6 Ways To Make Sure You “Work Your Plan”

August 14, 2012 by Leave a comment

We are re-blogging this article from etruckbiz.wordpress.com

We think it is a good blog that provides valuable business information and you should check it out

A long time ago, I had a boss at what was then RPS tell me over and over, “Plan your work, then work your plan”!

Of course back then I didn’t realize the the importance of what he was trying to tell me. But now, I realize that there is nothing more fundamental to the success of your business than executing this phrase everyday because…guess what?  It works!

So it’s one thing to “Plan your work”. We learned in the first couple of posts in the series how to create and prioritize out to do list.

This is not actually that hard. The hard part is, “Working your plan”.

In this next post, we’ll look at some things to think about as you set out to “Work your plan”. If you take these things in, digest them and put them into practice, you won’t believe the results that will come from them.

6 Ways To Make Sure You Get Done What You’ve Planned

1)       You must be get in the habit of reviewing your plan once or twice a day. You must be committed to reviewing your plan and sticking to it. At the end of each day, you must then review your plan, take inventory of what got accomplished,  and the re-evaluate the things that did not. If something did not get completed, then you need to ask yourself if it was an item that aligned with your priorities and should have been on there to start with or not. If you track your progress in this way, you will get a good picture of whether or not you are completing tasks that align with your priorities.

2)      Fast forward to the accomplishment of the priority item or task and visualize it getting done. Then try tapping into the positive emotion that will come from the competed task. This is a tremendously powerful technique! You will be surprised by what will happen when you get good at using this type of visualization. Thinking about the task being completed will keep you going and will give you the energy and desire to keep on going to task completion, even when you get tempted to stray onto something else.

3)      Link the task to what is important to you. In our first couple of posts in this series we discussed this notion and here it is again. One of the greatest motivators of all time is linking what you do with what is important to you! If you can link the task to making a difference in what is important to you, then your motivation increases,  your action will follow and the task gets completed.

4)      Take action at the time you have the task scheduled. A great discipline of highly successful people is that they take action on the things they have scheduled when they have them scheduled. Procrastination is a stress increaser and an attitude decreaser.

5)      Get in the habit of making a short period of time at the end of the day to take a look back at your schedule to think and reflect on what got accomplished each day. Look at the things that happened that were in line with your priorities and with what you had set out to do. Look at things that happened that were not in line with your priorities. What you did wrong and what you did right. Then, take a look at the day ahead and use the lessons you learned from the present day so you can make the next day better.

6)      No matter what has happened at the end of the day, keep your attitude positive. If you look at some of the great athletes and watch their interviews at the end of whatever event they may have just lost, you will see them admit where they failed and what they did wrong. Then amazingly in the pain and suffering of defeat, they will tell you how they are then going to correct what they did and wrong and come out on top the next time. They are able to maintain a positive attitude when most other people would retreat and go into hiding. Your attitude is the lighthouse for your success.

Remember that tomorrow is up to you to shape. It is you who chooses how it will be formed and you who determines its results.

Now a few words about our biggest obstacle to “Working our plan”:

Procrastination

We all experience this. We all fight this monster everyday.

It can be defeated.

Here’s how:

-          Have faith in the future that you have envisioned for yourself. Ask yourself where you’d rather be. In the stress-filled world of the procrastinator or in the land of accomplishment and success?

-          Learn how to complete the task that is before you. For example, you might procrastinate recruiting new employees because you don’t know how to recruit, or, you are procrastinating learning a new way to take control of your business by using a new technology (eTruckBiz.com for example) because you don’t know how to get started using it.

-          Feel the momentum build  as you repeat an action that you just learned. For example, feel how easy it becomes to recruit employees after you learn how to do it. Once you learn how to use eTruckBiz.com, the more you’ll get into the habit of using it and the more organized and in control of your business you’ll be.

You can defeat procrastination. You just have to “want” to.

Filed under Continuous Improvements, Interesting Reading Tagged with , , , , , ,

Reflections on Stephen Covey

July 19, 2012 by 1 Comment

 

Stephen Covey, an incredible influence on many of us, passed away earlier this week. His teachings help many of us manage our busy lives. He taught us to prioritize, focus, engage and balance. He encouraged us to think about our upcoming day, what needs to be done, what can wait or is unnecessary and also how to fit in personal gratification. This could be reading a good book or spending an hour at the park with your children, whatever is important to you. Many feel, myself included, that it is this balance that is crucial to how effective we are as individuals.

This week I would like to include a blog post written by Stephen Covey in 2009
from http://www.stephencovey.com

Find Success by Doing the Things You Dislike
“As I think of the struggles many people go through, I am reminded of a powerful quote by Albert E. N. Gray:
The successful person has the habit of doing things failures don’t like to do. They don’t like doing them either necessarily. But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose.
If you are someone who has to make important changes in your life, you may want to ponder on this idea. What are the things you know you have to do but are avoiding? If you were to discipline yourself and create a plan for doing those things, would you find positive, even breakthrough rewards?
In my case, I know when I’m trying to avoid doing something, I eventually see that I’ve paid an even higher price by avoidance. For example, when I’ve neglect my health by not eating right, exercising, or getting enough sleep because I find it hard to stick to a disciplined regiment, I have found myself feeling sluggish and not doing my best work. When I finally subordinate my dislikes to the strength of my purpose, things turn around.
Identify something you are avoiding and make a promise that you will do it. Make a promise and keep it. Subordinate the things you dislike doing to your greater purpose. The more you do this, the more strength you will build—and the more success you will find.”

Laura Winters

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Being Safe is Part of Enjoying Summer

July 13, 2012 by 2 Comments

We are in the middle of the summer and for a lot of companies this is a slower period due to vacations and high temperatures that really can wear down employees. Due to this you run a high risk of accidents and injuries as we continue to strive to meet the customers’ demands.

As employers we must be aware of issues like heat stroke, employees compensating for reduced staff and even lack of attention as they are thinking ahead to the trip to the lake. Some ways to ensure that employees are safe is to discuss the potential risks daily, increase breaks, provide plenty of water and as leaders spend more time on the production floor observing the work environment and address any risks immediately.

Summer is a great time for everyone to take a break and get the rest and fun we earned through working hard the rest of the year. So make sure that it is enjoyable holiday by not having to spend it in the hospital or worse. This starts in fostering a safe work place and continues when we leave and by having a safe and enjoyable summer.

 

Cheers,

Lorne

Filed under Business, Health and Safety, Human Resources Tagged with , , , , , , ,

How Working With Children is a Good Way to Improve Your Leadership Skills

June 1, 2012 by 2 Comments

For me to write a blog article I have to be excited and energized about a specific topic. This passion generally comes from a specific topic or something happening in my business or personal life. Both my business and personal life are full because I am a unit leader, husband, parent and coach. As much as I learn from my experiences in business, I learn equally as much working with children in sports. It is amazing to me how many parallels you see between the two. The interesting part of coaching is that you see the immediate impact of your decisions. This is not just in the outcome of the score board, but from the fact that children often speak quite openly and have a harder time masking their disappointments or frustrations.

I have coached many teams both for competitive and recreational clubs. During this time I have witnessed that coaches have very different leadership styles that create varying results and cultures.

One coach may use a truly authoritarian style while another mixes authoritarian and participative style. Now I must point out the authoritarian style works when dealing with some children at this stage in their development (remember a leader’s style should suit a follower’s readiness). That being said, when you lead you must adjust to other people in the organization to be truly effective (in this case team managers and assistant coaches). However the type of leadership style you utilize is only one factor as you must also consider how the message is delivered to your group.

While I believe strong organizational skills and procedures are important, how we develop and work with people is more important in long term success. Let us for example say one coach is highly organized and utilizes every moment with the kids. This style brings practices that are quite focused.  However,  if the delivery method the coach uses is negative than the long term impact on the team may also be negative. Negativity may include pointing out errors a specific player makes or the coach may even create a nickname to reinforce the message. This form of reinforcement would be considered bullying if it was between children but some coaches believe that it is motivating when coming from a person in authority, this is also true of some managers in the workplace.

Now if we compare this to a second coach who may lack some organization in how they prepare for a night’s practice, and ask for input from assistant coaches or even some players. While some might think this is a lack of confidence, the person is actually trying to run a flat organization. While the practices are not as effective in this manner, the coach does improve the player’s skills by pointing out a player who has just performed a particular drill with excellence.

So how may these two differing styles impact each team? Well, short term the team whose coach runs the highly organized practice will most likely see immediate success in winning the first few games, while the other team may lose. Does this result support that style more? I would say definitely not.  After the first team continues to get negative feedback, players and parents will becomes discouraged and may give up on the team or worse the sport all together. The other team however, although losing to begin with, will remain positive about their overall play and the players themselves will continue to work harder to improve. I have seen this happen first hand on different occasions and based on history, the long term results for the positive coach’s team will typically be stronger.

These practices can also be applied to business leadership. A leader must adjust their style to their group’s skills, abilities and engagement. A leader must also realize that a particular group may need different leadership styles based on different tasks. It is part of effective leadership to understand and adjust to the group or individual’s needs.

More important to that is how you deliver your message. I am not going to say that you must always utilize positive support to address change. That would be impossible as certain actions do need to be addressed and corrected from time to time. This style however should be only used occasionally.

There are two very good reasons to adopt this leadership adaptation style. The first is simply that people react better when treated with dignity and respect and they will want to follow you. You will most certainly see the impact of this in your results. The second is that if you have to be strict it will be much more effective if used when only absolutely necessary. People with constant negativity are eventually tuned out, but when someone who is typically positive becomes upset it causes everyone to stop and pay attention. Above all do not use nicknames or be disrespectful. Even when a leader feels they must utilize an autocratic approach, this can still be done in a professional manner.

It is amazing what children can teach us in all aspects of our lives. I know coaching youth teams has made me a better leader.

Cheers,

Lorne

Filed under Business, Continuous Improvements, Training Tagged with , , , , , ,

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