Focusing On What Can Go Right In 2017

Happy New Year!

As you and your organization again turn the proverbial page on your desk calendar to January, just how prepared are you and your people to have unprecedented success in 2017?

 

This is a particularly valid question to pose, especially when you consider that researchers state that only 8% of people actually keep their New Year’s resolutions. It is a valid question simply because it begets the real question, which is … With such a small fractional number of individual people truly “living up to” their personal resolutions, how then can organizational leaders who are unsuccessful when it comes to their own New Year’s resolutions (goals) be in a viable position to successfully achieve your organization’s goals throughout the coming year?

 

Effectually stated, the analogies and actions simply don’t align. If an individual is proven incapable in one arena, he or she is clearly not going to be any more successful when required to perform at a higher-level endeavor.

 

This principle holds true because it has been proven time and again that “most people will focus on what is destined to go wrong … Rather than on what might possibly go right.”

 

During the course of facilitating our leadership development programs, I am on occasion questioned about the validity of this ascertain. My typical response is that given the understanding that any endeavor in life first requires a balanced approach, and then applying a football genre, will you be more successful if you have a “defense” mentality or an “offense” mentality?

 

Whatever the game of life or business may be … you ultimately have to put the numbers on the board.

 

So, let’s take a few moments to move from practical theory and analogy to a real-world example of that to which I speak. Ever since the dawn of our country’s space program, every time a scheduled mission takes place, our astronauts have undergone hundreds and hundreds of simulated launches, landings and every scenario in between launch and touchdown. Literally every aspect of the mission has been rigorously rehearsed and drilled to perfection.

 

During an interview, Veteran Astronaut Ron Garan openly shared that even with all of the time that was allocated to advance planning, technology and meticulous training that far more time was devoted to “what could go wrong” and cause the mission to fail.

 

There is perhaps no better story about being concerned about what could go wrong, than the story pertaining to space pioneer John Glenn. Following his recent death in December 2016, it was disclosed that following his monumental space flight in 1962, that President John Kennedy was so concerned about the well-being and preservation of the nation’s newest hero that he vetoed the return of John Glenn back into space.

 

Virtually every entrepreneur, business executive, organization or individual that has ever achieved a meaningful degree of success will emphatically state that their success would have never happened if they hadn’t been willing to take some “risks”.

 

Every arena of life is fraught with the potential for something to go wrong. Most successful people will also tell you that had they not also learned from their previous failures how to become successful, they would never have made it. As basketball legend Michael Jordan stated, “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

 

If your organization and its people are going to experience unprecedented success in 2017, then it is imperative for you to focus on what can go right while having a balanced approach in planning the organization’s goals that like NASA, includes the upfront identification of potential hurdles, obstacles and setbacks that you and your people could encounter.

 

As legendary radio personality Casey Kasem always said as he signed off at the end of each show, “Keep your feet on the ground … and keep reaching for the stars.”

 

Balancing clear goals with appropriate contingency plans will keep your organization focused on what can go right in 2017!

 

Copyright © 2017 Developing Forward Leadership | Thomas H. Swank, CBC | All Rights Reserved.

The Greatest Lesson He Ever Learned

Early in the burgeoning 20^th century, Bethlehem Steel Corporation CEO Charles Schwab had the occasion to converse with a management consultant who inferred that Schwab’s people needed to gain more knowledge about managing.

 

In response to the consultant’s remarks, Charles Schwab responded with the now famous statement “What we need around here is not more knowing, but more doing! If you will help us to do the things we already know we ought to do, I’ll gladly pay you anything you ask!”

 

Without the slightest hesitation, the management consultant immediately agreed to accept Charles Schwab’s challenge and then proceeded to assert that “In 20 minutes, I’ll show you how to get your organization to do at least 50% more.”

 

The advice which the consultant then provided to Charles Schwab was to do the following:

 

● Write down and prioritize your 5 most important tasks to complete in the next business day.

 

● Put the list in your pocket until tomorrow when you will take it out and start working on priority number one.

 

● Look at that priority every 15 minutes until it’s done.

 

● Then move on to the next priority and then the next one after that.

 

● Don’t be concerned if you only finish two or three or even one because you will be working on the most important things.

 

It is important to comprehend that as CEO of Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Charles Schwab was handsomely compensated by Andrew Carnegie for his expertise and leadership abilities at the rate of one million dollars a year.

 

Subsequent to receiving the consultant’s advice, Charles Schwab stated that “this was the most profitable lesson he had ever learned.”

 

What exactly was this highly valuable lesson you ask? It was simply this:

 

The organization whether small or large that understands and executes on the power of focusing on priorities will progress and succeed.

 

CEO Schwab rewarded the management consultant with $25,000 for this sterling advice, which in the early 1900’s was a huge sum of money. Even more so, when you consider that it was for just a few short minutes of advice.

 

As timely as the advice given to CEO Schwab was over a century ago, it remains so to this very day.

 

The ability to appropriately identify and execute top priorities remains a core competency of 21^st century leaders. To this end, one of the key components which we teach in our premier leadership programs and workshops is that “Leadership is WAR”. Employing the W.A.R. analogy in the everyday business activities of your company or municipality is certain to help your organization and your people to accomplish more.

 

       Work on the right priorities.

 

       Achieve the right goals.

 

       Remove the barriers that are impeding your progress.

 

While there are an immense number of focus points that your organization could choose to focus on in both present and future tense, the critical mass of potential success in business, industry and government rests with your organization’s ability to effectively wage W.A.R.

 

As your valued resource partner, we stand ready to assist your organization, its leadership and your people to both wage W.A.R., while assisting them to… Learn more… Do more… Become more.

Copyright © 2016 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC | All Rights Reserved.