Here’s how I guarantee that I’m never derailed from growing my company – and how you can do the same.
Every week, I was getting pulled into a fire. Some customer problem, an employee issue, something. My company was going nowhere. The classic “working in the business, not on the business.”
It had to change.
How To Stop The Madness
That’s when I sat down and asked the most important question (which you’ll see the answer to today): “Why am I always getting derailed?”
I started fixing it by breaking down hitting my growth goals. In the most simplistic way possible, what has to happen to grow the company?
I need the RIGHT PLAN and I need to EXECUTE THE PLAN.
I needed the RIGHT PLAN because confidence makes all the difference. It seems dumb, but it’s true – if you haven’t bought into the plan, you’re not going to prioritize it. If I wasn’t convinced I was headed in the right direction, it would be easy to let it slip.
The key to a plan you’ve got confidence in is to take the goal and break it into concrete steps and success criteria. (I’ve written here on turning goals into plans – can come back and this read later)
The second – EXECUTE THE PLAN – sounds simple, but it’s actually the hard part.
What Not To Do
What I used to do is:
- create a one-year plan
- create quarterly plans
- forget the quarterly plans once a crisis happened
- beat myself up that I didn’t do anything, and go back to (1) above
It was a doom-loop that made me think that somehow I wasn’t capable of hitting my company targets. Everyone else was just better than me.
But that wasn’t true. The reality: I was missing key steps in execution. I talked with entrepreneurs I respected. People who built companies I was envious of. How did they stay on task?
The key: time-blocked accountability.
The Formula To Never Get Derailed
How does it work? I had the first part right:
- create a one-year plan
- create quarterly plans
But after that I wasn’t bringing it down to actually getting things done in the moment. The calendar is the key.
Every project for growing your company must be ON THE CALENDAR.
Here’s how:
- create a one-year plan
- create quarterly plan
- quick monthly review where I am
- every Monday commit to 3-5 tasks to move forward
- book tasks on the calendar with specific times
- have someone beat you up if you don’t do it
Why It Works
Let’s look at why this works:
- First, you’re getting granular. This isn’t just an idea at the quarterly level which is easy to let slide. By bringing it down to the month, you have a pulse on where you are.
- By blocking time on your calendar every week you reserve time
- And someone watching you is the unlock
I’ve been doing this for years, and work fires never derail me. I make more progress in 90 days than I made in a year the old way.
In fact, it worked so well I built myself an app to do this – it even calendars progress so I can’t get off track. App plus a person holding me to my commits = gamechanger.
Use the process above to fast forward your growth. Just make sure not to forget the last step and have someone hold you accountable.
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