Planning with the end in mind - what's left to do to achieve your end business goal?
This might be an unexpected start to our article, but what’s your end goal? Where do you personally want to end up?
When we start with the end goal, we very quickly get to the point of why you own your business. For example, if your end business goals and objectives are to work less, travel more or own a house, they are actually the driving force behind your business. Obviously they are not communicated on the front page of your website, but they are vital when planning and writing your business plan. If you cannot possibly achieve your end goals, why should you even turn up?
Once your end goals and objectives are determined, planning each step in between becomes easier. Look at the next quarter (90 days) and determine what you need to do with the direction of your business to reach your end goal.
Tracking your results, achievements and successes as you go will let you see your progress and allow you to tweak your processes if necessary. Plus, if you see that you are getting closer to that holiday or house deposit, it will motivate you to continue with the process. ActionCOACH has some great tools to help you track your progress if you currently don’t have any.
You may find that once your end business goals and objectives are established, you need to brush up on a few leadership skills to help you stick to them. Don’t worry, it’s not just you - every entrepreneur needs to work on their personal leadership development.
Let’s look at a few key skills:
Effective time management
Delegation, being organised, running effective meetings that get to the point and up-skilling staff are all simple strategies you can use to get back time in your day. In the end, you want to get your business to the point where it runs efficiently if you are there or not. ActionCOACH can help you learn and develop this skill in a few short sessions.
2. Know your limits
Self-awareness of your own skills, knowledge and limitations helps you manage expectations of yourself. Many business owners think they can do it all, but that thinking often leads to failure, burnout and breakdown. If we look at how successful business people operate, they have a team of advisors and specialists around them. They’re clever enough to know where their knowledge stops and someone else’s starts.
3. Be open to growth
When something goes wrong, are you quick to blame everybody else instead of looking at the situation as an opportunity to learn something? Being closed to criticism, opportunities for growth or new ways of working will stop your from achieving your end goals and objectives.
4. Align beliefs with actions
The Be / Do / Have formula means that if you want to have certain outcomes then you’re going to have to do certain things. If you want to do those things effectively, then you’re going to have to become the right sort of person. Do you have the habits, beliefs and skills of someone who will achieve your specific business goal? If not, make it your business to attain them.
5. Adopt a positive mindset
A positive mindset does wonders for your mental, emotional and physical health. It accelerates the speed at which your brain processes. It keeps you and your team motivated. Whether it’s a daily review of your dreams, goals and plans, a daily meditation, daily affirmations and visualisations or other techniques that ActionCOACH can share with you, there are simple steps you can take to ensure that your mind is positive and that you can enjoy the value that brings.
Ultimately, your end business goals and objectives are the driving force behind your business, and well worth spending time on as part of your business planning. For more help with this or other parts of your business contact ActionCOACH.
