Dashboard

When you look at most successful businesses and organizations, a key characteristic is that the leaders of these organizations know how the organization or business is doing at any given time. They know because they measure, not just results, but more importantly activity and key indicators. I wrote a short article about this idea. Here’s a couple of the paragraphs:

One of the most important parts of any strategic plan is the implementation of that plan. Without implementing what you’ve laid out, all you’ve really done is a nice exercise in philosophy.

A key to implementation is measuring results. A common question I hear is “but what do I measure?”

The big question of course comes down to what to measure. Each business and organization is different. When in doubt, measure something, anything - you’ll learn over the course of a short time span if what you are measuring is what you need to measure - is it a key indicator for how well your business is doing or is what you are measuring a lagging measurement that tells you something after the fact. If what you are measuring is not assisting you to make future adjustments, then change what you are measuring. Just like most things in life - the hardest part is getting started.

Goal Getting

I wrote a short article for my weekly newsletter on goal getting - that is, accomplishing goals. So often in our society and especially in the development field we focus on the first part - goal setting.

The key to a great strategic plan, that most people forget, is not the goal setting part. I work with many clients on goal clarification. Without the clarification, nothing else can happen, so don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here.

To make a strategic plan truly “great” or effective, the focus needs to shift to goal getting once the plan is in place.

The simple version of what success is can be summarized into two parts - set the goal and be clear about what it is and do actions necessary to accomplish the goal. So simple! And here’s the thing - most entrepreneurs struggle with this because it is so easy. Entrepreneurs aren’t into doing things the easy way - they exist to figure their own way of doing things. That’s a great trait to have and at the same time it can be a huge detriment. The key is knowing when to use this strength and when to lay it aside. When we master that, simple is acceptable - the switch flips in our minds that says that what we are doing is easy, so long as we allow it to be easy. And that’s where the goal getting starts to happen.

Being Organized

I wrote an article on being organized - my definition of being organized is probably not what you would expect.

For me, organization has nothing to do with perfection. Let’s be serious for a moment - my wife and I have three children aged 5, 3, and 1 - perfect organization just doesn’t happen in our house. There is no expectation that everything will be in its own place and tidy.

To me being organized is not about spending a great deal of time cleaning, buying organizational supplies, sorting, etc. My definition of being organized has everything to do with effectiveness.

The questions you want to ask yourself when it comes to being organized are:

What’s your definition of being organized? Are you looking for perfection? Do you need to alter your definition and expectations based on your circumstances and your personality? What small changes to your physical space could you make that would make you feel 10% more organized? How about mentally? When’s the last time you looked at your strategic plan?

The Unexpected

I wrote a post about dealing with unexpected events - those things that are out of our control. Unexpected things are like wrenches in our plans, however they are also the things that let us know that we are alive. Only people who are alive have to deal with unexpected things, or challenges, or problems - so in that sense, we should celebrate the unexpected.

Here’s one way to handle unexpected things:

We can never fully expect everything that will happen over the course of the week, or each day. That’s why it’s important to allow yourself some cushion. You need not only a financial cushion to pay for necessary unexpecteds, but also a time cushion, and a stress cushion. Never pack your day so tight with activities that a small unexpected could throw the whole day into chaos.

You can read the whole post here.

Washing the Phone

I wrote an article about washing my cell phone. Yes, it’s true - I wasn’t careful, didn’t check the pockets of my shorts and ended up with a clean, but unworkable phone. In times like these, there are plenty of lessons to be learned from such mistakes. In fact, events like this give us a moment to ask some questions of ourselves. Here’s a sample of the questions this event caused me to ask:

I tell you this story for a couple of reasons - first when you go through an unpleasant experience, what’s the silver lining? What are you learning from the experience? What do you have control over?

Second - make an assessment - ie. ask yourself questions - How bad do I need a phone? Can things wait until a later time without chaos happening?

Being Flexible

I wrote a post about being flexible. Being flexible is so very important to so many parts of life - not just business. Being stiff, or rigid, is the equivalent to death. Dead things have no flexibility - they snap. Things that are full of life bend - the palm tree is a great example. Here’s some more questions from the posting:

What do you do with this extra time that you now have? Do you travel back to the office? Do you pull out a laptop and answer some e-mails? Do you pull out a book to do some reading? Do you networking with someone nearby? Do you work on something you have been procrastinating?

All of these are great options. However, unless you plan ahead of time, you’ll never know what the best use of that extra time will be. Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about planning what to do with extra time ahead of time.

Take Time Off...If You Dare

I wrote a post on my EADD blog about taking time off from work - whether you are the owner or not. Here’s a small sample of questions people should be asking themselves:

If you have your own business, take a moment and answer this question - why did you start your business? Was it because you got tired of being told what to do? You wanted more freedom? I’m sure for many of you, those reasons were a part of the equation.

If you work for someone else, you can ask yourself a similar question - why did I go to work for the company I work for? I’ll bet that one of the reasons has to do with having more freedom in some form.

Ok, so here’s the deal - we entrepreneurs need to take time off in order to be refreshed, renewed, and re-charged. Without taking time away, even the most creative entrepreneur becomes stale. Without time off and away from the business, even the hardest working person becomes prone to accidents and mistakes.

Take time right now to determine when you will take some time off, even if it’s only a day. Spend time with your family, take a small trip, or just take a day and go to the park and read.