Month: January 2015

Some people say that achieving goals is the hardest part of the process and they could be right.

However, if you set your goals correctly, (for tips on how to do this, go to ‘Setting your Goal: The Know How’ in the blog section of the website) then achieving goals become easier because you will be motivated enough to achieve your goals especially in business if you have underlying personal goals.

Having set your goals correctly, achieving them becomes the important step, they will not happen just by thinking about it…although this helps! A great way to maintain focus is to get them written up and stick them somewhere that you see frequently as this will remind you.

Even if you don’t stick them on the wall etc, make sure they are written down as this will cement them into your everyday reality.

Having established your goals, you need to think about the key things that need to be done to achieve your goals. These will be your objectives. They are broad, brush statements and the things you need to do or the processes you need in place that will enable you to achieve your goals. For example; if you need to increase the number of customers in your business in order to achieve your goals, then the key objective would be to have a robust sales process in place. In most cases, you would be trying to identify five or six key objectives, which if acted upon, would result in you achieving your goal.

Having done this you should ask yourself one more question and that would be “what would stop me from achieving my goals?” these are the constraints or challenges you will face along the way to completion. By asking questions like this you should be able to identify two or three areas that if not dealt with, will stop you achieving your goals. A common constraint in the business that would definitely stop you achieving your goals would be a poor cash flow.

So this is actually throwing up two or three more objectives because the constraint would then result in finding more objectives that need to be acted upon within the business. Constraint of poor cash flow would result in an objective of putting in a proper credit control process.

This system of setting objectives i.e. things you need to do in order to achieve the goal, also applies to personal goals, for example if one of your personal goals was to buy a large house in the country, you would need to have some objectives in place to identify an area to live in and maybe objectives to generate a large enough deposit etc.

If you feel you need any more help with knowing where to start when it comes to achieving your goals then please get in contact with me at doug@exec-tc.com.

Just before Christmas I explained how you could go about setting yourself goals and how to make them reachable. In this blog I will explain how a simple technique can help you to achieve the goal
you have set yourself in the New Year.

This particular support method has helped me in the past and so by passing it on and sharing with you, I hope it will do the same for you!

 I have found that many people set themselves goals but don’t tell anyone else about them; this may seem like an insignificant detail but actually it may mean the difference between achieving your
goals and losing focus.

There are many situations in life where we set ourselves personal
 goals, for example: losing weight, quitting smoking and many may agree that going to the gym or quitting smoking with a friend is preferable than going it alone. By telling a friend or family member, it is akin to having constant motivation to keep the goal alive and successful. Loved ones can help maintain focus, check up on us when we may slack off or just to provide a reassuring ‘well done’ along the way.

For truly personal goals like losing weight, telling friends and family is fine, however for goals in your working life then the next suggestion may be more beneficial to you than just
telling family and friends alone. It may be better to tell people who are in the business world as well and who can make constructive criticism without being partial in any way.

I, personally have used this technique for a while now and found that it keeps me focussed, balanced and gives me a ‘positive pressure’ (almost like a sweet but firm nudge to keep me at it!) and
 so I recommend this to you all.

This technique is called ‘Masterminding’, some of you may have heard me speak about this but I’d like to really explain what it is and how it can be beneficial to you.

So what is Masterminding?

A Mastermind group is a group of five or six individuals who can be considered peers in terms of having broadly similar experience and career achievements. The group generally meets
regularly, maybe every month or two. The meetings are treated formally – as if it were a meeting with a major client – and social discussion is kept to a minimum to maximise the benefit aspect.

Every group member has an opportunity to discuss with the group what their goals are, and what targets they need to hit to achieve the goals. They also share with the group what problems and constraints stand in the way of the targets being met. Because they understand your business, but are detached from it, the other group members can think objectively and give you helpful suggestions.

Importantly, after you have received the suggestions from the group, you commit to implementing at least one, and report back at the next meeting on what progress you have made.

The commitment is the critical part: this maybe the only time that you, as a business owner, are held accountable to another person or group, and this is what will drive you to achieve. It also helps if the meeting summary and goals is written down and handed out to members at the end as this reinforces the goals in people’s minds and ensures completion.



What are the general characteristics of a really effective Mastermind group

The participants are people that like and trust each other, but they aren’t just a group of good friends or people that normally meet in a social rather than business context. This is important because they have to be able to be honest and objective, rather than bias or too kind to critique.

 There are no conflicts of interest among the members, so they should not be suppliers, or clients of one another, or members of the same organisation. Again, this is so there are no circumstances in which the members are tempted to be bias.

So, tell others about your goals and get them to hold you accountable to achieve them!

If you would like more tips on how to set up an effective Mastermind
team then please contact me at doug@exec-tc.com.