BHAG It

Forum 1

Planning For Success Planning For Success

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Throughout Month I, we’ll be working on making your vision clearer, stronger, and more personal. We will move from your dreams and desires to your vision by the following steps:

• Building Your Story • Extracting the Elements of Your Story • Setting Your Goals • Moving from Goals to Vision • Developing Your Vision Statement • Moving from Vision to Mission Statement

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Reading

Reading for Month 1

Many entrepreneurs go into business with a dream, a vision, and a skill set, wanting a flexible schedule, and tired of growing someone else’s business. However, if this is all they bring, they have made a fatal mistake: They have not identified themselves as the leader of their business. In other words, they are in danger of going to work IN their business rather than working ON their business.

Being clear about your part in the company — your leadership role — allows you to manage all aspects of the rest of the business, including job descriptions for employees, your product or service, planned growth in the company, and the systems you will implement will all create a platform for success and profit.

Personalized and individual coaching will take place between you and your coach and consultant.

We move you through the awkward stages of leadership — from where it is uncomfortable to where it becomes comfortable and, finally, to where it becomes so integrated into your regular routine that your leadership skills are second nature.

Take the action to locate and use the resources you have available to you. As a client, you are able to take advantage of our other public Coaching Forums, trainings and seminars to refine your skills. We have developed a unique system in business-to-business management that helps build leadership skills and foster change. By meeting regularly with other business owners and their teams, our clients learn to force change. They learn the information and skills to take charge and be responsible. Peer support and pressure move them forward.

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Each month, we select a book that we ask you to read with your team. How you manage this group effort is up to you. One way would be to establish am/pm huddles and weekly meetings. We’ve found that meeting for an hour at the same time each week is most effective. Determine how many chapters must be read and discussed each week in order to finish the book in a month’s time. You could assign a specific team member a chapter to discuss with everyone. Spending 10-12 minutes discussing what everyone got out of the information gives different perspectives on the information.

Our first book is Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill.* First printed in 1938, it is one of the most popular books of all time, and it’s often quoted by major movers and shakers today as one of the most influential books they ever read. If you’ve read it before, please read it again and assign yourself a chapter to discuss with the rest.

*Mr. Hill presenting the basic ideas, learned from Andrew Carnegie, that changed his life and the lives of many who have read his book. To see that video again on YouTube, here is the URL: http://youtu.be/1GCaEZscfvA.

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Managing Groups — Team Huddle

Company Mission Statement {place your mission statement here}

Team Huddle Date: Start time: End time:

Meeting Leader:

AM Huddle: Is there anything anyone needs to say in order to participate 100% today?

What was the production numbers from yesterday?

What is the forecast for the next four days?

Where are we in the cycle in regards to our monthly production goal?

What projects are we working on today?

End on a positive note and read your mission statement out loud.

PM Huddle:

Is there anything anyone needs to say in order to participate 100% at home today?

What was our actual production and collection?

Who asked for business today?

Acknowledgments.

Notes:

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(File completed Team Meeting form in your meeting binder)

{Always end on a positive note. You can insert your own or use this:} In our company, problems are resolved with the attitude that everything is an OPPORTUNITY, an ADVENTURE, and will be FANTASTIC!

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Managing Groups — Team Meeting

Company Mission Statement {place your mission statement here}

Team Meeting Date: Start time: End time:

Meeting Leader:

During this portion of the meeting, update the team on old business, updates on projects, your WINS and challenges.

Come prepared to share and problem solve!

Project update:

Marketing update:

Monthly Production:

Weekly Goals: 1.

2.

3.

Current book selection:

Office Supply Needs:

Marketing ideas:

Team Tasks:

Task:

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Monthly Goals: 1.

2.

3.

Who:

(File completed Team Meeting form in your meeting binder)

{Always end on a positive note. You can insert your own or use this:} “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress and working together is success.” ~Henry Ford

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Building

Building Your Story

Tell your story. Your story provides the foundation for everything we will do together. With an exciting story in place, it is a short step to the next level—and so onward and upward. The bigger and more powerful your story, the greater will be your success in the program.

From your story, you’ll determine your desires and your ideas, your vision and your goals will become clear, and finally you will develop the personal and professional mission statement that will drive the rest of your life.

We encourage you to make your story as big and as powerful and as exciting as you can possibly imagine. You can do this because there will be nothing holding you back. No one will be telling you that you can’t be the “you” in the story.

Here’s some advice from a woman who, a hundred years ago, gave evidence of her understanding of the power of the subconscious mind:

You never can tell what a thought will do In bringing you hate or love; For thoughts are things, and their airy wings Are swifter than carrier doves.

They follow the law of the universe— Each thing creates its kind, And they speed o’er the track to bring you back Whatever went out from your mind.

You are telling your story to yourself more than anyone else.

You are pulling ideas and dreams from your subconscious that you may not even have known you had.

By getting them into the open, they will have power greater than you ever imagined.

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L F — from “You Never Can Tell”

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919)

Your story will be yours alone, and it will contain all the details that will allow you to create a world of success joy, and prosperity.

Ultimately, your story will empower your vision and your life—if you let it!

Here are some pointers to consider as you create your story. They are provided only to help you think as BIG as possible. Ignore any or all of these suggestions if they slow you down in any way. Do be sure to write your story in a journal, spiral bound or leather, but something that can be kept for reference through the years.

Brian Tracy, author of The Psychology of Achievement, says, “According to the best research, less than 3 percent of Americans have written goals, and less than 1 percent review and rewrite their goals on a daily basis.”

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Building

Building Your Story (continued)

1. Title your story. It can be as simple as giving it your name: Chris’s Story. Or more focused like Cookie Maker to the World.

2. Put yourself at the heart of the story. You need to see yourself as the main mover and shaker. What is it that YOU have always dreamed of doing?

3. Stay focused and be descriptive. You are creating a world. Fill it with the things that you want to see in that world starting with YOU. Are you wearing that pink dress suit you bought at Nordstrom’s last week? Are you watching a spectacular sunset from your corner office in a lofty skyscraper?

Use as many details as you can. Lavish lots of thought and attention on what you are building here. As your story grows, it will become reality for you, and you don’t want any gaps.

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Note: As we move from your story to your vision, we will be working with six specific areas of your life: spiritual, physical, professional, social, financial, and family. If you can add details that are relevant to these areas, it will be easier later on to develop a complete vision of your life.

4. Don’t try to be fancy with your writing. Use the language that you’re comfortable with, write as if your were talking to a friend, and capture everything that comes to mind. Skipping back and forth is fine, if you forget something. You can go back later and rearrange your story. The point now is to get everything out of your head and onto the page. EVERYTHING!

5. Feel your emotions as you write. The more you write, the more excited you’ll become. You might not feel much at first, but, if you’re really telling your story, the feelings will come. Capture that excitement. Use strong words. Do you walk or do you stride? Do you feel good as you land a major Forum 1: Planning For Success

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Building

Building Your Story (continued)

client or are you elated? Dream about how you feel as you build the world you want—and write it down.

6. Read your story aloud as you create it. At first, you will be your best audience, because you (probably) don’t intimidate yourself. Are you inspired by what you hear? Do you need to add some more details or emotions? As you realize how big and exciting this new world is becoming, find someone to read your story to, someone who can travel with you on this journey and share in the excitement you’re feeling.

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7. Make your story be NOW. By locating your story in the present, you’ll see that you’re building the world you can start living in today. The more immediate things feel, the stronger their influence on you, and the easier it is to move into that next phase of your life.

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8. Make your story part of a larger picture. We may be in a recession right now, but that’s not the business climate you want in your story, so build a world that is thriving. And if you want to sell your widgets to the world, create a world where even the remotest locations are recognizing how much they need your widgets. THINK BIG!

9. Once a week, take out your story and read it. Add details that help your story grow bigger and better. Reimagine things, if your original ideas were too small. And stand in front of a mirror and read your story to yourself. Watch yourself grow stronger and more inspired—and inspiring— right before your eyes!

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Extracting

Extracting the Elements of Your Story

You’ve written your story. Hopefully it is long and detailed and crammed full of ideas for what you want to see in all parts of your world. Now how do we tame this big mass of details and turn it into a clear and vivid statement of your vision?

The easiest way is to extract the details from the story and separate them into the various aspects of your world using the boxes on the next few pages. Pull one of these pages out of the workbook and start reading your story, line by line. As you encounter a detail in the story (“10th floor office,” for example), pencil it into the appropriate box.

Here are two paragraphs from a sample story. We’ve extracted details from them and written each one in the most appropriate box.

I have lost some weight in my new world, and I enjoy physical activity every day. My family responds to my joyful and enthusiastic suggestions, and we do many things together, from going to church to having family night at which we play games and one of us picks the menu for dinner.

Physical

Family

Lose weight Daily physical activity

Attend church with family Set up regular family night (play games, family member chooses menu)

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I work fewer hours now, though I get much more done. This is partly because I’ve learned to delegate routine tasks to others, partly because I have established a set of goals and the activities necessary to accomplish them, and partly because I’ve gotten into the routine of reviewing my tasks for the next day before I leave the office.

Professional

Work fewer hours Delegate activities Establish goals Review tomorrow’s tasks at day’s end

Spiritual

Be joyful and enthusiastic Attend church regularly

Note that some details might belong in more than one box. For example, you might decide to play golf to help achieve a physical goal. But if you play regularly in a league with friends, that could help you become more social. Or perhaps playing golf with your spouse would be a way to enjoy more family time.

If you think of new details you want in your story, go right ahead and add them. Remember to put them in the appropriate boxes, too. And if you find any important details that don’t seem to belong in any of the six areas, add them below the boxes.

All right, now it’s your turn. You’ve got your detail-packed story pages—GO FOR IT!

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Extracting

Extracting the Elements of Your Story (continued)

Spiritual

Physical

Professional

Financial

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Other:

Family

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Extracting

Extracting the Elements of Your Story (continued)

Spiritual

Physical

Professional

Financial

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Other:

Family

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Extracting

Extracting the Elements of Your Story (continued)

Spiritual

Physical

Professional

Financial

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Other:

Family

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Discussion

Discussion

1. What did you learn? What are your “ahas”?

3. Questions?

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2. Be prepared to share with your coach and the class.

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Your Goals

Setting Your Goals

Good work! We assume you’ve now got two or three pages of boxes filled with details from your story. The next step in this journey to your vision is to take those details and let them direct you to the goals you will set in each of those areas. And to the timeline you’ll set to achieve those goals. A few guidelines might help. First, let’s be clear about what constitutes a goal. A goal is an objective, a point you are trying to reach. If you are always showing up for appointments five or ten minutes late, you might establish a goal of being on time. Having goals helps you focus your behavior so that your actions and their results are more likely to help you grow into the person you hope to become.

To be truly life-changing and achievable, goals must have several characteristics.

1. Goals must be realistic. Unless you’re already a candidate, deciding that you want to be the next President of the United States (POTUS) is probably unrealistic. However, you could decide that you want to be POTUS in 2032, giving yourself 20 years to build a reputation, a voter base, and a campaign fund!

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Although you should not let the need to be realistic hamper your dreams in any way. If you have big dreams—and anybody can—it just means you need to take bigger steps to reach them.

2. Goals must be attainable. Not only must a goal be realistic, it must also be possible to achieve. You might be able to be a presidential candidate in 2032, but it might not feel right to spend the time away from your family that becoming a viable candidate would require.

Realistically, you could run for President in 2032, but you would have to abandon other priorities and goals. So being President is probably not attainable for you.

Perhaps you’ve set a goal to produce a company newsletter on a weekly basis. That’s certainly realistic. But when you think of all the requirements for producing even a small 4-page weekly, given how overloaded you and your staff are at the moment, you might decide that this reasonable goal is unattainable. However, changing the parameters of the goal from weekly to monthly might make the goal attainable.

3. Goals must be specific. “Hmm. I think I’ll try to clean my house.” Now there’s a realistic goal, and also an attainable one. But it’s a rather vague goal. All of it? Right now? Alone? Deep scrubbing or just tidying up? If you hired a cleaning service, they would want you to specify the tasks you expect them to perform.

Let’s use the previous newsletter example. Just saying you want to put out a newsletter does not help you decide what resources you’ll need. How often? What size? Who will write it? Who will design it? Without specifics, the chances of producing a company newsletter are slim.

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Your Goals

Setting Your Goals

Be aware, however, that goals that are specific and appropriate for today may—and most likely will—need to be reviewed and revised in the future. Today, it may only be possible to produce a four-page newsletter four times a year. As the company grows, you may find someday that a weekly product is just right.

4. Goals must have a time constraint. Yes, we know: constraint is such a limiting unpleasant word. But without setting some time boundaries, you might not ever realize you’ve actually achieved a goal. And often you find that you’ve achieved it sooner than expected! So it’s a good thing to decide just exactly when you want to achieve a particular goal—and then focus your efforts so that you meet your schedule.

Take the goal of losing weight. This is a goal that is often set with a particular date or event in mind.

People want to lose a certain amount of weight before their wedding, or within three months after having a baby, or before summer arrives (whenever that happens to be!). Having a time constraint for the goal often—not always—helps in achieving it. Without a particular date, we might decide on a certain amount each week or month. Whatever time frame we decide is reasonable and attainable needs to be attached to our goal to keep us on the ball.

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5. Finally, goals must be measurable. This is often the hardest of the characteristics to work with. Just how do you measure a goal? Of course, if you’re dealing with weight or production, it’s easy: you count. If you decide you’ll produce 1,000 widgets a day, at the end of the day, you count how many widgets you made, and there’s your measurement.

But if you decide you want to beef up your social life, how do you measure that? Do you count the number of new contacts in your phone directory? Perhaps. Or you might decide you will attend four new events—book signings, free lectures, art gallery showings, church socials—each month.

That’s countable: at the end of the month, you either did or did not attend four social events. But did you actually meet new people? If you hung back in the corner sipping your wine glass and smiling thoughtfully to yourself, probably not. So re-write the goal. “I will introduce myself to at least three people at each of four events this month.” Aha! This is a realistic goal, it’s certainly attainable, it’s getting more specific, it’s got a time constraint of one month, and it can be easily measured (because you’ve collected business cards and filed them for each of your new friends, or when you get into your car after the event, you’ve at least written down the names and a few details about each of your new friends).

How do you go from your boxes full of details to specific measurable goals that will actually work for you? Take a quick glance at the boxes on the next three workbook pages. You’ll see that we’ve got a row for each of the six areas. In each row, there’s a place to write a goal, and then there are two boxes for writing in the activities that you will perform to reach the goals. On the first page, we have relatively short time periods, 6 Months and 1 Year; the next two pages ask you to think about goals for 2, 5, 10, and 20 years.

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Your Goals

Setting Your Goals (continued)

We’ve repeated the box for goals on each page, because you may find (as with our earlier example of the newsletter) goals that work in the near term need to be revised and rewritten for future years. If the goal for the first year is a quarterly newsletter, you may decide that you then want to produce a monthly newsletter for the next five years, and, starting in Year 6, one each week. You can put your revised goals on each page as needed, and work on the activities that will be required during each period.

Look at the sum of the details in one box at a time. Choose a detail, write it in as a goal, and then determine the activities and the time period that seem most likely to lead to achieving the goal. The activity might change in each period. For example, see how the second goal in the Physical box, “Perform some physical activity each day,” connects to walking and taking the stairs for six months and then to taking a walk at lunch each day in the second six months.

We’ll work more on how to gauge your success later on. For now, though, you’ve got plenty to do to get your goals written down and scheduled. GO FOR IT!

Goal

Physical

Lose weight Daily physical activity

Professional

Professional Work fewer hours Delegate activities Establish goals Review tomorrow’s tasks at day’s end

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Physical

6 Months

1 Year

Lose 25 pounds Perform some physical activity each day

Limit myself to one soda and one dessert per day Park my car at the far end of the parking lot and walk up the stairs to my office

Cut out an additional 200 calories per day Walk for half an hour at lunch

Work fewer hours Delegate routine tasks to others Establish new goals for company in 3 areas: HR, productivity, individual.

Leave the office each day by at least 7 pm (50 hrs/wk) Hire assistant immediately for 20 hours a week to input invoices and answer emails Focus on one new goal per month in each of 3 areas: HR, productivity, costs Review next day’s tasks before leaving office

Leave the office each day by at least 6 pm (45 hrs/wk) Add 10 more hours of work for assistant to do weekly payroll Add new company goals as necessary and focus on one each month in each area.

Establish weekly goals and review each Monday

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Your Goals

Setting Your Goals (continued)

1 Year

6 Months

Social Financial Family Other

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Physical

Spiritual

Goal

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Your Goals

Setting Your Goals (continued)

5 Years

2 Years

Social Financial Family Other

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Physical

Spiritual

Goal

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Your Goals

Setting Your Goals (continued)

20 Years

10 Years

Social Financial Family Other

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Physical

Spiritual

Goal

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Discussion

Discussion

1. What did you learn? What are your “ahas”?

3. Questions?

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2. Be prepared to share with your coach and the class.

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Break

Break

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Action Plans

Priorities, Goals, and Actions Alignment Worksheet

INTRODUCTION: Priorities, Goals, and Actions Alignment Worksheet What This Is Worksheets for personal use to capture critical goals. Make sure your goals are prioritized so that your energy goes to what’s most important, and develop personal action plans that align with how you spend your time and with what you identified as most important.

We’ve filled in a few worksheet cells to show how the content could play out for a Project Manager’s particular career development goal.

Why It’s Useful Because we’re all too busy with too many competing demands on our time. If you step back and look at how you’ve spent your last two weeks, can you say for sure that your energy was spent on really important items— at home or at work?

This format was created originally as a personal tool—simple in concept and format but powerful if used consistently—to ensure that questions always get answered with a “Yes.” The worksheets provide a means for keeping prioritized goals in front of us and driving our actions.

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How to Use It Identify Prioritized Goals: Use the Priorities Worksheet to list current goals, challenges, issues, areas of concern, or opportunities, in order of decreasing priority to you. These can be personal goals, work goals, career goals, or a mix. Priority can be thought of as a combination of importance and urgency. To decide which are your top priorities, first list all of them and then decide where you want to focus most of your energy.

Then choose where you would next focus if #1 were on track.

For each priority area, fill out the following: • Goal, stated as a desired outcome. Be Specific! What is it that you want to achieve?

• Measure: What would be the observable signs of success? Get very concrete about how you will know you’ve reached the goal.

• Date: By when do you intend to accomplish this? Give yourself a time goal to ensure action.

• What, if anything, seems impossible about this? Acknowledge the fears, risks, or barriers to achieving your goal. Then you can plan steps to overcome those obstacles.

• What outcome would exceed your expectations, and surprise and delight you? The biggest goals often yield the strongest motivation and action! Dream big and capture it to help drive action planning that’s bold enough to succeed.

Generate Ideas and Plans: Use the Ideas and Plans Worksheet to brainstorm a list of 12 or more ideas or actions for each goal. Choose one to take action on for each goal. NOTE: Include wild and “impossible” ideas!

Make sure your list includes at least one idea that would never work and another that you consider ridiculous; this way you can be certain you are not self-censoring your brainstorming.

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Act on the ideas, record progress, and assess your path: Sit down periodically (at least every other week) to review your Ideas and Plans Worksheets and note your status through the task list. If you find yourself not making progress, ask yourself what’s in the way. Have you set the wrong priorities? Are your goals not compelling enough to lead you to act consistently? Adjust your priorities, goals, and actions as needed.

Develop the habit of keeping yourself focused on what’s most important!

The Template Starts on the Following Page

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❒ Month

❒ 3 Months

❒ 6 Months

❒ Year ❒ Several Years

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Having my boss (Director) see me as able to speak for him in the business-requirements meetings at start of each project.

Be seen as a business-savvy project manager who is capable of guiding the front-end of critical projects.

Be specific!

Measure: What would be the observable signs of success?

Goal, stated as a desired outcome

October 2012

Date: When do you intend for this to be accomplished?

Being given a large release to manage next year.

I have trouble speaking up strongly when contentious trade-offs are being discussed.

I don’t know how to learn the biz well enough to feel comfortable making big judgment calls

What outcome would exceed your expectations and surprise and delight you?

What, if anything, seems impossible about this?

Used by Permission on ProjectConnections.com

See next page for Worksheet for brainstorming ideas and actions for reaching the above goals.

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#3

#2

#1

Priority

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NOTE: Priority can be thought of as a combination of importance and urgency. To decide which are your top priorities, first list all of them and then decide where you want to focus most of your energy. Then choose where you would focus next if #1 were on track.

Priorities - List current goals, challenges, issues, areas of concern or opportunities in order of decreasing priority to you.

What Timeframe Does This Cover? ❒ Week

Template: Priorities, Goals, and Actions Alignment Worksheets

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“Ask for the Job 2” — request meeting with my boss to ask him to support me in getting an assignment related to big release management next year.

Me

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Figure out how I can get some assertiveness coaching.

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Find a class on business requirements analysis for large interconnected programs.

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“Ask for the Job 1” — have interim review meeting with my boss – has he seen progress, what areas need work, am I ready to handle the requirements meetings?

Ask to sit in on Business Team discussions for Release X to see what kinds of tradeoffs they discuss for that large release.

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Me

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Talk to head architect – would he give me some tutorials on how the business priorities and architecture decisions interact?

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Ask Tom R.

Me

Identify how I can participate in business discussions, tradeoff analysis, decisions on the projects I’m assigned to.

Request meeting with my boss to lay out my development plan – what must he see before he’d let me speak at the biz requirements meetings?

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Owner

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Request lunch with John – he is seen as superstar in terms of business-savvy. Find out how he learned it all and what makes him comfortable challenging VPs in public.

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Used by Permission on ProjectConnections.com

Ask by Sept 30 Meeting by Oct 31

August 1

April30

June 30

June 15

May 31

May 31

April 20

April 15

Due Date

Status

GOAL #1 – Description: Be seen as a business-savvy project manager who is capable of guiding the front-end of critical projects.

NOTE: Include wild and “impossible” ideas! Make sure your list includes at least one idea that would never work and another that you consider ridiculous.

Brainstorm a list of 12 or more ideas or actions for each goal. Choose 1 to take action on for each goal!

Ideas and Plans Worksheets — Brainstorming

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Used by Permission on ProjectConnections.com

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Owner Idea or Action GOAL #2

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Due Date

Status

Priorities, Goals, and Actions Alignment Worksheet

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Used by Permission on ProjectConnections.com

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Owner Idea or Action GOAL #3

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Due Date

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Priorities, Goals, and Actions Alignment Worksheet

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Your Vision YourVision

Moving From Goals To Vision

At one point in the 1941 movie Citizen Kane, Charles Foster Kane, a very wealthy but thoughtless young man, says, “I think it would be fun to run a newspaper.” His elders make fun of him, and it surely does seem like a vague and directionless ambition. In fact, when asked later what he knows about the business, he responds, “I don’t know how to run a newspaper. I just try Napoleon Hill, in his seminal book, Think everything I can think of.” and Grow Rich, emphasizes that achieving With a huge fortune behind him, Kane makes his business into a huge success.

But his own life was far from successful: he died fantastically rich but alone and friendless.

your financial goals, reaching your highest potential, and ultimately creating a life that brings you great personal happiness is how you harness the awesome mental magic of your mind. You learn that there are not limitations to what you can accomplish— only those that you impose on yourself.

It’s a great story, and it has many lessons for us. Unless we have a huge pile of — taken from Think and Grow Rich (1938), money behind us to allow us to “try

by Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) everything we can think of,” we had better think carefully about what we want to do with our lives and our businesses, where we want to go, and the quality of the life we want to live along the way. That’s exactly what vision is about: looking as far ahead as we can and determining which of the many options out there we want to choose (and which we want to avoid), and then devising a strategy which will take us to our goals.

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Of course, a vision and the strategies to achieve it are both important. But the vision always comes first—ALWAYS! If you have a clear vision of where you want to go, you’ll be much better able to devise the strategy to get there. Without that clear vision, your strategies will be hit-or-miss, at best, and most often counter-productive.

One more point about having a strong vision: It helps you to maintain your balance, no matter what kinds of curve balls life throws at you, whether financial or global or personal. If the economy suddenly takes a nosedive, you have your vision and your strategies in place. It’s not difficult to adjust for market changes, when you’ve planned the future out to 10 or 20 years from now.

So how do you move from those goals you’ve been working with over the first half of Month I to the exciting vision statement you want to develop for yourself and your business? Here are some guidelines that will help you get started.

1. Pick a time and a place where you can work for several hours with no interruptions.

This is one of the most important things you will ever do for yourself and your business, so treat it that way. Find a time when you can put everything else aside, and make it clear to all that you need some private time. Shut your office door, turn off your phone and any alerts that might invade Forum 1: Planning For Success

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Your Vision YourVision

Moving From Goals To Vision (continued)

your space, and do your best to leave all other concerns outside. You need to be serious about respecting yourself and your task—and you need to be sure others respect this time, too.

2. Ask yourself some important questions. Answers to some of these questions may be obvious from the story you’ve told and the goals you’ve extracted from that story. Other questions may be brand new, and the answers that you give may surprise you. Whichever the result, answering these questions (and others like them that you may think up for yourself) will help point the way to your vision. a. What motivates you? What turns you on? b. What do you do for fun? c. How do you spend whatever spare time you manage to find? d. What do you do to take care of yourself? e. Does the career/business you’re pursuing align with your dreams? f. What are your unique gifts? g. How do you think you are perceived by your family? Your friends? Your co-workers? h. What kind of a person do you think you are?

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3. Assemble all the data. If you’ve faithfully done the things we’ve suggested, you should have a large pile of facts and dreams and goals for yourself and your business. You know more about yourself and your business than you ever thought you could. Some of this is nicely organized into goals and timelines; some is kind of a hodge-podge of information. But it’s all in front of you, and it’s waiting for you to spin it into the gold of your future.

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4. Find the kernel of truth in all of the data. This step forms the crux of the entire activity of Month I. From this pile of information, you will be forming the vision statement for your business or your personal vision statement—or both! This vision statement will be a brief clear statement of what you want your business or yourself to be at some point in the future. It will answer the following questions: A. What do I want to accomplish?

B. When do I want to accomplish this?

C. How do I want to accomplish this?

5. Keep a few things in mind as you formulate your vision statement. It must be clear and straightforward. It should be vivid, bright, and full of hope. It should be realistic and achievable. It should line up with the values and characteristics you embrace, as well as those of your world that you respect. A time frame for accomplishing your goals should be clearly stated.

That’s it. This step, “Moving from Goals to Vision,” mostly gets done in your mind, though you should obviously be writing down whatever occurs to you as you review and mull over all the data in front of you. On the next page, you’ll actually write a vision statement, re-write it, re-write it again, and again, as many times as you feel you need to, and finally polish the final product—make it “ready for prime time,” as they say. Once again, we urge you to GO FOR IT! Forum 1: Planning For Success

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Developing Your Vision Statement

Vision Statement

Here you are, ready to write what may very well be your first vision statement. It’s a Big Moment, and we are very happy for you—and very proud that you’ve reached this point. On these pages, we provide you space to write a first draft of your statement, several revisions of that first draft, and finally, your Vision Statement, one that is truly deserving of those capital letters and the bordered box we’ve provided!

Once you’ve reached that point, we suggest that you either pull out that page, or, more usefully, create and print for yourself an enlarged copy, using bigger type and perhaps a border. Put this large copy up somewhere where you can see it easily and often. Look at it often. Read it both out loud and silently—and read it often. Reading it at least once every day would not be too often. The more you can “see” your vision, the more likely you will be to use it to help you align and re-align your actions every day so that you are actually working to fulfill your vision.

Vision Statement

First Draft

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Vision Statement

Revision

Forum 1: Planning For Success

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Developing Your Vision Statement (continued)

Vision Statement

Vision Statement

Revision

Vision Statement

Revision

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Vision Statement

Final

Forum 1: Planning For Success

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Moving From Vision To Mission Statement

Mission Statement

It’s all smooth sailing from here! Now that you’ve got a Vision Statement, which tells you where you want your business to be in the future (and which, by the way, is generally only for you and your business team to be aware of), you can easily create a Mission Statement. Where the vision statement talks about where you hope to go someday, your Mission Statement tells the world what you want your business to do right now. Or, as a definition on the website missionstatements.com says, very succinctly, “A mission statement defines in a paragraph or so any entity’s reason for existence.”

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The best mission statements say, clearly and powerfully, what you see as the purpose and beliefs of your business, what you are in business to deliver (goods or services), who you see as your primary clients, and what objectives you are striving for in order to provide those goods or services to your clients. You are answering questions like those you answered for the vision statement, but you are doing it in the now.

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A. B. C. D.

What do we want to do today?

For whom do we want to do this?

How will our clients benefit from what we do?

How will our team benefit from what we do?

Mission statements, unlike personal or business vision statements, are intended for public consumption. While you may not want the world to know where you intend to take your business in ten years, you very much do want everyone who would benefit from your business to know how you’d like to help them. To give you an idea of how strong and vivid and direct mission statements can be, we’ll list a few here.

Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream: “To make, distribute, and sell, the finest quality all-natural ice cream and euphoric concoctions with a continued commitment to incorporating wholesome, natural ingredients and promoting business practices that respect the Earth and the environment.”

British Airways: This large and successful airline probably owes a great deal of its success to this mission statement: “To be the undisputed leader in world travel for the next millennium.”

Forum 1: Planning For Success

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Moving From Vision To Mission Statement

Mission Statement

(continued)

Both of these statements clearly say whom the firm wants to serve, what they want to provide for that clientele, and how at the same time doing this will support the goals and values of the company. In the case of British Airways, there’s also a pretty ambitious timeframe included.

This is what you need to do if you want your business to develop and grow in ways that fit with your vision and truly contribute to the values that you embrace.

Unlike some of the previous steps in this process, crafting your mission statement needs to be done with the participation of your entire team. Since this involves the business as it exists today, it requires input from all those who make the business run, from the mailroom person to the CEO. And whatever input is offered needs to be treated respectfully, no matter who offers it.

As you work together as a group, make it an interactive experience. Ask questions of each other in a non-judgmental manner. Ask questions as if you were a consumer. As you proceed, try to build a definition of what your company does and how you do it. Are there things you do that not all of you were aware of? Are there things that you are not doing that you might want to begin doing? It may or may not be necessary to include them in the mission statement, but you will most definitely want to add them to your list of goals.

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In addition to the guidelines above, here are some more questions you might ask each other to help you develop a mission statement: 1. What do you want your reputation to be in your community?

2. What differentiates your product or service from others like it?

3. Have you considered specific ways by which you can help your community grow as your business grows? Do you let your clients or customers know of your specific plans to help the community grow as the company prospers?

4. How do the other members of your team think of your company? Is there a scheduled time each week or month to have a conversation about the team’s perceptions of where you are all going?

5. Is training important to your company? If not, should it be? If so, how much, by whom, using what materials?

6. Do you have job descriptions for each company position? If not, should you develop them? If so, are they reviewed often enough that they stay accurate and truly descriptive?

Responses to the last three questions do not, generally speaking, appear in a company mission statement, and we will be focusing on these aspects of your business much more in future months.

However, sharing responses to those questions at this time can help the team, as a whole, see how every part of the business can feed into the mission statement—or can undermine even the best mission statement if there is no opportunity to express these thoughts and feelings about the business.

Forum 1: Planning For Success

©2012 Training International Services, Inc

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Moving From Vision To Mission Statement

Mission Statement

(continued)

When you feel that you’ve pulled most of the ideas and suggestions out of your team members— and this could take two hours or two days! —you might want to ask everyone to write a mission statement for the company and then share these statements so that the team can integrate the ideas into those that seem strongest and most expressive of the company’s mission.

And when you’ve arrived at The Mission Statement, the one that perfectly expresses who you are as a company and why you exist, write it down, and make it important! Have someone do a calligraphic representation of it, have it framed, place it prominently in your place of business, put it in the literature you provide for your customers, and—most importantly—make sure you and your team read it every day!

Keeping this statement in front of you, your team, and the people you serve helps in so many ways: it keeps you all focused on why you’re there, it keeps your customers aware of what you can provide them, it keeps them aware when you fall short of that (and this is not a bad thing, because it allows you to fix something before it’s so broken that it can’t be fixed), and it makes your community part of the business you do each day. With this constant reminder in front of you, it will be much easier to stay focused on the path you are committed to following—and much harder to stray from that path for very long before someone, whether a team member, a client, a community leader, or you yourself, calls you and your business to task and helps you to see and fix a problem, almost before it becomes a problem!

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For this portion of the month’s activities, we’re not providing boxes or charts for you to fill in. It should take place in a venue where there is lots of paper, pencils, whiteboards, blackboards, and other media that can capture the ideas that we expect will pour out of you and your team. And we’ve already suggested that the final product belongs in a prominent position on the walls and in the daily planners of your business and your team. It doesn’t really belong in this book—although we’re leaving space below for you to write it in just so that the package for Month I is complete.

Congratulations on completing the steps that lead you from your story to your goals to your vision and now to your mission. Now we’ll move on to tackle the aspects of your business that will allow you to move off the page and into your future!

Forum 1: Planning For Success

©2012 Training International Services, Inc

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Discussion

Discussion

1. What did you learn? What are your “ahas”?

3. Questions?

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2. Be prepared to share with your coach and the class.

Forum 1: Planning For Success

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