In the book of Habakkuk, the Lord answers, ‘Write the vision and make it plain.’  I personally like the make it plain part.  The simpler the goals, the more likely you and your team will be able to accomplish them.  Your team needs clearly defined goals in order to maintain focus.

A great model for creating goals is to follow the SMART methodology:

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Attainable
R – Realistic
T – Timely

Start with the big picture.  What do you want to accomplish this calendar or fiscal year?  Then, break them into action items that can be accomplished each quarter.  By breaking the goals up, it accomplishes two very important things:

1. It keeps people from being overwhelmed by the gap that exists between where you are right now and where you want to be.  While you do want to dream big, you don’t want your team to be consumed with the grandure of the goal.
2. It gives you tools to measure progress. You should be holding quarterly reviews with your departments.  If you are not currently doing it, stop now and put the reviews on your calendar.  Your team needs to see and celebrate progress.  It’s a great tool to utilize to maintain perspective and momentum.

Your team members want to be contributing members of a TEAM.  They don’t want to feel like a commodity in a place that doesn’t communicate with them or appreciate them.  As a leader, it’s imperative that you share the direction, motivate for the direction and hold folks accountable for achieving that direction.

If you want your team to function like a cohesive unit, they need to understand their individual impact on the greater vision.  Each person on your team needs to see how they themselves and their goals fit into the big picture.  With this understanding, it will instill a greater sense of responsibility for both personal performance and for the overall performance of the team.

Why Employees Get Frustrated

OK, enough preaching.  Let’s take a stroll down memory lane for a minute.  When was the last time you felt frustrated with your boss?  Let me guess, it was for one of the following three reasons:  1.  You didn’t feel appreciated.   2.  She dropped something on your desk with an unrealistic deadline or 3. She is scattered and seems to have no real direction which frustrates your team.

Most ‘boss’ related issues fall within one of those three categories.  One and three are preventable.  Two is most of the time but sometimes, everyone just has to buckle down and be a team player.

If you felt frustrated with your boss for one of those three reasons, isn’t it worth a try to do something different and ensure that you aren’t becoming one of those bosses?

Need More?

Need a little more guidance planning for the success of your business? I'll let you in on a secret - I need guidance all the time!  Really!  The absolute best thing I have ever done for my business was to decide not to do it all alone.

That's why I built the DoverDrive Experience.  I know what it's like to carry the weight of a growing business on your shoulders and feel the pressure of having to know everything at all times.  It's exhausting and impossible.

Inside the DoverDrive Experience, you're getting learning/doing content shared with you EVERY week.  That means you create a cycle of business development.

You see, the biggest mistake that business owners make is that they only work ON their business when something isn't going right or when they don't have enough business to meet financial goals.  The truth is, if you work on yourbusiness continuously, you'd have less problems and less periods of feast or famine.

Join us inside the DoverDrive Experience and let's get started GROWING your business.