In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been fortunate enough to do some amazing interviews in our podcast. And with those interviews, what we do is we talk about teams and we talk about what makes up a championship team.
There are a number of things when it comes to really leading and building these championship teams. And from the feedback that we’re getting, LEADERSHIP always came out on top as one of the major components of what makes a championship team.
Keep Track of your Key Performance Indicators
Every Tuesday morning, we get all clients together and we have what is called a Tribal Council Meeting. That Tribal Council Meeting is a weekly check-in on their accountability to ensure that they are on track with their KPIs and their projects. This is also to ensure that they are moving in the right direction.
Are you on the right track?
We took many tracks this morning. We woke up, exercised, had breakfast, got ready for work. Then we went to the office, had meetings, knock out some paperwork, closed some sales.
There is a great YouTube clip by the gentleman called Joey Coleman. He talks about onboarding the first 100 days for your clients.
Now, if you are really in business, your clients are your team members. It is no difference when we are looking at prospecting for new team members, onboarding new team members, and retaining team members. It is a very similar process when we go and talk about “TEAM”.
Your office is busy. Everything is urgent. Nothing can wait. Your team is standing there with a sort of desperate look because they are terrified that they will choose the wrong thing to focus on.
But there’s a way to maintain everyone’s sanity and actually get things done effectively.
“Maintenance is cheaper than repairs.” It applies to your car and can also apply to your business.
Having systems in place is absolutely vital for the smooth daily operations. And these systems will help tremendously when there’s a crisis.
Understanding influence is one of the key elements of effective leadership. Many managers or business owners think that just because they have a title, and they’re the boss, that they influence their team.
You come to work an hour early with the best intentions of getting something done before anybody else walks through the door. You know it’s going to be a busy day, and you’d really like to go home on time and avoid the running of the bulls… for once.
As any manager knows, project audits are necessary to keep any project on track and within budget. But you don’t have to be a businessperson to implement these techniques in your own goal-setting.
Project audits in a business setting give you an overview of the state of the project and should be done frequently: as in, every day. Letting things slide can be disastrous, so stay on top of your project with a quick daily review. In your personal goals, you can use the same or similar measurements to make sure you are moving…
Time: everyone who has ever remodeled a home knows that the project is going to run up to 20% over budget, and take at least 2 months longer than you think. Hopefully you’ve factored in a little padding on the budget (if there is one) and allow yourself flexibility in case unexpected roadblocks pop up. It’s important to not freak out if you run over budget or if your time frame goes all Star Trek on you and the days seem to be about ⅓ as long as they should. Stuff happens. Roll with it, get creative and be patient. And be accountable. ARE you taking action? Or just thinking about it?
Scope: did you bite off more than you can chew? GREAT!!! Seriously, there’s no reason to hold yourself back, and if you’re totally overwhelmed by the scope of your project, then break it down into manageable chunks. Eventually it will all come together. BUT – in terms of your daily or weekly audit, are you on track with your mini-goals? Are you moving in the right direction, or are you paralyzed with indecision and fear? If you haven’t broken your goal down into manageable tasks, do it right away.
Risk: this may or may not apply to your personal goals. Obviously if you’re investing money into something, you are taking a risk. Same with athletic goals or any goal where you compete against others. You might lose. So the key here is to LEARN from the project or goal, whether you “win” or “lose.” There are valuable lessons in every single experience.
Keep on track with frequent audits and you won’t have that “oh, crap” moment when you realize that you should have laid the foundation for something weeks ago… that life is still fun and enjoyable and you’re not a slave to your goal… that you are keeping yourself accountable… and that you are maintaining balance in your life and achieving your goals in a healthy way.
Inspired by Carter McNamara’s managementhelp.org; and Patrick d’Astous’ blog, “Project Audits – A Necessary Evil or a Tool for Achieving Success?”
