Did you and your team decide at the beginning of the year that you would hit a new monthly sales target this year? Did you hit it once and then fall back? Getting to new levels and staying there is the challenge of a growing business.
Whether it’s about sales, or production, or team function, break it down 3 steps to most quickly build in a new, higher level of success. There are 3 distinct stages to practice and learning whenever something new needs to become part of how company runs.
- Do it once. Doing something new takes a lot of energy. It can feel like we’re pouring 10 units of energy in to get one out. Like making 25 calls to find one needle-in-a-haystack client. This is where visionary entrepreneurs shine: breaking through the boundaries of the organization’s prior performance, making something new HAPPEN! A big cheer goes up inside us when we hit that new goal, deliver a new service to client kudos, or lead a meeting that accomplishes great problem solving.
- Do it again. Not as exciting but a significant milestone. This stage takes more steady, repetitive activity than creative breakthroughs. A huge boost to achieving this stage is to slow down for a minute and identify 3-5 things that really worked in stage 1. Decide, to, what didn’t work because it was a time sucking brick wall, and what needs to be tried again in a different way.
- Do it consistently. Now is when we take what we learned in the first 2 stages and turn it into a process that everyone involved can follow. This, too, is experimental. Write down the steps that achieved results – even if they seem simple. Get input from anyone who is doing the work. Make the written instructions a living document, one that gets revised by the team when there is a need.
It takes time, effort and open, honest communication to create a process that actually works. In the end you will take a big load off your shoulders. Managing to the new goals will be easier and more fun. That’s how you always dreamed it would be, right?
