Welcome to Guest Blogger Don Tinney, of EOS Worldwide!

We want a healthy, happy life of abundance.  That’s true for our businesses as well.  We want businesses that allow us to pursue our passions, affect the world in a positive way and make enough money to keep us doing what we love for as long as we want.  So how do we achieve that?

The prevailing counsel would have us all start with planning.  Make your plan … work your plan. I’ve heard it for over 30 years.  It sounds so simple and logical.  So why do so many people and companies fail to achieve what they want?  I can assure you, it isn’t for the lack of planning.

Most of us gravitate towards envisioning first, because it’s what we’ve been told to do, and because it’s exciting to dream and make plans.  The problem is, most of us tend to be very weak at execution – working our plans.  After failing to execute time and again, we stop envisioning and planning.  What’s the point if we aren’t going to follow through to achieve what we envision?

“Vision without traction is merely hallucination.”  (Gino Wickman, TRACTION, Get a Grip On Your Business)  Seeing what we what without achieving it is disheartening to all.  For that reason, we need to start with execution first, planning second.  I know it sounds crazy on the surface, but give me your blind faith for a moment.

Four things need to be in place to make us better executers.  Then we can make our plans with the confidence we will actually achieve them.

1)     We need clear accountability. Who will be responsible for what?  We first clarify what we need to do – the functions of our business.  For each unique function, we define a “seat” in our organization.  We then clarify the specific roles or responsibilities for each seat so each person knows exactly what will be expected of them if they take the seat.  Finally, we place the right person into each seat based upon their passion for the seat and their capacity to excel at doing what the seat requires.

2)     We need to prioritize. We can’t do everything we want to do, and we certainly can’t do everything everyone else wants us to do.  If we are going to succeed, we have to be comfortable saying no to many things.  This is a discipline that must be preserved if we want to enjoy sustained achievement.  Less is more.

3)     We need consistent meetings – same day each week, same time, same agenda, starting on time and ending on time.  We call that a Meeting Pulse™, meeting for 90 minutes each week (with a specific agenda to resolve issues and produce traction), 1 full day each quarter (to review performance, prioritize and remove obstacles) and 2 full days each year (to do our planning).  Meeting consistently with the right agenda keeps our people connected and synchronized to produce desired outcomes.

4)     We need to track our progress. We put all our subjective feelings and egos aside and define a handful of activity-based measurables to objectively track our progress every week.  This keeps us honest, clear and accountable.  At any moment, we know where we are and can predict accurately where we are going to be.

With passionate, capable people in the right seats, priorities set and meetings and measurables in place, we can now define a shared vision and achieve it.

To learn more about Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman, click below: