Increasing Employee & Client Engagement

Three men were stranded in the woods and were hungry. One of them left to find food and came back with a deer over his shoulders.  They were amazed.  How did you find it and kill it with no weapons.  He said, I found tracks, I followed them and got the deer.

A few days later, the second man went to find food.  He came back with Elk over his shoulders.  He said, I found tracks, I followed them and got the elk.  Then a few days later, the last man went looking for food.  He was gone a really long time.  He came back after being gone for several hours.  He was hobbling, his clothes were torn, & he was bleeding.  The other two men ran over there to check on him.  He said, I found tracks, I followed them and was hit by a train…

On our 7 Week journey we are on

1. Vision
2. Visualization
3. Passion
4. Clear Direction & Focus
5. Symbolic Reasoning
6. Defined Action Steps
7. Review

If you do not start with the end in mind… you can follow the path or tracks and not end up with the outcome you want.  I am sure you have heard that if you do not have a specific destination in mind then any map will get you there.  You will not get far if you do not know where you are going. 

Go to end goal and then work backwards…  It will help you design a specific path & steps to get there.    Such intense focus may be the most underrated ingredient because it will give the journey purpose & clarity.

It is more than a statement… Most people and companies use only a sentence to try to convey where they are going.  If they try to be more detailed it is like a checklist.  This is why most fail. 

Give it a story…  to help cement the direction, it needs to be like a script.  It has a cast of characters and each has a role.  It has a background set & a layout.  It paints a clear direction because it gives details and illustrates the vision that everyone can follow & understand.  It uses more of a 360 degree view shown from different perspectives rather than a straight line.

This way when you or anyone is reading it they can see themselves acting this out.  It puts it in a more first person perspective and ownership of their role.  They (or you) will be excited and energized because they will say “ I get it, I see what you are trying to do”.

So 5…4…3…2…1…  ACTION!!!

Other Similar Articles
Set Goals of Passion Like the Beatles & Michael Jordan
Fear is the Absence of Execution
New Year’s Resolution falling in Black Hole
Write Goals Using Eagle Vision
Visualize Your Goals Like Jack Nicklaus
Growth is at the Outer Edges

We are on this 7-week journey on goal setting.  Today we are looking at the awesome power of passion.  Many people who listen to me speak… tag me with this word of passion.  I can’t wait to share my outlook on this.

1. Vision
2. Visualization
3. Passion
4. Clear Direction & Focus
5. Symbolic Reasoning
6. Defined Action Steps
7. Review
In 1962, four nervous young English musicians played their first record audition for the executives of the Decca Recording company. The executives were not impressed, and the Head of Decca Records said, “We don’t like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out.” They were devastated by their failed audition, but stayed true to their sound and would go on to achieve greater things.

A player was cut from his high school basketball team.  He used it to spurn him on to greater achievements.  “Whenever I was working out and got tired and figured I would quit.  I would close my eyes and see that list without my name on it…and that got me going again…” 

The group was called the Beatles and the player was Michael Jordan…  There are tons of people who were so passionate about what they were doing they did not let setbacks totally sidetrack & wreck their goals & dreams. In these 2 cases we know they used that to fuel their passion to reach higher.

Failure is just something to learn from…  Nothing more.  When you believe in something and you own it… you can move mountains.

If there is one certainty for everyone setting goals… Fear and self-doubt will set in followed by critics.  I call it a terror barrier.  It is so easy to build this wall and it will appear to be very high.  However, it is very thin, but most people do not ever get to see the thickness because they give up very quickly. 

This fear & terror immobilizes people… You may have to really cling to your vision even when times are tough because the path to success always has a lot of challenges & obstacles.  

It requires creating goals of emotions…  This will be the only thing that will allow you to stay motivated to break through the terror barrier.  It will require a hunger all the way to your core.

Need something to light the fire within…   Find something you believe in because just going through the motions will not be enough.    That fire can be blown out with one harsh wind. 

You will have to create your own intrinsic relevant valid reason…  This reason will be just like Michael Jordan’s sheet without his name on it.  If I told you to wake up in the morning at 4 am to get up and get your day going etc… you would probably hurt me.  In that same scenario and I pointed a gun at your head to get up like you were in the Army, you would jump high…  So you need to find your gun.  That thing or reason that will not let you quit and continue to push through. 

No one else can create that reason…  It has to be set from within.  You have to own it because nobody cares about that object more than the owner.  Don’t look for excuses, look for that reason of passion.

What happens if  you don’t…  then you will be looking for circumstances, something or someone to blame for why you can not do it..  It is easier to look for the negatives.  Instead flip the coin and try, I have everything I need and believe to the best of my ability that I can take on this challenge.

You own your life, your goals, your vision & your future success.

Other Similar Articles
Fear is the Absence of Execution
New Year’s Resolution falling in Black Hole
Write Goals Using Eagle Vision
Visualize Your Goals Like Jack Nicklaus
Growth is at the Outer Edges

We all have well intentions at the beginning of the year.  It feels like we get to start over.  I am sure you are like me and come up with your goals and resolutions for the year.  Only 18% actually work toward those goals throughout the year.  Even though about 12% actually accomplish the goals, only a handful of those review the goals they made last year to see if they actually accomplished it or not.

What does that mean?  We love to dream and think where we want to go, but it is just a shell of an idea with nothing at the core.

The biggest issues that keep us from our goals…  there is no action tied to the intention.  We have all been in meetings where goals, objectives and intentions are set, but no action steps are put in place and no one to champion it and lead it to the promised land.  

So the goals are deemed passive…  We hope they get done, but we don’t have a set of instructions that outline how they will get done and no one held accountable.  Hope will never be a strategy.

Many people will be looking for jobs this year… The goal cannot be just to get a job.  It has to be much more drilled down with mini goals & action steps.  You set clear steps, which might be to create a resume, buy a suit, join networking groups, have coffee with 3 different influencers a week, get new or addl training etc, etc…  These are small attainable things you do each day & each week so you can check them off.  Some are one time occurrences and others will need to be repeatable until the goal is accomplished.

The difference is this is not only proactive, but it is progressive…  It keeps you moving forward toward your ultimate goal.

So it takes several things to make sure your goals are attained.  Over the next seven weeks we will take a look at each of them.

1. Vision
2. Visualization
3. Passion
4. Clear Direction & Focus
5. Symbolic Reasoning
6. Defined Action Steps
7. Review & Update

Related Article - Does Your Strategy Have 2020 Vision? http://bit.ly/8NdV4v

With Halloween this past weekend, it got me thinking about Fear.  Fear of the unknown.  Fear of a future event.  I wanted to share some of my learnings from my past as a collegiate athlete and golf professional. 

When we have fear… we tighten up, our heart rate & pulse speeds up, we stop breathing (sometimes literally) and we focus on the future and unknown rather than the task at hand.  So instead of focusing on the execution we get stuck in fear.

The best athletes and gamblers in the world know that to conquer fear… you have to stay in the moment.  The best know how to look at the current situation for only that, the current situation.  They do not get caught up in what ifs and they do not place value on the moment.  They do not make it bigger than it is. 

Just because the atmosphere is louder or larger… does not make the actual act any different. 
A five foot putt whether you have $5 riding on it or $1 million is still just a 5 foot putt.  A free throw in your backyard, or in a game or to win a championship is still just a free throw.  The hoop is the same height, the distance is the same, but the circumstance is different.  However, when you couple the act with the circumstances, it changes everything…  The expectation changes within yourself and with the fans or spectators.

The best athletes in the world know… how to stay in the moment and not get ahead of themselves.  They treat a championship game mentally the same they would a regular game at the park.  It is a way of devaluing it mentally so they can perform at their greatest peak performance. 

I see fear in business all the time…  Employees, managers & owners are faced with decisions all the time and fear is bound to set in.  Will the decision they made be successful?  How will people look at the decision they made?

I have seen grown men afraid of “prospecting or cold calling”…  I say to them… you are afraid of picking up the phone and speaking into it?  Of course not, they are afraid of the result.  I have to teach them to separate the act from the result.   What is the absolute worst thing that could happen… they can hang up.  Whoa that is scary…

I love speaking in front of groups & audiences…  I know tons of people who are truly afraid of getting in front of a group and speaking.   I have seen them speak to me so I know they have the ability & are capable.  We know the problem is not that they are afraid of opening their mouth, but rather they fear the result.  They fear the result of saying something wrong or what people will think of them etc.   So when I teach people to get in front of a group of 10 or 100 they have to separate the act from the result.  Then apply tactics.  One thing I have seen work is to connect eyes with one person and feel as if you are speaking to them only and then moving your eyes to another person to deliver the next line etc.  Then no matter the size of the audience you are still speaking one on one…

Here are a few things I believe you can do in business or anything in life to help conquer fear.

1. Have a Routine… Even Tiger Woods feels nervous and has butterflies.  He knows how to channel it.  He is one of the strongest mental athletes alive.  He relies on a very strict routine that keeps him in that moment’s process rather than the future. When making a decision, preparing for a presentation, client meeting, or a call have a set routine.

2. Stay Objective… Keep things objective and away from subjective.  Most fear comes from a first person perspective.  By keeping things objective then it will also keep it from the first person perspective.  Everyone in that same position would make that same decision based on that set of information.  That belief also can instill confidence.

3. Stay in the Present… Anything you face with fear will have some future consequence facing you.  Strip away the future result and look at the situation from the present state.

4. Unbundle… Take the information and the decision and unbundle it. Most decisions are based on multiple sets of wrapped information.   If you took all the crap out of the decision and just looked at the core of the decision would you still make the same decision?  Does it have more or less fear attached to it?