SPG Blog

A few years ago I was asked to serve as a board member in a community I am a part of. At the time, I was honoured to be asked. I liked the idea of making decisions and having a voice. I also felt somewhat inadequate. I realized that I hadn’t always brought my best self to that community. I sometimes was selfish and looked to the community to take care of me, rather than being a contributor.

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I have been talking with people about resilience this year.  It hasn’t been easy for many in business this year.  There have been layoffs, sales numbers have been missed, survival has been the conversation rather than 5 year goals.  Vision conversations and succession planning have been replaced with short term measures to get through the next cycle.

I think it made sense to cut back in order to survive.  To put aside leader development and team building to focus on the bottom line.  It was a wise business decision.  It made sense in tough times to cut the budget anywhere possible.

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On a recent trip to visit the kindergarten classroom of my 4-year old twins, Emerson and Xander, I noticed how many of the challenges we see on leadership teams do have roots early on—in the kindergarten classroom.  I have to say, my childrens’ teacher is a brilliant.  I watched her blend great facilitation , inquiry, and relationship skills while keeping the interest of 17 busy 4 year olds for an hour.  I saw her demonstrate great leadership skills herself, but I also saw her teaching leadership skills—something we work hard to teach leaders to do.  Here’s what I saw:

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1. Make your goal incredibly specific. If you are setting a goal for cold calls, make the number specific. Decide whether it means calls or contacts or conversations. For example, “I will make 100 cold calls where I talk to a new potential client by phone or email.”

2. Set a “complete by” date. A goal without a deadline is like a fishing line without a hook. It looks great on the surface but you won’t catch anything! We all need targets and timelines so that we can pace our progress and establish when we’ve met our goal. Again, make your goal specific, like “I will make 100 cold calls where I talk to a new potential client by phone or email in the month of October.”

3. Imagine the impact of your goal. What is the expected impact of the new activity? How will completing the goal improve your sales in the long term? Short term? This will help motivate you to achieve your goal, and also give you a good sense of whether your goal is worth pursuing. (more…)