Wednesday 2 January 2013

3 key actions to make 2013 your best year yet in your business

I trust you have recharged yourself in the last few days and are ready to have a red hot go in 2013.

I suggest 3 key actions you can take to make 2013 your best year yet in your business; expect more, do less/achieve more, and make the shift from performance management to performance leadership.

1) Expect More

The naysayers tells us that the higher our expectations, the greater our disappointments.  For me Michelangelo was on the money:
“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”

The Expect More From 2013 ebook may help you to aim high. I was delighted to contribute to this ebook produced by my friend and colleague Gihan Perera for the seventh year in a row.  You can download it here.

One of my clients Peter Merrett from Jones Lang La Salle achieved outstanding results in 2012 by expecting more and achieving what he set out to.  Congratulations to Peter for winning the Leadership Award from The Wow Awards.  Details of Peter’s win here.

2) Do Less, Achieve More

One of the catch cry's of recent times has been to “achieve more with less.”

I believe this is a truism for many aspects of our lives.  I know for example that my garden is no worse off due to less water from having permanent water restrictions where I live.  It has just meant better water management.  And I haven’t minded the significantly less amounts of my water bills either!

For many people fortunate to be working however the achieve more with less concept has meant doing considerably more work for less recognition and reward.

I help my business owner/leader clients to do less and spend more time and energy working on their businesses and less time in the business except for investing more energy in appreciating what other people do and teaching them greater self-accountability. 
 
Often in my work I do a remarkability review with my clients where we look at everything and objectively answer the question How remarkable is this?  Usually such reviews involve critical examination of structure and looking at everything that happens through so what? and what if? eyes.  Always this exercise, just one of 96 I undertake in remarkability reviews, leads to the elimination of tasks once thought to be sacred.

I promise you this that if you review all the transactions and interactions of your business and put them under the so what? and what if? microscope you too will eliminate much of what you and your employees do that isn’t remarkable.  Do the exercise and stop doing anything you currently do that isn’t remarkable in the first quarter of this year.  In the process you will stop doing a lot of unnecessary stuff altogether.

One of my clients, Tony Ainsworth, the General Manager of the WaiveStar Group, has found himself with 20 hours a week he didn’t have before by doing this exercise along with implementing and embedding my Enhancing Their Gifts System. I very much enjoy working with Tony.  He is willing to be vulnerable, get out of his comfort zones and live on the leading edge.  Of course Tony’s willingness means his unique gifts are beginning to shine and I have the joy of helping him enhance them. Tony is making the most significant shift any business leader can make, the one from performance management to performance leadership.
 
3) Make the shift from performance management to performance leadership yourself.

I have put together a short paper on this topic.  You can download it here.

The paper looks at 4 big problems, that are suffocating most workplaces when it comes to improving performance.

Almost everyone is time poor
The majority of your employees are not performing at their best on a consistent basis
There is a reluctance to have conversations about performance particularly when there is conflict, disagreement and/or difficulty
Systems and processes have been cumbersome and/or ineffective in the past or are now, therefore there is cynicism and skepticism about changing them
 
Making the shift from performance management to performance leadership is so important for personal well being and that of your business that I am on a mission this year to personally contact at least one person every single day to discuss it! 

Happiness is a state of mind, a decision, an intent.  I wish you well as you take your best happy self into this year. 

Make life simpler for yourself, your family, and your colleagues by taking 3 key actions this year: expect more, do less/achieve more, and make the shift from performance management to performance leadership.

Be remarkable
Ian


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