Ah … maximum productivity and results??? The driven question.
Results come from activities. Activities leading to results are steps in a system. A system contains a person working a process with its tools and skills.
And, the system is driven by beliefs and attitudes. Do we want something? Do we value excellence? Do we see something in danger? Are we personally responsible for someone? Is it a competition? What motivates us toward maximum productivity? … an end result.
The firemen in New York were very motivated. They sacrificed themselves, their sleep, and their lives for the lives of others during 9/11.
Coach Walton never talked about winning and hardly ever about the end result. He coached his players toward weightier matters – learning to give their best for the benefit of teammates, fans, the university – and striving to get better each day. In the long run, this internal motivating clock works better that pounding on oneself or other for RESULTS. Maximum productivity happens when IT matters.
[1st – Start with the goal.] Are your salespeople emotionally connected to IT? Does IT NEED to be done in a certain time frame? Why? What’s the impact of not reaching the goal? What’s the impact of reaching the goal? [2nd – What’s the plan?] Have they planned out the way, the actions and strategies, and the achievement of their sales goals? Have they established, with your help, a step-by-step process? Have they sought counsel (advice)? Do they know how they will measure progress? What will they delegate? How will they prepare each day? What training will they need? What new skills will they develop as habits? [3rd – Do the plan.] Get them to work on focus, perseverance, work ethic, and other character traits that will help them accelerate their progress. Build new skills’ muscles into habits. [4th – Monitor and Measure.] Measure progress. Keep track of productivity. Know the score, sales-to-date, profit, etc. [5th – Adjust.] When appropriate, coach them to change the goal’s time frame. Change what they measure. Together, make changes to the plan, and, if IT loses IT’s meaning, change the goal. [6th – Celebrate.] Celebrate all along the way – when a person emotionally connects to a responsibility (goal), gains confidence from a plan, improve their work ethic (or some other part of themselves), makes progress, or when a person makes corrective changes. Hi five. Keep looking forward. Forget about the strikeouts. Teach them to learn from the swings they take, and to strive to get better each day. And, if you care, push them to their limits. Lance.