Achieve any Goal

How to Achieve any Goal

I use a six step approach for looking at change from both a personal and an organisational perspective.  Whether you are trying to get fit, lose weight or improve your company’s sales effectiveness and create great ROI for your customers, there are six elements of the change process that must be addressed.

It is unlikely that you will be successful without focusing on these areas and be determined to  ‘play to win’.

Article on Mastering Your Potential››

Issue 1: Clear and Specific Well Formed Outcome

If you are not clear on what you want to achieve, it’s unlikely that you will achieve your goal.  You have to be precise and focus on specific things or behaviours.  In an organisational setting, you have to focus on the sales strategy that will lead to more retaining existing customers as well as winning new customers. 

You have to have a firm idea of the people you want to attract to purchase your company’s services or products.  If you are focusing on quality improvement in customer service you have to know the current state of play, including metrics on customer migration.  You have to know what targets you are heading for.

If we want to run faster – how much faster?  Is seven minute mile pace the right pace to complete a fun run.  You have to decide.  Is losing 20 pounds the right amount – you cannot say you are generally trying to lose weight.  The same with writing a book.  What’s the book about – how long is it?  What’s the story?  Who are the characters? What's the ploy and how does it evolve?

Specificity & Precision in Goal Setting

The more specificity the better.  You have to have a clear idea of where you are starting from and measure those things that are working, and not working and then plan for a future state when things will be the way you want them.  Then you compare current and future states and realise there is a gap in between ‘current’ and ‘desired’.  You have to decide how you traverse that gap and take action.

People who focus on generalised business goals achieve far less than those who focus on precision, and know what a successful outcome looks like and can assess how near they are to achieving their objectives. 

They know what works.  They plan their future.  It’s a bit like driving a car.  You have a big windscreen to look out through and survey the future that you are driving into.  You have a small rear view mirror because although you have to check periodically what’s behind you – your future and safety lie in what you are focusing on as you drive into it.

Issue 2: Focus on Role Models

Role Models are so important.  Perhaps you should have your own imaginary Board of Directors in your head to guide your decision making.  As examples three personal favourites appear straight away.  Peter Jones, the entrepreneur, Richard Branson the creator of Virgin and the Body Shop philanthropist,  the late Anita Roddick . 

It does not matter if you have never met them. maybe they are people you look uo to and admire.  They are your heros.  Each of you readers have different heros.  So, you may never met these people but they are role models for you.  Now with these role models in your consciousness all you would have to ask of these imaginary personal ‘Board of Directors’ as role models is “how would they interpret what is going on in your life and what would they do?”  You can have a Director for each part of your life for firtness, nuition, career, relationships.  And the good thing is you don't have to pay them and they will never know all the free advice they are giving away to YOU!

Role Models for different situations

I have loads of role modesl. Here are afew of mine.  My Personal role models include, Duncan Falconer friend and fitness coach and Marc Woods the paraplegic swimmer, and Lance Armstrong, racing cyclist and seven times winner of the Tour de France, who both battled against all odds with cancer and then came back to win such great accolades.

If you have role models you have a clear idea of what behaviours you have to emulate and rehearse constantly to become expert - so you don't even have to think about what you need to do - it is just automatic. 

So instead of wanting to be successful billionaire like Peter Jones – you have to understand how he actually did it.  One way is to read his books, follow his work with the Entrepreneurs Academy and Watch him on Dragons Den. 

If I want my comeback to competitive cycle racing to be spectacular it requires me to read and model the best - that is Lance Armstrong’s training regime, understand his motivational drive and follow his progress in the Newspaper or on Eurosport.

Becoming Good at Anything

Whether it is becoming a great business leader, a great sales person or become a sub hour 25 mile time trialer requires role models.  When Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile in 1954 it was not long before others also went below four minutes. 

As many as twelve runners broke the record after he has set the standard and proved that it was possible.  Acting as a role model, he helped to break the self limiting belief held by many athletes at the time, that it would be impossible to do so.

Issue 3: Rehearse and Practise Specific Behaviour

Knowing what to do requires practise.  It was Gary Player, the famous golfer, who first said “the more I practise, the luckier I get”.  What he meant was, “the more I practise – the less I have to rely on luck.”

I met an old colleague, Tom, at a presentation I was giving on ‘Sales Excellence’ for the Chartered Institute of Management in Edinburgh this year.  He liked my approach and the session and said that the following day he was doing a big pitch to an existing client.  I said,   “I wish you well but you probably don’t need my good wishes because I am sure you have rehearsed your pitch to perfection.”  I was shocked by his reply.  “No”, he said. “He’s an existing client – it will be a breeze.  I have made hundreds of pitches and I have good rapport with him and the panel”.

Over Confidence and Under Competence

How wrong can you be.   I phoned Tom the next week about another subject and he admitted sadly that the client had transferred allegiance to his competitor rather than give the repeat work to Tom.  The feedback Tom received from his existing but soon to be old client was that the panel who appraised the presentation thought his pitch was unfocused, overly friendly, loose and unstructured, whereas the presentation of his competitor was focused, professional, tight and specified the benefits that would accrue to the client if they purchased from his company.

Lessons Learned: Don't Use the Pitch as Your First Rehearsal

If you want to be a great leader of change you have to learn to talk to people. You have to learn how people think, to assess what you can do personally to improve your performance. That means focus on behaviours that will move you towards your goals and practise, practise, practise.  Never use the pitch as a rehearsal.

Issue 4: Review what’s working and what is not

Success at anything leaves a trail of markers, some of which are positive and move you forward, while others may have hindered your performance.  You require the sensory acuity to measure and understand what is working and what is not.  That means you need personal or organisational metrics that tell you whether you are moving towards or away from your goal.

When you are getting fitter physically you’ll need to focus on your weight, your BMI  (fat to muscle ratio), average pulse and blood pressure as well as measuring the quality and quantity of what you put into your body and how often.

In an organisational context – if you are working on increasing revenue you’ll have to focus on customer retention, new product penetration and targeted sales against actual performance.  If you are introducing organisational change to create a leadership culture, you have to focus on how speedily behavioural change is being incorporated into the style and actions of the management team.

Issue 5: Develop Tenacity and Stamina

You have got to develop the motivation to sustain your efforts personally or organisationally.  These come about by how you talk enthusiastically and positively to self and others.  This requires a sustainable motivation and pride in the need to achieve and this can only come from you.  Creating a firm foundation is no good if you fail to have the energy and the passion to see things through, even when you don’t feel in the mood or perhaps setbacks are getting your down

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Issue 6: Take Personal Ownership & Responsibility for the Change

Take fully responsibility and ownership for what happens.  Don’t blame the Economy, Politicians or others.  Take full ownership and make no excuses. 

Failure happens sometimes and doing more of the same will have no positive impact. After all repeating the same activities time and time again and expecting different results is a good definition of insanity.  So do something else.  If that fails, reappraise and do something else.  Ask, “is this taking me closer or further away from my goals?” and commit to taking personal responsibility.

Following these six issues and constantly reviewing your progress you can achieve any goal in the WORLD.