SWING your way to your outcome #2 - Starting at the end - Guarantee

The antidote to busyness

The economy is turning around... or at least the hype is turning the economy around.

As I write this, in the last month the mood is becoming upbeat and I keep meeting people who are scurrying around chasing after... well, that's the problem. They're scurrying, full of busyness and yet most of it is action without direction.

My prospective clients have changed their response to me when I enquire about their plans for leadership development in the organization. A short while ago, it was:

"My budget is still on hold, we're not sure if the recovery will sustain. It could be a U-shape, a V- shape or perhaps it's a W"

Now it's:

"Really busy, I've just spent the last week recruiting new team members and then we have to run this [technical] training. And we just don;t have the bandwidth to even think about developing their leadership. Can be come back in six months?"

Now, please don't get me wrong here, I am not seeking your sympathy or having a 'pity poor me party'. It's an example from my business perspective of how people swing from panicking that they are not busy enough and filling their time with lots of activities trying desperately to plug gaps, to being incredibly busy just trying to keep up with growth. I'm sure that you have your own similar examples.

At some point, often at the beginning of a new business cycle, people begin to think that they really ought to get organized and plan things to be less stressed and get more done.

Pop into any bookstore and int he self-help section you'll find books and more books on the secret to achieving your own goals... but what if you haven't taken the time out to actually set some?

    Ridiculous, of course I have set my goals!

Sure?

Realistically, when you have a goal, these are generally longer term:

• "I want to reduce my handicap to 4 by the end of the year" is a SMART goal (for a golfer). 
• "I want to finish this project by year end within the budget" is a pretty generic SMART goal.
• "I want to be less stressed and be promoted" however is possibly A and R but not SMT.
  

Obviously, you know that such a goal is unlikely to be immediate, there are steps along the way, milestones if you prefer, we call these steps 'Outcomes'.

After years of coaching, training and teaching, I have come to the profound conclusion that most people can only work on one thing at a time. Especially men! My research has shown that when we identify a very specific outcome and run a plan of actions to achieve it, if it fits within a greater plan, then we are more likely to see ultimate success. Any project leader knows this, and establishes a series of specific outcomes from tasks - down to the minute detail - and the greater or larger the overall goal, the more detailed the planning, the tasks, the outcomes from each task, the resources required and so on.

But this is just about generalities, ideas and concepts. This is the part where you do the actual work. This is how you change yourself. So, firstly, I'd like to introduce a process to ensure that you:

• Know your outcome
• Act to achieve your outcome

This process is a truly effective outcome setting process. It works at the unconscious level and provides an action plan - or at least the first steps of an action plan for longer term goals, and links your own personal desire to achieve the goal. This is important, because most goals (if not all) require that you do something to achieve them. i.e. you have to do some work - even when such work is considered 'play' it will still require some degree of effort on your part.

The goal setting process is SWING - should be easy to remember right?

• S - Specific goal stated in the positive and measurable - a goal to move towards not something to move away from
• W - What do I Win? What are the pay-offs? What do I lose? What will I see when I have it? What will I hear when I have it? What will I feel when I have it? What will I smell/taste when I have it?
• I - I control everything that I need to control to achieve this. Is anyone else involved? Where and when will you do it?
• N - As if Now - Step into the future and see, hear. feel and act as if you have achieved your goal now.
• G - Guarantee
• What will happen if I get my goal?
• What won't happen if I get my goal?
• What will happen if I don't get my goal?
• What won't happen if I don't get my goal?

Specific Win I Now Guarantee

Let's start at the end first!