Simplify

As we near the end of the year, are you on track to achieve your goals? Or are you wondering how it got to be November when you haven't had the chance to get nearly as much done as you planned? Is your team focused and on track, or are they running in 15 different directions trying to "get things done"?

Perhaps you have lost sight of your top strategic goals and you and your staff have gotten distracted by all the things to do and dragged into operational tasks. Or maybe the disciplined focus from the beginning of the year has tapered off.

If this sounds like you, I have good news and bad news. The good news is most leaders struggle to keep momentum throughout the year to get results, so you are not alone. The bad news is if you don't learn how to focus yourself and your team throughout the year, you will never be an effective leader.

Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life said, "You become effective by being selective."

I believe this is the best business advice for our times. The two most important skills for a leader today are the ability to simplify—to cut through all the requests, distractions, goals, and opportunities and to select the most important and vital areas to concentrate your time, resources and energy; and focus—the ability to concentrate intently on a few key goals to achieve excellence.

You can be the most talented, smart, strategic, emotionally intelligent leader, but if you are unable to create clarity for your team and direct them in a way to sustain discipline and progress so that they can focus, you will never be effective. One of your most important jobs as a leader is to lead your team to achieve extraordinary results by focusing them on the most vital goals. This means filtering out the obstacles, distractions and seemingly great opportunities that have nothing to do with the vital goals. It means reeling your team back in when you notice them getting off track or getting caught in the "busyiness" epidemic where they confuse activity with accomplishment.

Exceptional leaders are able to create clarity and instill focus to lead their teams to achieve important results. More is not better. Better is better. If you have too many priorities, you have no priorities.

So, do you need to hit the reset button?

Think about what you want to accomplish in the next 12 weeks. What are the top two or three projects or goals you need to focus on to get results? Once you are crystal clear about what needs to be accomplished, you can take steps to focus your team.

Here are four steps to achieving exceptional goals in the next 12 weeks:

Create a one page plan. Summarize the top goals on a one page plan that is clear and easy to understand. Use this one pager as your guiding force for the next 12 weeks. Post it in as many places as you can to make sure it is top of mind for you and your team. Use this plan to drive your agenda for team meetings throughout the 12 weeks.

Get team agreement. Schedule a meeting with your team to share the top two or three areas of focus for the next 12 weeks. You should be very clear why these goals are the most important and how they help your credit union achieve its strategic goals. Get everyone on your team to agree to these top goals and commit to prioritize their time accordingly. I recommend creating a team agreement that everyone signs to show their commitment. You can use your one page plan as a team agreement and have everyone sign the bottom.

Create an action plan. Break each of the goals into the detailed steps that your team needs to take to achieve the goals over the 12 weeks. Include specific dates or milestones, as well as the person responsible for each step. Even if multiple people on the team need to be involved in a step, assign only one person to be accountable. Having more than one person accountable creates confusion and finger pointing and negatively affects results. Use the action plan as a measuring tool to make sure the team is on track.

Create an accountability system. A weekly team meeting, check-in calls, status reports, and a project dashboard are all examples of structures you can put into place to ensure everyone stays on course. Remember, as the leader, you are responsible for creating clarity and instilling focus throughout the process, not just in the beginning when clarifying goals. Create structures that support focus and accountability. You will need to coach individual employees and the team through obstacles and distractions, and you may need to have some tough conversations to make sure the team is getting the results in your plan.

You will be amazed at what you can accomplish if you get clear on your goals and simplify them so your team can focus their energy and time toward making them happen.

I'd love to hear from you. What steps do you take to ensure that your team is on track to achieve results? Leave a comment below.

Laurie Maddalena, MBA, CPCC, PHR, is a certified executive coach, leadership consultant and founder of Envision Excellence, LLC in the Washington, D.C. area. Her mission is to create exceptional cultures by teaching leaders how to be exceptional. Maddalena facilitates management and executive training programs and team-building sessions and speaks at leadership events. Prior to starting her business, she was an HR executive at a $450 million credit union. Contact her at 240.605.7940 or lmaddalena@envisionexcellence.net.