In the last couple weeks, two agencies I’ve been working with onsite, every quarter wrapped up our first year together. As part of their homework, they had to prepare a PPT deck of every goal that they had crushed as a leadership team. I have to tell you — it was impressive. I take no credit for their efforts other than holding them as capable and accountable. They did all the hard work.
I promise you, if I’d shown either agency owner the list of what they presented a year ago and promised them they’d get all of those items done (and done well) they would have laughed out loud. They’d never achieved so much in a mere 52 weeks before.
So what was different? Their intentions. They entered into this year-long experiment by making a commitment to each other that they would not drop the ball or let each other off the hook. And they didn’t. Here’s what else made their efforts so successful.
They didn’t over commit. One single focus per quarter and they weren’t allowed to chase any squirrels until their original commitment was complete.
Regular accountability meetings. They met and reported on their progress. There was no tolerance for excuses, evasion, or the usual “well, we know you’ve been busy….”
Measure what matters. We set up a list of metrics and they measured themselves against them every week. They were never surprised and they found that they anticipated shifts faster and better.
They decided together which needs should get priority attention. There were no lone rangers, not even the owner. They worked in concert to assess what the agency needed most and what was needed to get it done.
They stopped accepting mediocre performance. They quickly recognized when someone wasn’t really contributing and they invited them to step up or step out.
They celebrated the wins. They took a minute and applauded themselves and each other. You have no idea how motivating that can be.
I’m talking huge wins here. Websites completely re-designed and built. Biz dev programs created and launched. Internal processes systemized and custom programming done to create a tool for the team. Huge, agency changing wins.
You can crush your internal goals too. The recipe is right there. Why not give it a try?
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