I know, just like everyone else, that reaching my goals requires a plan that I can follow and a commitment to do the work in that plan. The challenge is…
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The challenge for me, and for most of the highly successful businesswomen I work with is that we are so darn busy that finding time to pull out that plan and evaluate what we have been able to complete, its value to our overall goals and whether we need to adjust our schedule is just too distracting from our day-to-day work. Who has time to do this yearly, let alone regularly during the year? I think that it would be nice to have someone else look at what I’ve completed and do the evaluation, then come back to me and say, “Hey, Barb, I think this is working, but this is not. You should change your parameters, investment, and timelines to these outcomes.” Wouldn’t that be nice? But, like my clients, we have limited resources and our people already have multiple jobs with significant responsibility within our companies. Besides, as the CEO of our companies, it is our job to see the vision of the company and create the path to get there, holding our people accountable to meeting their commitments within that vision.
As part of my evaluation for my 2020 goals, I spent an evening in a hotel room with a colleague that has equal drive and commitment to her own goals for the year. We both have a vision and simply needed a space to make the plans to get there. We spent the evening walking through each other plans, helping each other see the merit and challenge of our vision and pulling out details that support the easy implementation of that plan. We both left with specific implementation steps that included things like new product packages, pricing strategies for prospect attraction, marketing timelines, new daily habits for marketing, commitment to let go of old habits that didn’t support our new goals, the investment needed, and people to contact. It was 6 hours of work that I would never have been able to clear my calendar for, nor find the space to focus on, without actually taking myself out of my daily routines. In the morning we went over our exact commitments so we could help each other stay on track.
My “Strategy Club” partner is as excited to get implementing as I am because the details of what we need to do are now so clear and the timelines are achievable. We check-in with each other bi-weekly and as a result of this one-night’s work, we have decided to do this quarterly for our business goals. What a gift to someone like me, that spends most her time doing this for others, but not for herself. I bet you know how this feels too?
Find yourself a “strategy” partner and commit to doing something like this for your own business growth. If you would like to join us at our next Strategy Club I’m open to helping a few people make that commitment and setting the ground rules to reach your vision. I don’t know exactly what that would look like, certainly not an event, but I do know you have to have a partner to do this work. So, find a partner and email me that you want to join us. If I get 4 pairs of accountability partners interested I’ll set up a night and guide you through the process. The location will be in Vaughan (Toronto North GTA).
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