610-793-6609 michael@achievable.com

The Right Questions Lead You to the Right Vision

Nov 10, 2020 | Business Growth, Business Owners, CEOs, Goal Setting, Strategic Planning, Success

How has your vision changed for your business and personal life over the past few months? Have you taken the time to think about how the current pandemic and economic turmoil has impacted this vision? Is it the same as it was before or completely different? Hellen Keller once said “The only thing worse than being blind is having no vision.” Even though we cannot completely know what will happen tomorrow or even five minutes from now, it is important to have a detailed image in our minds of what we want to achieve in the long-term. This may change and this is ok, too. But we must always be able to imagine how achieving our goals will look to us and the world around us. We might also imagine how it might feel to achieve those goals and how we might benefit the people in our communities.

A business vision is a crystal-clear image of the future we wish to create. It describes what our company aspires to be and how the world could be impacted, hopefully positively, by our company’s actions. If we want to consistently move toward our vision, we must know what it is, inside and out. We can ask ourselves questions to better understand this vision and in doing so, we can gain clarity on how to achieve it.

There are two main types of questions we can ask, inward questions and outward questions. Inward questions allow us to discover information about ourselves and our business. Some examples of inward questions include:

What do we do best?

 What are our strengths?

What is an ideal organization and how can we be that organization?

How do we want to influence the world around us?

Outward questions lead us to uncover information about our industry and customers. Some examples include:

How is our industry changing?

What is our competition doing in response to market changes?

What are we hearing from customers about their needs?

If you answer these questions you will have a solid jumpstart on developing a vision for your business that takes into account today’s reality and consumer needs. If you want to continue building this vision and begin designing a strategy to achieve it, join the FAST TRACK Challenge beginning November 16th. Click Here for more information.

I Challenge You!

Nov 9, 2020 | Goal Setting, Strategic Planning, Success

I hope you have received my hints that creating a strategic plan is critical to your success in business and in life. If you have not or if you do not believe me, think about what Jim Rohn said, “Success is 20% skills and 80% strategy. You might know how to succeed, but more importantly, what’s your plan to succeed?” The end of 2020 is nearing and there is no better time to set aside some “think time” and create a plan for 2021.

Do you know what you want to achieve in 2021? Do you have a clear and specific, written plan for how you are going to achieve those goals? Do you think you could benefit from LIVE coaching on developing your plan? I will be hosting the Fast Track Strategic Plan Challenge with Marc Daniels, CEO of ResultsBI, beginning November 16th. Over 5 days in one hour zoom sessions, we will walk you through creating a strategic plan for your company. Here is a brief glimpse of what we will go over in those 5 days.

Day 1 – Vision: It all starts with your vision. Where are you going? Why are you doing this? What really matters most to you? What are your core values?

Day 2 – Foundation: Who is your target market? When you get this right, it provides context for all you do. Who are you speaking to in your marketing efforts? What is your brand? How are you positioned in your market?

Day 3- Long-Term: We will cover two well-known analyses that will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of your market and help you identify your strategic moves: 5 Competitive Forces & PEST Analyses. Have you taken a look at your competition recently? Do you know what they are doing to overcome the current challenges faced by your industry? Have you defined your Long-Term Strategic Moves?

Day 4 – SWOT: We will discuss the old standard SWOT Analyses and go over the SWaTOL for leveraging trends and identifying strategic projects.

Day 5 – Execution: What does it mean to be an Effective Execution Leader?

Larry Bossidy is quoted as saying, “Execution is the ability to mesh strategy with reality, align people with goals, and achieve the promised results.” Are you ready to stand up to this challenge?

Over the next few weeks, I will dive into greater detail about some of the topics mentioned today but now is the time to start thinking about the answers to the questions I presented to you and maybe even write those answers down. If you want to find out more about the Fast Track Strategic Plan Challenge, click here. Space is limited and registration closes November 14th.

Clarity is the Antidote to Uncertainty

Sep 23, 2020 | CEOs, Goal Setting, Leadership, Strategic Planning, Success

We are living in crazy times and the levels of uncertainty are at an all-time high. Then, throw in the media blast telling us that the world is going to hell in a handbasket and our situation seems much worse than it is. I am not minimizing the pandemic or the challenges we are being presented; however we have to take charge of our lives and look for the opportunities we can capitalize on. We CAN come through this storm BETTER than where we started.

I was just reading about Rockefeller in his early days in business –  the economy was in a recession and he took advantage of opportunities all around him. In every adversity there is an equal or greater benefit to be found. What are the obstacles that you are facing in your business today?  Have you met with your team to brainstorm ways to overcome the obstacles?

All of our decisions are based on assumptions/beliefs. Have we checked those beliefs against current reality  to see if they are real or not? Two business owners, facing similar obstacles, different decisions. Why? Because their beliefs/assumptions are different. So, whenever you’re facing an obstacle, one of the smartest things you can do is challenge your assumptions. Ask yourself why  you believe what you believe.

What’s the Cost of Doing Nothing? In general, most of the business owners I’ve met aren’t very good at calculating opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is involved in every decision we make daily because whenever we’re saying, “Yes” to one thing, we’re saying, “No,” to something else. This is the number one reason you want to have extreme clarity around your strategy, your BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal, Jim Collins, Good to Great), your purpose and your core values. Once you have clarity around these issues you can start to make better decisions.

One of the ways of solving any problem is to get a different perspective. As soon as we ask questions of ourselves and of our teams our brains will go to work and come up with an answer. One of the best ways to ask that question is to imagine that you’re someone else and then ask how you think you (being that person) would solve this problem. For example, if you were Steve Jobs, Tim Cook, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Thomas Edison, Elon Musk, Howard Shultz or Sheryl Sandberg.  Pick the person and ask: “If ______ were in my Shoes, how would he/she solve this problem or overcome this obstacle?”

Most strategies fail because of lack of execution, being driven by the tyranny of the urgent, being pulled by the inertia of daily operations.  Don’t let that happen to you.

How Important is it for You to Get the Next 6 Months Right?

Sep 17, 2020 | Business Growth, Business Owners, CEOs, Goal Setting, Leadership, Leadership Development, Strategic Planning, Success

In light of everything that has happened so far this year, what your going to do intentionally to ensure that the next months of 2020 are a success for you and your business? Do you have a clear and specific, written plan of action? Are you ready and equipped to thrive in the months ahead instead of simply surviving from crisis to crisis?

Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable.” Creating a plan and leaving it on a shelf to collect dust, never reviewing it or adapting it to changes in your market or the current economy is absolutely useless. Plans are meant to be revisited and refreshed and often your goals may need to be realigned. We are certainly not able to predict everything that is going to happen but if we are committed to planning, we will be more likely to thrive regardless of what happens.

Our plans are the framework for success. Even if we have to rewrite them, they will keep us on track toward achieving our core purpose. Lewis Carroll said, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” So, know where you are going and be willing to do what it takes to get there. Are you willing to set the time aside you need to plan for the future? Are you willing to do this routinely? How important is it for you, really, to get the next 6 months right? Do you have the team to help you get there? Are you developing your leaders? Are you working on your own personal and professional development?

The time is now! Don’t wait any longer!

If you are ready and willing to do what it takes join our Fast Track Strategic Plan Challenge beginning September 21, 2020 at 12 PM. Spaces are limited, so sign up today by clicking here.

As We ‘Roar’ into the 2020s, Take Time for Strategic Planning

Jan 8, 2020 | Business Growth, Business Owners, CEOs, Goal Setting, Productivity

In this “do more with less” age, everyone is under siege to improve performance at every level. In the expanding global marketplace, sustaining success is becoming increasingly more difficult.

Where will your business be in three to five years?

As the president or CEO, are you prepared to cope with the changes in the economy, the impact of global competition, and the changing demands of customers and suppliers? If there is one constant in the age in which we live, it is change and the uncertainty it brings. And this uncertainty is a fundamental reason for developing a strategy

The common question asked is: How can I develop a strategy for my company in a world where the only constant is change? Most people are averse to planning in the first place. Their biggest fear is that of setting a rigid plan that will hinder their ability to respond quickly.

I have always been a proponent that this is precisely the time you need to be proactive with a strategy. Having no strategy and a plan for implementing that strategy is like sailing a ship without a rudder, letting the wind take you where it may.

Strategy is the process of planning and thinking about how to position your company and allocate your scarce resources to optimize your success moving forward. In the current environment, you need to have a strategy to thrive; otherwise, our only motivation is survival. Peter Drucker says the best way to predict the future is to create it. I believe that, even though we don’t know how the future will unfold for all of us, we are better off having a strategic plan, so we have some idea of where we are going and why we are going there. In this day and age, we need to have a crystal-clear focus on our guiding principles, our shared values, our vision, mission, and purpose and our unique value proposition. This is a living document that is communicated throughout the organization for optimal success.

The strategic planning process is one of the most powerful tools you have in your arsenal to improve organizational focus and effectiveness. Again, no one can predict the future, but rather than sit back and wait for it to happen, the effective executive plans and anticipates what lies ahead.

A good strategic plan:

crystallizes thinking to be more proactive and gain greater clarity of priorities
creates a sustainable value proposition to gain a competitive advantage
creates shared values and guiding principles
develops a system to inspire and motivate change
aligns strategic employee intentions with company
communicates strategy to stakeholders to gain support for the plan
creates a plan of action to implement the plan and track results

How to Make 2020 Your Best Year EVER!

Dec 10, 2019 | Business Growth, Business Owners, CEOs, Goal Setting, Success

First, you need to define what “Best Year Ever” means to you; you have to know what you want in order to achieve it.

Step 1. Know what you really want in life and in business. Know what goals and outcomes you would like to achieve by the end of 2020 and know exactly what you don’t want. Create a list of personal goals and business goals for the next 12 months. Start with what you really want to accomplish for yourself by focusing on “what really matters most in your life” so that you can say yes to that list and no to everything that is going to try to derail you from you goals program. Create goals for personal health and well-being. Spend more time on your most important relationships. Stay connected with your kids as they grow up and/or pursue their college or post-college adventures? Pursue that special hobby or interest you have been putting off. Block more vacation time in your planner right now? This is the most important time you will spend if you want next year to be your best ever. Take time out of your busy schedule before January rolls in to recharge, relax, and reenergize with powerful and meaningful goals for next year. Get the pen to the paper right now and start mapping our your future.

Step 2. After you create your goals schedule an appointment with yourself every week to work on the action steps to move your goals forward. Our lives are built on the foundation of these six major areas: Family & Home, Financial & Career, Mental & Educational, Physical & Health, Social & Cultural, and Spiritual & Ethical. These areas are the foundation, the pillars that you will build a totally integrated life on. So make sure you are spending at least 1 hour a week in your plan of action. Your personal plan of action is the master plan for the rest of your life. Your planner should contain a master list of priority business and personal goals. Success in life is the result of progressive realization of your predetermined goals. The world is infested with distractions and noise designed to take us off our goals program and put us on someone else’s goals program which is why we have to continue to work in our personal plan of action weekly and continue to crystallize our thinking about what really matters most in our life.

Step 3. Develop a relentless focus on what really matters most, what is most important and significant in your personal and professional life by setting up ironclad boundaries so you are not interrupted with the tyranny of the urgent which usually isn’t really important. Focus on what you want and not on what you don’t want. Everything that isn’t important figure out a way to simplify, eliminate, delegate or outsource the activity. Then take massive action on your goals, make this a daily habit and you will be guaranteed to achieve your goals. Continue next week…