Do you feel a sense of achievement about your business? Or just busy and overwhelmed? The workday is just as long in either case, but how you feel at the end of the day provides clues to whether your business is on track towards your vision.
Achievement is being built upon a strategic framework when daily work is infused with mission, purpose and a sense of contribution to a vision. Purpose-driven achievement creates a positive daily sense of momentum in a business that leads to a cycle of higher achievement.
Spectacular achievement is always preceded by unspectacular preparation. ~ Robert Schuller
If you’re missing the feeling of achievement at the end of the day, ask yourself a few questions to assess if you have the essential elements for an achievement-focused business:
1. Are you mastering the measurable? An achievement oriented business is driven by key performance indicators and critical success factors built upon the mission and goals. Stakeholders know the goals AND know how the business is performing against the indicators. Projects have deadlines and are directly lined up to strategic objectives. Every activity performed during the workday can directly be linked to the strategic mission and objectives of your business.
2. Have you made “systems†your friend (and technology your B***h)? What are the key systems required to deliver on your company mission? If you serve consumers, do you have a customer experience system? Is there an ideal set of processes, procedures, schedules, software applications, and so forth that efficiently move product to the hands of the customer? Technology is critical to automate systems and processes but is ineffective unless you’ve first defined HOW the process should work from the customers’ viewpoint.
3. Is business being hurt by an indispensable employee? Perhaps it’s time to get rid of the martyr mindset, starting with yourself. Busyness does not equal business and often the “indispensable†employee can become a bottleneck. If your business cannot function without the day-to-day work of any single individual, time to re-evaluate what and how that person can contribute to the business in a more innovative fashion. A culture of achievement is fostered in an environment of employee empowerment and one in which everyone feels essential but not critical to the company mission.
4. Are communication and team conflict issues slowing progress? Cultivate a high-achievement culture by establishing team norms. Norms are acceptable standards of behavior in a team – teams who define and operate according to agreed-upon norms generally perform at higher levels than those without norms. When team members understand norms and expectations, they are more empowered to resolve communication, conflict and decision-making issues – rising together to higher levels of achievement.
Keep in mind, all four elements of an achievement oriented organization are built upon the foundation of strategic goals, mission, vision, and core values AND are best continually nurtured, modelled, and communicated by the organization’s leadership team.
Small steps to a Better than Ever Business…
Awareness is the first best step. Take a look at your answers to the above questions. Which area is causing you the greatest pain, preventing achievement of your goals? Now choose one action item you can complete which moves you closer to mastering the habits of achievement.
Garr Barr Group can help you develop an Achievement Framework on the pathway to your “Better Than Ever Business” – give us a call today!