and many spend their time on goals that don’t address the problem at its source, they focus on various symptoms.

Having been inundated with blogs and newsletters  since the end of December about how to manage yourself to create goals, I felt the need to tell you why most of what you have read this year falls short and that if you follow them, how your goals may fall short also.

There are really only a few steps in the process of goal setting but before any of it starts you need to ensure two things;

    1) Is the person looking at the problem able to see the root cause?

    2)  Does the proposed goal eliminate the root cause of the problem?

If not, go back and keep trying until you can answer yes to both.

Once you have a worthy goal, use the old but proven “S.M.A.R.T. Goal” acronym for planning your goal.  I am sure you know the one; Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time based. It not only works, it works really well.  Don’t try to reinvent the wheel looking for a quicker, easier, or sexier way.  This has been used by the largest, most efficient companies throughout the world for decades, yet some blogger somewhere has come up with a new, better way?  Even if it sounds boring, do it the proven way because at the end of the day (or year)

it’s about the results isn’t it?

The last thing you need and the reason why your goals may fail this year boils down to one word: accountability.  Who is holding you accountable for these?  Yourself, a Supervisor, a spouse?  While we don’t like to believe this, few of us have the self discipline to make sure we follow the plans we make to the letter.  It is easy (and human) to make adjustments as you go which changes a goal and lessens the positive effect these actions will ultimately have on you, your business or your family.  Some how you feel justified doing it at the time, but at the end of the year, the problem still exists. You’ve either shifted your goal or accomplished part of it and let yourself off the hook.

A partial goal should be considered a failure.  If not, why set the goal in the first place?

Being accountable to someone changes that by increasing the rate of success.

Questioning someone on the progress of a planned goal makes them pay attention.  It is human nature to not feel comfortable when reporting that you did not complete something.  Discussing the obstacles you encounter with an Accountability Partner can help considerably to keep you on track.  When goal setting with my clients or employee’s I always recommend an “Accountability Partner”(usually me, but I can be tough) someone to periodically report milestones to or be questioned by to help maintain the focus on results.  A good Accountability Partner will continually ask about results even if you didn’t have any at the last meeting.  They don’t need to be an expert on the subject, they just need to follow up and get you talking about it.  Think squeaky wheel…

Easy right? Here is a recap-

You want your goals to work?  Remember these 3 things

  • Does the goal solve the problem?
  • Is it planned correctly (SMART)
  • Is it managed correctly (Accountability)

 

Carpe diem!

 

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