Posts Tagged ‘Team’

What’s your goal …?

Friday, May 8th, 2009

What's your goal

What's your goal

“You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it, however.” Richard Bach

Following on from my blogs about teamwork and personal development this week, the cherry on the cupcake of really getting somewhere has to be goals and goal setting…!

If you work alone, then its a good idea to have your goals written down, because writing them down makes them more real - goals unwritten are really just wishes, or things that we’d like but haven’t committed to ! Put them in your diary, on the fridge, anywhere you’re going to see them all the time - this makes them much more real and not so dodgeable !

Once you have written goals, its a smart idea to check how watertight they are !

You can download our goals template from the downloads section - to make sure they’re SMART goals - ie specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timebound !

Its amazing how we can try to cheat ourselves by having wishy washy goals, such as lose some weight ! How much? By when? From where exactly? Getting really clear on your goals really starts to make things happen !

We’ve just been experimenting with the idea of a goal wall - for all our team !

We’re going to take a polaroid of each of our team and have it above their goals on the goal wall, with some celebration points along the way to achieving them - our chosed method of showing milestones achieved - smiley faces of course !

Step one is having goals.
Step two is owning them and making them SMART goals.
Step three (often the hardest part) is telling everyone what your goals are…

because then you’ve really got to do them !

In case you’re getting confronted by the whole goal setting and goal achieving thing consider the quote of the day today….

The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going !
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Are your team all headed in the same direction ?

Monday, May 4th, 2009

Are your team all headed in the same direction ?

Are your team all headed in the same direction ?

For many of us creating, maintaining and developing our teams is one of the most challenging parts of running a business. Oftentimes it can feel like herding cats !

We all know what we’re supposed to do, be inspiring, provide a vision and gee everyone along, praising them and keeping them on track ! Simple huh? Not in the experience of anyone that i know that runs a business !

So how can you make it easier on yourself? Well, while it doesn’t solve all the problems (and lets be honest here, what would? ) a short - 10-15minute personal development meeting each week can work wonders….!

We use the personal development form in the downloadable documents to keep us all on track (RR Doc 09) The beauty of this system is that it works according to Einstein’s theory of compound interest…. bet you weren’t expecting that from a single form?

What i mean by this is that, we all evolve slowly, some slower than others - granted, and sometimes we make a leap or a bound, but generally its more a process of evolution than revolution. Our PDF meetings and forms, focus on making small changes each week, rather than a gigantic step at any point. Even a 1% improvement in someone’s performance each week magnified by a whole 52 weeks in a year will ensure that you finish the year in a very different place to where you started it…!

By focusing on how your staff can develop themselves you can see real contributions to the business evolve and keep a track of everyone’s goals..!

But what if there’s only you in your business? Well, then its even more important to take the time to keep yourself on track. When you can see improvements each week you’re more likely to have a realistic view of your business and what you can achieve. Looking back over a year will give you a realistic view of what you’re capable of and a way to record it.

the greek philosopher Socrates said that “a life unexamined is not worth living” which may be a little harsh, but he had a point !