Posts Tagged ‘Goals’

The Forest and the Trees

April 5th, 2010

How many times have we heard the expres­sion “you can’t see the for­est for the trees?”

I have worked with man­agers, includ­ing chief exec­u­tives, who stug­gle to see the big pic­ture and keep con­sis­tent focus on their over­all goals and busi­ness strat­egy. They become so immersed in day-to-day oper­a­tions that they don’t take time to sit back and view the landscape.

Most man­agers like the details; it’s what they know best. But when they don’t mon­i­tor how indi­vid­ual actions are fit­ting into the accom­plish­ment of their over­all goals, they may lose sight of their strate­gic vision.

As with so many things in life, bal­ance is important.

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Performance Slips When it is Not Measured

March 29th, 2010

Without clear stan­dards and reg­u­lar mea­sure­ment, per­for­mance suf­fers. Even the self-motivated achiever will pro­duce dis­ap­point­ing results when they lack direction.

Every man­ager and employee must have a clear under­stand­ing of what’s expected of them, and they must be mea­sured against those expec­ta­tions daily. Inspect often to ensure the results you expect are achieved, and let every­one know where his or her per­for­mance ranks.

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Aim High: You Can Do More

March 22nd, 2010

What we are capa­ble of achiev­ing is often greater than we real­ize. Don’t buy into the notion that by set­ting the bar low, you can eas­ily sur­pass your goals. In prac­tice this almost never happens.

Set stretch goals – for your­self and for the team – and strive to reach them. There will always be bar­ri­ers, issues and chal­lenges but they can be over­come with a plan, clear focus, strong com­mit­ment and per­sis­tent execution.

Falling short of a stretch goal will yield bet­ter results than if you had aimed lower.

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