Are You Keeping Up With Your B
The first quarter of 2018 is rapidly coming to an end. What steps have you taken to achieve the goals you’ve set for your business this year? Howmuch progress have you made? Have you already logged a string of successes, or are you struggling?\ Business owners and entrepreneurs set their sights on a number of goals every year. The problem is that a lot of those goals are left unaccomplished due to flaws in the planning stage. Here are some common goal-setting mistakes.
energized and motivated. As part of the celebration, discuss what still needs to be done to accomplish big-picture goals. If you find yourself or your team falling short of expectations, use this as a learning opportunity. Evaluate your progress and see if you can identify any roadblocks. Did you give yourself and your team enough resources? Were goals miscommunicated? Did changes in your business, your community, or the economy affect your goals? How can you get back on track? If you need to make changes or recalibrate — do it! The longer you wait to adapt to changing circumstances, the longer it will take to find the right course. Even the best-laid plans can be disrupted by unforeseen circumstances. It’s up to you and your team to embrace change. It’s not uncommon for marketing strategies to evolve over the course of a year. You may discover that certain aspects of your referral campaign aren’t working. Trimming the fat isn’t necessarily easy, but taking the time to do so will set you up for better results in the long run. Don’t be afraid to make decisive cuts. If a strategy or a goal simply wasn’t a good fit, say goodbye and revisit it later. For now, take some time to review your Q1 progress. What do you need to do to make Q2 — and the rest of 2018 — a smashing success? Perhaps most instructive is Duckworth’s equation (she was a math teacher, after all): Talent x effort = skill. Skill x effort = achievement. “Effort counts twice” could be the battle cry of grit. Gritty people are willing to put in the extra effort to achieve their goals, and that’s what helps them reach their goals if they don’t have innate talent. While this provides a strong case that those born with grit will succeed, grit doesn’t factor luck and opportunity into the equation, something that Duckworth is transparent about in her book. She says those who aren’t born with grit can develop it in four simple steps. First, identify an interest that can blossom into a passion. Second, practice that passion — a lot. Third, develop the belief that your passion has purpose. While it’s not an overnight transformation, these guidelines can at least provide hope, which is the fourth step: Hold on to the hope that you can succeed. Our biggest takeaway from “Grit”? Look at failures as milestones on the journey to success. Getting gritty means failing and learning from it. Any of us can get gritty if we’re willing to put in a little elbow grease.
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Setting goals that are too lofty or unrealistic
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Not taking the proper steps to see goals through
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Not working together as a team to achieve goals
• Not defining the goals in a way you, and anyone in your organization, can clearly understand
• Not having a tracking system in place to monitor and review progress
As you work toward your goals, it’s critical to celebrate the smaller milestones along the way. Recognizing achievements keeps your team
Discovering TRUE ‘GRIT’
If you’ve ever been told you won’t succeed because you lack talent, bring a copy of “Grit” to your next meeting. While teaching high school math, author Angela Duckworth noticed some of her highest-achieving students weren’t the ones with the highest IQs and some of her “smartest” students weren’t doing all that well in class.
Wondering why, she followed her curiosity to Penn State’s psychology program. There, she studied several demographics, including cadets at West Point, young teachers, and sales representatives. After numerous psychological studies, Duckworth discovered that “grit” was the common denominator in successful people. Duckworth defines grit as “passion and perseverance for very long-term goals.” People who display grit don’t start a project and abandon it a month later. They devote themselves to an overarching goal that drives everything they do. She explained that someone who practices grit goes through life like a marathon, not a sprint.
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