How to Move Ahead  

17th December 2002

How to Move Ahead

Some recent research undertaken in the US has identified the 7 greatest challenges facing business people today.

They are:

1. Lack of focus (not enough time to fit everything in was largely to blame for this).
2. Financial pressure (in the US, someone is turning 50 every 10 seconds, with the total savings for retirement on average being US$30K per 50 year old). Frightening!
3. Balance/quality of life
4. Finding, retaining and developing excellent people
5. Keeping up with the pace of change, especially technology
6. Uncertainty about the future (on an individual level, this related to not having a clear picture about what they wanted or why, and not having a clear strategic plan).
7. Maintaining confidence in times of transition and turbulence.

All of these challenges can be addressed to a greater or lesser extent by planning how to move forward. If you don’t move with intent, you won’t get anywhere too quickly.

Break your focus into different chunks of time, starting with where you want to end up/what you want to achieve.

1. The 3 year vision

This is a big picture view of where you’d like to be and how you’d like to be living in 3 years time. The 3-year goals need to include your most important professional and personal objectives, and overall quality of life.

3 things to remember:

• Personal and business goals need to be aligned if you are to approach your life in a balanced way.
• You can make the bigger picture 5 years or 10 years or 2 years, but 3 is sufficiently long term but in view!
• Be very honest about what you really want.

2. The next 12 months

The big picture goal needs to be broken down into stepping stone goals each year, as you can’t move from A to C in one quantum leap, without cruising through B first!

3. The 30 day action plan

This is a running sheet of things you need to achieve over a one-month period as you progress toward your 12-month plan. It needs to be in a concise format to which you can easily refer, and should be referred to constantly.

All goals must be:

§ Achievable

§ Realistic

§ Memorable

§ Clear

§ Driven by a powerful why? That is, there must be a very strong reason compelling you to want to achieve a goal, and if you want it enough, you’ll work out the ‘how’ to make it happen. If there’s no compelling reason, you won’t (try to) achieve it. The pain of not doing it will be far less than the pain associated with trying to do something you have no desire to really do.

So, when you set your goals for the year ahead, remember the following tips:

§ Intent has to be driven by a desire to do or achieve something.

§ Ask yourself why you want to achieve that goal

§ Set goals which give you focus and a vision

§ Your business goals and your personal goals should be in alignment on:

o Financial requirements now and in the future

o Values

o Quality of life/work – balance and what it really means

o Degree of challenge you want to take on

§ Break your goals down into manageable periods of time:

o 3 years

o 1 year

o 1 month

§ Focus and intent (the ‘why’ of your goals) + action = moving forward

Good luck with your goal setting, and I hope you all move forward through your challenges in 2003!