Thursday I attended the Girl Scout Women of Distinction Award Ceremony. I was enthralled with the speaker Dr. Mae Jemison, who was the first woman of color to go into space. What an articulate, bright, sensitive, caring woman! I could have listened to her all day.
In her presentation she said, "Ideas are wonderful, but nothing will happen until we risk putting them into action." I couldn't agree more. If you read my introduction, it says, "A business strategy is just an idea until it is implemented in a strategic manner to meet the business goals."
I love the word "risk". Every time we put an idea into action, we are taking a risk. To truly move the earth, risks are necessary. I would submit that we don't take enough risks, in our business or personal lives.
So why don't we take more risks? Why do you see so many great ideas wither on the vine? People are afraid to take risks because of the negative ramifications. They are afraid of failing, they are afraid of being demoted, they are afraid of being the brunt of their peers' and boss's jokes, they are afraid their mistake will show up on their review, sometimes they are even afraid of success... fear is holding them back.
What kind of risk atmosphere do you create in the workplace and at home? Are people rewarded for taking risks? Do they get points on their reviews for taking risks even if the idea failed? Do you have a "risk taking" award? Do YOU take risks? Are you genuinely walking the talk of taking risks? YOU set the tone for your team to take risks- reward the behavior and you will get results beyond your expectations. Penalize the behavior and you will get what you've always gotten and this will stop a company's growth and an individuals growth.
Dr. Jemison talked about being a little black girl from South Chicago in the 60's who had the audacity to live her dreams. She credits her parents for encouraging her. Dr. Jemison has influenced and changed the lives of many because she was encouraged to take risks. I challenge us all to think about how we view and react to risk... do you encourage risk? How different could your business, life, kids be if you did encouraged risk? Even though I am blogging about this, I realize that I personally have not taken enough risks in my life... I can't change the past, but I can affect the future. My resolution is to take and encourage more risks. How about you?
Showing posts with label goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label goals. Show all posts
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
Setting Unrealistic Goals
In a recent blog, written by Jill Konrath, Jill challenged people to set unrealistic goals. I personally set a 90 day unrealistic goal- to continue my career with one of my 3 focus companies withing 60 days. I agree with Jill that setting unrealistic goals can help you to achieve great results and setting incremental goals can keep us thinking and acting small.
It is extremely important to talk unreachable goals as it relates to a team. If you set unrealistic goals and your team performs over and above, but does not reach those goals- CELEBRATE with your team. Explain to them the concept of unreachable goals and how much they have achieved. If you don't do this, your team will become unmotivated and will fail in the long run.
Years ago I had a boss who set unrealistic goals. My first year I was incredibly energized by this because it stretched me beyond where I would have gone had the goals been incremental.
After the first year I, and my other co-workers, slowly became frustrated. As soon as we reached that stretch goal another was set higher than the first. Who doesn't want to grow and be challenged? The frustrating part was that we never stopped to celebrate any of the successes we achieved. What was once a fresh, motivated, talented team became a frustrated, unmotivated, talented team.
People love to be challenged to grow. Just be sure to acknowledge and celebrate that growth- this is all part of the strategy of creating an outstanding team.
It is extremely important to talk unreachable goals as it relates to a team. If you set unrealistic goals and your team performs over and above, but does not reach those goals- CELEBRATE with your team. Explain to them the concept of unreachable goals and how much they have achieved. If you don't do this, your team will become unmotivated and will fail in the long run.
Years ago I had a boss who set unrealistic goals. My first year I was incredibly energized by this because it stretched me beyond where I would have gone had the goals been incremental.
After the first year I, and my other co-workers, slowly became frustrated. As soon as we reached that stretch goal another was set higher than the first. Who doesn't want to grow and be challenged? The frustrating part was that we never stopped to celebrate any of the successes we achieved. What was once a fresh, motivated, talented team became a frustrated, unmotivated, talented team.
People love to be challenged to grow. Just be sure to acknowledge and celebrate that growth- this is all part of the strategy of creating an outstanding team.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
What is Strategy?
The other day in an interview, someone asked me, "What is strategy". Of course we all know what strategy is, right? We have lived and breathed it all our professional and personal lives. But have you ever tried to answer that question? Here is what Webster and Wikipedia have to say:
Wikipedia: A strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. The word strategy has military connotations, because it derives from the Greek word for general.
Webster: a careful plan or method : a clever stratagem b : the art of devising or employing plans or stratagems toward a goal
Sounds straight forward enough, but I'll bet if you asked 10 business people what strategy is, you'd get 10 different answers. Here is my answer...
In business as in your personal life you have missions, visions or goals- call them what you may. You create a strategy to meet these goals. So, I agree with Wikipedea and Webster that a strategy is a plan to achieve a goal, vision or mission. Here is where folks disagree- I think that your mission, visions or goals stay constant, where you strategy needs to be tweaked or changed along the way. You've heard people say "stick to the strategy", others say "Veer from the strategy and you'll fail". I say if you don't change the strategy based on variable conditions as you work toward your vision you will fail. What do I mean?
This summer my husband and I had a mission to have our 3 kids experience Washington DC and have a wonderful time. Our strategy was to drive Minneapolis to DC using a preplanned route which would take 48 hours. including a stop at my sister's to spend the night and would arrive in DC by 1:00 on Monday. Monday afternoon we would spend at Arlington, Tuesday we would see ALL of the monuments and Wednesday we would hit 3-4 museums and be back on the road by 3 PM.
All was going well until we hit road construction. Our strategy was at risk and we had not made any contingency plans- horror! We got to DC at 3:00- 2 hours off of our strategic time frame and then we hit DC traffic which took another hour. We got to our hotel at 4:00- 3 hours off our plan, I started to stress just a bit, but we could still get to Arlington- game on! Except, the kids wanted to order pizza and watch a movie- they were sick of being in the car. What? Now our plans to go to Arlington were in jeopardy- our strategy was going downhill FAST!
Guess what we did? We went swimming, got a pizza and watched a movie.
On Tuesday we went to some, not all, of the monuments and to the Hirshhorn Museum. On Wednesday, our final day, we went to the Air and Space Museum all morning, had lunch at an outdoor cafe and then drove through Arlington National Cemetery on our way out at 3:00 PM.
Think about it, we got to DC 3 hours after our planned time, we missed "touring" Arlington, we missed 2 monuments and we only went to 2 museums instead of 4. This project manager, me, had failed to accomplish our strategy- or did I? Remember that our mission was to have our kids experience DC and have a wonderful time. If you ask the kids about the trip they will tell you that it was one of the best trips ever. We tweaked our strategy based on the conditions that changed on us, but we succeeded at our mission.
I would offer that a good strategy is a clear plan that is flexible enough to change with variable conditions and meet the stated mission, vision or goal.
What do you think??
Wikipedia: A strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. The word strategy has military connotations, because it derives from the Greek word for general.
Webster: a careful plan or method : a clever stratagem b : the art of devising or employing plans or stratagems toward a goal
Sounds straight forward enough, but I'll bet if you asked 10 business people what strategy is, you'd get 10 different answers. Here is my answer...
In business as in your personal life you have missions, visions or goals- call them what you may. You create a strategy to meet these goals. So, I agree with Wikipedea and Webster that a strategy is a plan to achieve a goal, vision or mission. Here is where folks disagree- I think that your mission, visions or goals stay constant, where you strategy needs to be tweaked or changed along the way. You've heard people say "stick to the strategy", others say "Veer from the strategy and you'll fail". I say if you don't change the strategy based on variable conditions as you work toward your vision you will fail. What do I mean?
This summer my husband and I had a mission to have our 3 kids experience Washington DC and have a wonderful time. Our strategy was to drive Minneapolis to DC using a preplanned route which would take 48 hours. including a stop at my sister's to spend the night and would arrive in DC by 1:00 on Monday. Monday afternoon we would spend at Arlington, Tuesday we would see ALL of the monuments and Wednesday we would hit 3-4 museums and be back on the road by 3 PM.
All was going well until we hit road construction. Our strategy was at risk and we had not made any contingency plans- horror! We got to DC at 3:00- 2 hours off of our strategic time frame and then we hit DC traffic which took another hour. We got to our hotel at 4:00- 3 hours off our plan, I started to stress just a bit, but we could still get to Arlington- game on! Except, the kids wanted to order pizza and watch a movie- they were sick of being in the car. What? Now our plans to go to Arlington were in jeopardy- our strategy was going downhill FAST!
Guess what we did? We went swimming, got a pizza and watched a movie.
On Tuesday we went to some, not all, of the monuments and to the Hirshhorn Museum. On Wednesday, our final day, we went to the Air and Space Museum all morning, had lunch at an outdoor cafe and then drove through Arlington National Cemetery on our way out at 3:00 PM.
Think about it, we got to DC 3 hours after our planned time, we missed "touring" Arlington, we missed 2 monuments and we only went to 2 museums instead of 4. This project manager, me, had failed to accomplish our strategy- or did I? Remember that our mission was to have our kids experience DC and have a wonderful time. If you ask the kids about the trip they will tell you that it was one of the best trips ever. We tweaked our strategy based on the conditions that changed on us, but we succeeded at our mission.
I would offer that a good strategy is a clear plan that is flexible enough to change with variable conditions and meet the stated mission, vision or goal.
What do you think??
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