In my last post I mentioned the first of a three-step process for achieving sustainable excellence: Your individual, team or organizational goal plan is the process of excellence. It is the roadmap and guide for accomplishing the ultimate vision. The second step is discipline. Simply said, did you honor the commitments to yourself, team or organization in order to achieve the long term vision?
As mentioned last week, your goal plan includes an ultimate vision broken down into long-term, intermediate, short-term and daily/weekly goals. Developing the ultimate vision and goal plan is an involved process but it’s only the beginning of the journey. When the timelines for initial short-term (less than six months) goals have been reached, determine whether they have been achieved. Often, one or more of the short-term goals have not been achieved. If this is the case, turn to the daily and weekly goals. They are the discipline component of sustainable excellence.
If short-term goals have not been achieved, individuals, teams and organizations commonly find they failed to honor their commitments on a daily/weekly basis. The necessary discipline to do what they said they would do was lacking. Many people make the mistake of setting goals without determining what it will take in specific detail on a daily/weekly basis in order to achieve them. Without a well-crafted goal plan, you cannot determine whether the failure to reach your goals is the result of a faulty process or a lack of discipline. If you do not achieve your short-term goals and have fulfilled daily/weekly commitments, the process needs revision. Determine what additional steps are necessary to achieve your goals or examine them to see if they are too ambitious or unrealistic. If you don’t achieve short-term goals and you also haven’t fulfilled daily/weekly goals, take a long hard look in the mirror and examine your level of commitment. Do you really want to be a performer?
Next, we’ll take a look at the final component of the sustainable excellence equation – focus. Stay tuned!