Learn what a commit goal is and what you should consider when creating one.
When you set goals, I encourage you to set two kinds of goals. The first is a commit goal and the second is a stretch goal.
A commit goal is something you’re committing to do for the organization. If you miss it, you can get fired. There should be extreme consequences for missing a commit goal. To build your commit goal, work from the bottom up. Work directly with your team and have them make commitments to you as far as what they’re going to deliver for their goals. You’ll then need to reconcile the team’s commits and make sure they all add up to your commit to your organization.
At one point I had three different teams and we were tasked with a major cost reduction project. My boss came to me and asked me how much cost reduction would I commit to removing from the system. I went to my teams and I asked them how much cost they could take out, and I asked them for their goals. They gave me commit goals of one and a half million, two million, and three million dollars, for a total of six point five million dollars that they would commit to.
When I went to my boss, I hedged on that number a little bit and I told him I could commit to six million dollars. Now, he knew better and he knew I was hedging a little and he pushed me on it. He eventually got me to a point where we negotiated and I committed to six point two five million. Over the plan period, we exceeded that goal and we hit seven million dollars of cost reduction. Obviously there were no negative consequences for the team, but the result of having that commit was the entire team was focused on delivering six point two five. We tracked it over the course of the year. It was something that was at the top of our priority list because we knew we had to deliver it to the organization. Our commit was fed into the budgeting process at the beginning of the year and by doing so we ended up with a very accurate budget that people could plan for.
When you’re creating your commit goal, sit down with the team and make sure they understand what they’re committing to is going to have implications. The organization will plan based on that number and if they miss that number, there will be consequences for them and for you. Having that clear commit will drive the focus you need in terms of achieving a goal and making sure that the rest of the organization can plan for what you’re going to deliver.
Want to learn more about setting team and employee goals? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning how to create a culture of strategy execution. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/20210728-Goals.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=112801920Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2021-07-28 06:30:432021-07-28 01:03:05How to Create a Commit Goal
Use this common budgeting technique to set goals that are more relevant and actionable.
When you’re setting goals, you can borrow a technique from a common budgeting process called zero-based budgeting. What you do is look at last year, forget about it, and then look at where you are today and what you can achieve going forward. Every dollar you’re going to spend in the budget is justified. And every number you’re going to deliver is based on your current reality. Read more
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/20210721-Zero-2.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=112801920Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2021-07-21 06:30:082021-07-21 01:06:16How to Set Zero-Based Goals
Learn how to identify distractions and focus your team on the most strategically important initiatives for your organization.
In a fast paced world, there is no shortage of distractions. Side projects, interesting new ideas, and the crisis of the day can divert resources from key strategic initiatives. In isolation, pursuing these small ideas make sense, but when you put them in the broader context of your strategic initiatives, you get to see exactly how nonstrategic these distractions are. You have to remind people of their priorities. Eliminate these resource-draining distractions. Chasing these ideas prevents your strategy from being executed. Read more
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/20210714-Focus.jpg?fit=1920%2C1440&ssl=114401920Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2021-07-14 06:30:072021-07-14 04:59:09Focusing and Eliminating Distractions
Learn nine principles that can help you become a better leader.
Today’s post is by Angela Civitella, a business leadership coach and founder of Intinde.
Most employees have big dreams of one day having the big title, the corner office, and being able to lead an organization. Industry knowledge is certainly part of the job, but it won’t make you a great leader all by itself. This is where leadership skills come into play, and without having an exceptional grasp of them, your days at the top will be short-lived.
How do you learn these skills? They aren’t taught in school. There’s no formal on-the-job training about them. In fact, most great leaders will tell you that everything they know about leadership they learned as they went along. Even things they thought they knew proved to be off or not exactly as they expected. It was only after rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty that they learned these lessons by doing.
Regardless of when and how you learn about leadership, if you want to lead an organization and do it successfully, there are nine things you have to know.
1. React to opportunities. Don’t sit back.
There are two types of people: those who sit back and watch, and those who act. Great leaders watch for less than a second and are quick to take massive action. Always be thinking more about forward motion and less about right or wrong. Remember, in most cases, you can fix a mistake later. When an opportunity is gone, it’s usually gone forever. If being indecisive is something you struggle with, set a time limit. When time is up, force yourself to act. Don’t just act causally. Act with purpose and full intensity.
2. Stop micro-worrying.
Micro-worrying is frantically trying to take care of or control every little detail to the point you actually begin to feel sick. Your mind is racing. Your heart is pounding. Your stress and anxiety are through the roof. Unless you’re trying to save someone’s life, there’s no need to box in your movements by “analysis-paralysis.” Obsessing over the finer details, or the things that are irrelevant and won’t impact the outcome is pointless and will only distract you from what you really need to be accomplishing. Your goal is to do the best job you can do and move on.
3. Find satisfaction.
Human beings have short attention spans. This gets worse when given a task someone doesn’t find appealing. Maybe it’s a long and boring meeting, conference call, training session or whatever else. Great leaders know the secret to success is to add a quotient of contentment and satisfaction to absolutely everything. The productivity of your teams will skyrocket. Your employees will be more engaged, have more fun, and actually enjoy their work. Some people might measure success with money. These days, satisfaction is a pretty high up on the list.
4. Be genuine with your connections.
We are so busy connecting on social media, that we have forgotten the true art of taking the time to meet someone in-person to really connect. This was a problem even prior to Covid. As soon as it’s safe to do so, get with people again for a real handshake, a real conversation, and a face-to-face meeting where you can actually have a three-dimensional experience with someone. This is what builds long lasting business relationships. Let’s go back to being real people.
5. There is no “overnight success” story
Tangible success in the beginning is very scarce. What comes in droves is frustration and all the other attitudes that make feeling successful an unattainable journey. Just remember, career success almost always equals hard work and time. People forget to give amply of it and then wonder why they aren’t getting anywhere. Remember, you get out what you put in, and sometimes it feels like it takes more than that.
6. Neglected connections are not connections.
How many times have you heard someone brag that they have 5,000 LinkedIn connections, 50,000 Facebook followers and a database of more than 200,000 people? Guess what? It’s all irrelevant if you don’t work those contacts and regularly stay in touch with them.
Be mindful and strategic about keeping a dynamic connection with contacts that can better your work life and life in general. There are different people for different aspects of your life. Be organized about your relationships, and nurturing. Stay on people’s radar. If you’re just a faceless connection on a website, how useful is that to you or anyone else? It really is quality over quantity when it comes to your connections.
7. Failure doesn’t last
Mistakes happen. In fact, they have a big purpose. I would even go as far as saying mistakes can be better than winning at times. Mistakes bring you to refine your thinking, your plans, and how you execute and deliver your business model. They are meant to give you the necessary pause in your journey to “reset.” So, it’s not about failing; it’s about learning. When you realize this, it takes away the fear and allows you to engage with less anxiety, less toxicity in your system, and have a better mindset about all the moving pieces in your life.
8. Spread out your interests
Has anyone ever called you a generalist, as if it were a bad thing? It’s actually a great quality when it comes to leadership. Generalists have a keen mind about a lot of things and are motivated to engage as long as something piques their interest. They are happy to learn something new, always thinking about a more robust arsenal of skills that they can claim as their own. These wonders of perpetual knowledge are always curious about everything and everyone. They never find anything boring. They are always able to get a nugget or two out of something. It might not happen right away, but eventually they will call on that knowledge in a big way and everyone will look at them and think: how in the world do they know that?
9. Teamwork makes the dreamwork
I love this saying. Being a good team member is one of the top things hiring managers and recruiters look for in a job candidate. You can be a superstar with awesome capabilities. If you cannot get along with your teammates and do not identify with the work culture in your organization, you might as well bow out and go home because you are of no use. Companies are looking for people who fit in harmoniously because conflict is usually a drain on employee productivity, morale, and all the other factors that companies rely on to keep their business moving.
Angela Civitella is an executive, a business leadership coach, and the founder of Intinde. www.intinde.com
Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/20210712-Number-9.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=17201280Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2021-07-12 08:00:462021-07-12 03:03:029 Lessons for Leadership Success No One Teaches You About
Do you struggle to get things done because you overthink your work? Try these three tips to overcome “analysis paralysis.”
Many times I’ve heard it said that perfect is the enemy of done. A big barrier to executing initiatives is analysis paralysis. The team gets bogged down on proving their case is 100% accurate and risk-free before they act. That slows down execution and leads to missed opportunities. By understanding the risks you face and making appropriate trade-offs between timeliness and accuracy effects, you can speed up execution and break through analysis paralysis. Read more
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/20210707-Woman-Biting-Pencil.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=112801920Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2021-07-08 06:30:092021-07-08 01:07:58Breaking Free from Analysis Paralysis
Managing your work-from-home team successfully takes more than technology. Here are five steps to ensure clarity, collaboration, connectedness and productivity.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about numerous seismic shifts in our lifestyles. One of the biggest for many of us is learning to effectively work from home. For team managers, the remote life poses particular challenges. Simply having the technology and tools is not enough. Managers also need to adjust priorities and protocols and develop guideposts to overcome the pitfalls of isolation and keep everyone productive and successful. Here are five things they can do:
Adjust your definition of success. Working remotely looks, sounds, and feels different from working in person because it is. That means you can’t use the same metrics to measure success. For instance, engagement looks different without in-person contact. Back-to-back video conferences can generate a new kind of fatigue for everyone involved, so make space to recognize this. Consider what you do require from your team be it an agenda, a defined and clear objective, punctuality, or video cameras on. Try to notice what works for your team. When do they stay engaged and when do they zone out?
Establish new priorities for the new space. Now that your team is working from home, recognize a new set of mental health needs that stem from persisting confusion and tension. Team members may be feeling overwhelmed, isolated, and “paralyzed” – things they used to be able to mitigate by merely walking down the hall and chatting with a coworker. Remind team members to take care of themselves and to take the occasional mental health day. Foster work/life balance by insisting on dedicated lunch times, carving out no-meeting blocks on calendars, and having a consistent end-of-day finish time. Have short one-on-one check-ins to assist in removing blocks. Set up occasional social, no “work talk” virtual meetups or create a buddy system within the team so team members are encouraged to get to know one another outside of their roles.
Be consistent and do not cancel. When we’re not physically together in an office, we have a natural tendency to forgo regular one-on-one check ins with our direct reports, but now it is even more important. Your team members probably feel more isolated than ever and their lives are full of new and complex pressures. Consistent, efficient one-on-ones are critical for staying motivated, collaborative, and reaching goals. Additionally, set a reminder on your calendar to consistently check in with team members, as their needs and concerns will constantly evolve.
Be honest and vulnerable about your own experience. If you are feeling exhausted by endless zoom meetings, share it with your team. If you feel “over” the pandemic, let them know. Offering what is true for you from a place of observational truth, without judging yourself or the situation, gives your team space and permission to do the same. When your team feels safe to express how they are coping (or not) you have the opportunity to creatively problem solve while you still can. Use your listening skills like never before. Tune in. Turn off notifications. Close other tabs. Be present with your team and truly hear what they have to say. An excellent tool to use here is to repeat back to them what they shared before jumping into a response. “What I hear you saying is…., is that accurate?” Then move into the conversation where you know you are on the same page and they know you heard them.
Last but not least, trust your team to do their jobs. Create an environment where people know they can ask questions or simply say, “I don’t know.” This builds their trust in themselves, each other, and you. When your direct reports know you have trust in them, they feel a powerful agency and motivation. Clearly state expectations. Take care to describe the scope of each project accurately. Then release your team members to do their work. Check-in for short meetings and continue to delegate. Sharing the work, giving support where needed, and allowing and encouraging questions builds a team that is resilient, curious, and connected.
Pavo Navigation Coaching is a resource for those seeking to reimagine their working environment. Focused on identifying and addressing toxicity in all its forms, Pavo serves a wide variety of companies both large and small with the goal of positively impacting employee happiness, loyalty, productivity and ultimately, profits. For more information, visit www.pavonavigation.com
Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/20210705-Zoom-Call.jpg?fit=1920%2C1440&ssl=114401920Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2021-07-05 08:00:372021-07-05 04:44:56Managing Your Remote Team Successfully – Five “Must Do’s”
Building chemistry between the members of your team is all about personalities, shared beliefs, and trust.
It’s great to have a clear vision, a mission, a nice set of prioritized initiatives, and all the right people. But what starts differentiating a team from a high-performing team is chemistry and trust. These intangibles are some of the most critical elements of building a high-performing team, but they’re also some of the most elusive ones to build and capture.
Personalities and Shared Beliefs
Building chemistry between the members of your team is all about personalities and shared beliefs. Make sure everyone on your team is involved in the interview process because candidates will show different sides of themselves to different people. And sometimes, those sides can be unattractive detractors from what you’re trying to build. Read more
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/20210623-Chemistry.jpg?fit=1920%2C1278&ssl=112781920Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2021-06-23 06:30:402021-06-23 05:09:18How to Build Team Chemistry
Recruiting the right people involves creating appropriate role descriptions and knowing where to look.
One of the most exciting aspects of building a high-performing team is recruiting people to be members of that team. There’s nothing better than finding that really talented person who wants to come work with you. So as you think about doing this recruiting and finding the right people, you need to understand how to create role descriptions based on the team’s skill needs. Read more
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/20210609-Businesswomen-Interview.jpg?fit=1910%2C1276&ssl=112761910Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2021-06-16 06:30:272021-06-16 03:09:33Recruiting the Right People
Building a high-performing team involves hiring people with technical, functional, and cultural skills.
As the leader of a high-performing team, you’re personally responsible for making sure your team has the required set of skills to succeed and execute against all the initiatives that you have on your prioritization list. You need to evaluate your team’s mission. You need to look at the key initiatives. And then, you need to map out the skills and capabilities required to succeed. Read more
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/20210602-Team-Gathering.jpg?fit=1280%2C853&ssl=18531280Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2021-06-02 06:30:192021-06-02 05:54:27How to Build Teams With the Right Mix of Skills
Individuals will always have different levels of hesitancy when it comes to change. Learn how to address skepticism in a way that makes change easier for everyone at your organization.
A silly question, perhaps, but an important one to answer when experiencing or initiating a change. Let me explain.
In over 25 years of experience coaching individuals and providing change management consultation to diverse organizations, I have discovered that any change event can trigger three general responses in us and in those we lead. It is important for us to identify them in ourselves and in others. Read more
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/20210517-Change.jpg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=110801920Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2021-05-17 08:00:542021-05-17 06:47:02When It Comes to Change, Are You a Cuddly Curmudgeon or Early Adopter?
Starting a business? Don’t know where to start? Avoid beginner mistakes and make the most of your time by taking advice from someone who’s been there before.
Today’s post is by Mike Figliuolo, Managing Director of thoughtLEADERS.
In 2012, I gave an interview to The Metropreneur in which I shared my answers to the five most common questions I’m asked about entrepreneurship and thoughtLEADERS LLC.
Although this interview took place eight years ago, I believe all the guidance is just as relevant today as it was when I first said it:
When do I talk to the venture capitalists?
Five years from now. Seriously, entrepreneurs need Read more
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/20210110-Ask-Sign.jpg?fit=1280%2C853&ssl=18531280Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2021-01-13 06:30:422021-01-28 13:45:06Timeless Advice for Beginner Entrepreneurs
Finding the balance between speaking and letting your team speak for themselves is the self-awareness challenge of all leaders, and can be the different maker between good and great.
Today’s post is by Mike Figliuolo, Managing Director of thoughtLEADERS.
To help you be a better team member, colleague and boss, I’m bringing you a pointed lesson in the art of being quiet. Today I’m conjuring up the spirit of Run DMC. To quote the immortal Rev Run:
You talk too much! You never shut up!
Run DMC nailed the heart of the issue with this verse:
You’re the instigator, the orator of the town. You’re the worst when you converse, just a big mouth clown. You talk when you’re awake, I heard you talk when you sleep Has anyone ever told you, that talk is cheap?
Now let’s take DMC to the workplace. You know the person they’re singing about. It’s that guy on the team who can’t shut up about anything. Hopefully he simply blathers on about his antique smurf collection (and boy was he jazzed about the live-action movie). More likely though, he’s the guy who is talking about everyone and everything going on in the office.
But guess what? YOU might be that person. If you are, you’ve got a big problem. First let’s discuss your symptoms then some ways to fix it.
Finding the balance between speaking and letting your team speak for themselves is the self-awareness challenge of all leaders, and can be the different maker between good and great.