3 Tips For Getting Clear on Your Goals

Alice came to a fork in the road.  “Which road do I take?” she asked.

“Where do you want to go?” responded the Cheshire cat.

“I don’t know,” Alice answered.

“Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.”

(Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland)

When you don’t have goals, you’re like Alice, wandering around in a strange land. 

Sometimes, however, we don’t want to set goals because we’ve been disappointed by past shortfalls.  Sometimes we want something different but we don’t know what.  We have long lists of what we don’t want because it’s easier to identify our pain than our pleasure. 

It’s important that goals be clear, and relevant to where you are on your journey right now.  Perhaps at one time you had a goal to have a certain type of job – a senior executive position, top salesperson, or owning your business.  Then life happened.  You had kids, your spouse lost their job, you lost your job or got divorced, or you finally admitted that your chosen career doesn’t light your fire anymore, if it ever did. 

Goals should support you on your journey like a compass providing direction.  They shouldn’t make you feel bad about yourself or be what someone else wants for you, even your own self five years ago.  Check in with your goals on a regular basis.  I do this at New Years, but anytime will do. 

Here are my three favorite tips for getting clear about your goals.

1.     Instead of thinking about what you want to do, have or accomplish, think about how you want to feel and work your way back from there.  If you want to feel happy and energized in your job, it’s possible you can create that feeling in your current situation perhaps by changing your perspective or taking on new responsibilities.  Or it might become really clear that you’ll never have that feeling in your current job so it’s time to look for something new.

Put on your ‘coach’ hat and ask questions to peel back the layers.

For example:  How can I reorganize my day so I have time to work out?  That’s a pragmatic time management question, and I can come up with lots of options that will look great on paper.  If I dig a little deeper, I would ask:  How can I reorganize my day to have the time to work out so that I enjoy it.  OK, that’s a different question and calls for a different answer.  The time management answer probably had me getting up an hour earlier (which I hate), but when I require joy as part of the solution, I come up with options like finding a walking buddy or taking a class.  Then I can tackle the time management piece.

2.     Plant a seed and let your brain go to work.  Our minds are amazing computers, but to solve big problems they need time to process.  In my corporate job my staff learned to bring problems or questions to me towards the end of the day.  My brain was full, so I couldn’t give them an answer on the spot, but once I got into the car driving home the answers would bubble up.  So plant the seed then a break.

3.     Language is key.  Have you ever tried to recall a dream and have it just fade away as you try to describe it?  In my coaching practice I use assessments with all of my clients.  They are an objective third voice that provides needed perspective, and they put language around vague concepts.  The more you can put words and pictures around what you want, the more concrete and real your goals will become.  I love dream boarding.  I use a bulletin board and then rifle through magazines to find pictures and words that inspire me and convey what I want or how I want to feel.  Try it!  Using a bulletin board lets you easily make changes and improvements as you become more clear.

Try these tips work for both your personal and professional goals and share your comments below. 

5 Signs It’s Time to Change Jobs

Some days at work are better than others.  However, when you can’t remember the last time you had a ‘better’ day, it may be time to look for a new job or a new company.

We all want the same things from our jobs as other key relationships including mutual respect, a feeling of belonging, appreciation and being challenged to be our best.  Like any other relationship there are obvious signs that you need to get out NOW like being physically, emotionally, or verbally abused, bullied, or sexually harassed.  

Outside of the obvious, here are five important signs it’s time for a change. 

1. Values disconnect.  We make decisions based on the values which are most important to us such as integrity, security, authenticity, or autonomy.  When something associated with our job goes against one of those values, the situation becomes intolerable.  I had a client who came to me after receiving a bad performance review and written warning for termination.  She felt a senior manager was gunning for her because she refused to sign off on something that was not in compliance with governing regulations.  She became engaged in an escalating battle that had reached the president.  I asked how she felt about working for a company who would continue to consider or consider not changing something once compliance issues were identified.  That was an eye-opener for her.  I don’t know whether she was correct about the regulatory issue, but it doesn’t matter.  It ran against one of her core values which made it a no-win situation. 
2. Not feeling the love.  We all want to be recognized and appreciated; we all want to be challenged and know there are opportunities for advancement.  It's important to work for managers who support your career goals.  A friend’s daughter is a junior staffer in marketing at a large corporation who wants to get promoted.  Her manager says she doesn't have time to work with her to plot a path to the next level, so she keeps trying to show her dedication, taking on extra work, thinking of new ideas, training new employees.  Instead of getting her considered for promotion, it appears she's being taken advantage of.  I asked why she doesn’t look for a different job in that company with a manager who would support her ambition.  She doesn’t want to look for something else; she wants her current manager to recognize her.  Until she moves her ego out of the equation, she’ll continue to feel like a kicked puppy.
3. No role models.  During a session with a client who was feeling stuck, I asked her to find a role model amongst the women senior managers at her company.  Her response was immediate.  She didn’t aspire to be like any of the women senior managers because they were bullies.  It was clear to her that to be a successful woman executive in that company required a pattern of behavior that wasn’t the type of person she wanted to be.   That doesn’t make it a bad company, just not the right company for her.  She’s now happily employed elsewhere.
4. End of the road.  Sometimes you look around and just don’t see any other job in your company that you want to do.  That happened to me when I worked for a mid-size software company.  After being with them for seven years there wasn’t anything else I wanted to do there.  If you’ve topped out or reached the end of the road, it’s time to put sentiment aside and take your experience to a bigger playground.
5. Toxic overload.  For years people told me I would be great in sales.  So I leveraged my experience and got a job selling localization services to software companies.  What a disaster!  It entailed hours cold calling trying to book appointments, putting together proposals and then arguing about pennies per word.  After a few months I was just beaten down, depressed and despondent. A friend said, “this job is toxic for you.”  How right she was!  There are people who thrive in sales, but it wasn’t the right job for me.

I’m sure there are lots more signs, but if any of these five pop onto your radar, think seriously about making a change.  Refresh your resume, strengthen ties with key people in your network, and start looking.

Success 1 2 3 Part 2

In my last post I shared my Success 1 2 3 formula for when you’re faced with a thorny challenge or feel overwhelmed by how to get started on something big.

Step 1:  get Leverage.  Find the common element, root cause or recurring theme that keeps getting in your way.  Then move everything else to the back burner and put all of your focus on getting movement in that area.

Step 2:  gain Momentum.  Once the ball starts rolling, make smart decisions to create additional momentum.

Step 3:  reap Compounding.  Build on the movement and benefits you’ve already created.

The example I used last time addressed increasing your energy.  Here’s a work-related example from my own career.

A few years ago I ran large, cross-functional programs at a large bank.  I got asked to manage a three year program to reduce deposit fraud losses.  The bank was paying the price for years of underinvestment.  Losses were nine times industry average and growing.

I started my new assignment, and the manager of the Risk Analytics group handed me a list of 20 projects that formed the basis for the approved business case.  While I waited for my team to wrap up the previous program and join me, I started attending meetings and talking to people to get familiar with fraud (which I didn’t know anything about), the organization, and the ideas on the project list.  Over the next three weeks I kept hearing the same things:

Losses are up this week, but we don’t know why.

Losses are down this week – hurrah!  But we don’t know why.

We think this is what’s happening, but we’re not sure.

Our gut is telling us this…

Over and over I heard the same theme.  We didn’t have the information we needed to make good decisions.  The little data we had access to was not timely, and it took a lot of manpower to get these dribs and drabs of bits and bytes into a format the analysts could work with.  I wasn’t even confident the projects on my To Do list were the right projects.  And in what order should we execute them?

It was clear to me that we had to resolve the data issue first, so I shelved the project list and kicked off a project to develop an analytics data environment.  This was a risky approach, and I had a few arrows sticking out of my backside during the nine months it took to build it.  Luckily our technology partners were up for a fun and interesting challenge, the analytics group was on board to make sure the data was architected in a way they could use, and we kicked off a ‘quick hits’ campaign to identify and address small effort/big bang changes which would deliver immediate savings.

After nine months we had an analytics data environment fed throughout the day with transaction information from around the bank.  Right away it was a game changer.  After a few months we had new insights into what was going on, had changed the dialog with upper management and our branch network, created new tools and models, and started to create momentum towards our goals. 

We did implement some of the items on that 20 project list, but since we had implemented a game-changer, some projects became irrelevant or not worth the investment.  After three years our losses were coming down and we were within pennies of the industry average.

Are you faced with a big challenge, or a really long To Do list?  I hope you can find a way to use Success 1 2 3 to help.

This topic was inspired by a client who had been in a new job for two months and had a To Do list containing 86 projects.  Some projects were big, some were small, but most had someone screaming for it.  Where to start?  My advice to her and to you is to find the action you can take to address the recurring theme, or the action that will eliminate the need to do multiple other items on the list.  Shelve everything else and focus on that leverage point to get the ball rolling.

Success 1 2 3

You’re faced with a challenge – a problem to be solved or a course of action to be taken.   You feel overwhelmed and don’t know where or how to start.  Have you ever been there? 

If you have big goals, there probably isn’t a week that goes by where you don’t face some sort of overwhelm.  The result?  You stay stuck, or run around in circles, or spend valuable time and resources on the little, easy to accomplish things that don’t produce the results you want.  Been there, done that – more than once. 

Through the school of hard knocks I’ve learned to apply some of the laws of physics and economics to help.  Here is my Success 1 2 3 formula for creating results whether at work or in your personal life.

Step 1:  use the law of Leverage.  Leverage is defined as the action of applying the force of a rigid bar around a pivot at one point while applying force.  You don’t actually use a crowbar  - OK you might want to use one on a coworker, but don’t go there.  The point is to find the common element, root cause or recurring theme that keeps getting in your way.  Then move everything else to the back burner and put all of your force and focus on that point.

Step 2:  use the law of Momentum.  Momentum is defined as the force of movement.  Newton’s first law of motion says a body at rest will stay at rest; a body in motion will stay in motion.  I love the old adage:  when you want something to get done, ask a busy person to do it.  That’s because busy people have momentum.  The work isn’t done after the Leverage step.  Once the ball starts rolling, you need to make smart decisions to create additional momentum.

Step 3:  use the law of Compounding.  Compounding is defined as growth through accumulation.  Think of your savings account.  You earn interest on your savings, and then you earn interest on the interest you’ve already earned.  Ka-ching!

Of course the laws of momentum and compounding work in both positive ways and negative ways.  Harness the positive.

Here’s a simple example of Success 123 that’s easy to relate to: 

Many of my clients feel frustrated, burned out, don’t know where to turn or how to start because they often don’t know where they want to go.  When we talk about what’s going on, the recurring theme is the lack of energy or negative energy – physical energy, emotional energy, mental energy, spiritual energy.  Their tanks are empty. 

The answer:  get more energy.  Where to start?   One option is to find the path that quickly makes other things happen (creating momentum), and that’s usually physical energy.  Start some form of exercise and get those feel-good hormones flowing.  After only a few days of consistent effort (using that crowbar), they feel and sleep better and don’t need to get energy from sugary food.  This ignites mental energy.  Do you feel the momentum starting?  Once their minds are able to focus better, they feel more positive, and they begin making better decisions and seeing what needs to be done.  All the while, the more progress they make towards their goal, the better they feel, and the better they feel the more they take care of themselves, which continues to feed their energy tanks.  Compounding!

It’s a simple and common sense example, yes, but don’t let pride get in your way.  Sometimes the best answers are the simplest answers.  I heard a great quote recently:  common sense isn’t always common practice.

I’ve applied Success 1 2 3 in business situations as well, and I’ll share a great example next week. 

A personal note from Pam:  A big thank you and hug to my clients and friends who supported me through the past 6 months as I dealt with the loss of my beautiful mother.  My energy tanks are full again, and I’m thrilled to re-launch this blog.  

What Is Your Recipe for Success?

What is your secret formula for success – your own personal recipe?  What are the ingredients?  What about yourself contributes to your success?  Can you sum it up in 3 to 5 points?

I asked myself this question today, and here’s what I came up with:

When I’ve been successful, it’s been because:

1. I'm a person who can see the big picture.
2. I have control over how things go and can create the rules.
3. I love what I'm going or I'm really interested in it.

I can see a picture developing that says a lot about who I am.  I’m a very independent person, and I like a lot … A LOT … of autonomy.  I’ve lived by myself since I was 21 after getting divorced.  I thrive in work situations where I’m given an objective and then get to figure out how to get to the finish line. I’m interested in a lot of things.  No surprises here.

Then I actually wrote down the times I’ve achieved success.  Things that came to mind first, of course, were work related – projects and other activities I had accomplished in my career.  

Then I expanded my thinking.  When was I most successful losing weight?  I felt successful shepherding my family, especially my mother, through the death of my father.  I made a life for myself when I moved to city where I didn’t know anyone.  I sometimes win best speaker or best evaluator at my Toastmasters club. 

Little things, big things, work things, personal things, it all went into my journal.  When I wrote all of this down and examined each situation, I was surprised to see a different set of answers – a different recipe.

When I’ve been successful it’s because:

I'm supported by a team or by someone.  I like working with people, and I need the accountability of working with others.  My most successful weight loss efforts were when I went to the Diet Center many years ago.  You had to go and weigh in every day…yes every day.  You stood on the scale (hoping your clothes weighed less than what you wore yesterday) and looked the counselor in the eye.  I was also successful when I worked one-on-one with a trainer at the gym.

I can find new ways of looking at things.  It’s an extension of making my own rules, and it speaks to how my mind works.  I like to look at things from different angles, synthesize disparate pieces of information, and see things others don’t.  I did this multiple times in my career, and it’s part of what makes me a good coach.

I play the role I’m best suited for that plays to my strengths.  I saw this again and again in my work, and after I read the book StrengthsFinder 2.0 about 5 years ago and consciously put that information to work, I was able to create more situations for myself in the job I had at the time that played to my strengths. I also helped my team do the same, which was the impetus for my becoming a professional coach.

I learned multiple things through this exercise.  Just the process of recapping my successes put me in a better mood, and thinking about my personal recipe for success reminded me of what I need to do and what resources I need to have in place to create success.

The most important lesson I learned, however, was that I had pre-conceived notions about what made me successful, and that picture was not complete. 

When I buckled down and outlined the facts, I found a richer, deeper answer.  Yes, I’m an independent person who likes A LOT of autonomy, but I need to create an environment where I can play to my strengths and have a support system.  My ability to make my own rules comes from looking at things from different angles and seeing solutions and opportunities others miss.

So what’s your recipe for success?  Try it!  Jot down three points, then pour a cup of coffee and recap your successes.  When you look at the actual evidence, do you see a fuller, richer answer?  Did you catch yourself having a pre-conceived limited view of yourself?  What changes or tweaks can you make today to create more opportunities for success?