Create a Powerful Driving Question to Improve Results
Create a Powerful Driving Question to Improve Results
Review last year – Review the most significant results from 2007. Learn from what worked well and remove from your life or business what doesn’t work.
Unclutter – Get rid of the unnecessary clutter in your life. File or throw away paperwork that you don’t need or are unlikely to look at again. Clear out your wardrobe of unused clothes and give them away. Tidy up your office and remove all the out of date material from notice-boards and your desk. Clear up your inbox. Remove those things from your to-do lists that are never realistically going to be completed.
Step back – Give yourself some thinking time and ask yourself questions about what will make the most difference to you in 2008.
Create your goals – Plan what you want to achieve in 2008. Set goals in several areas, such as career/business, finance, health and fitness, personal development/education, relationships/family/friends, fun time/recreation and contribution/service. Decide what you want to complete in each quarter so that your goals are meaningful and can be broken down into realistic and achievable results. Work backwards from the completed goal and consider what would have needed to be handled to ensure that each goal is delivered. Remember to keep them realistic. It is said that we overestimate what we can achieve in a year and underestimate what can be achieved in a lifetime.
In addition to these tips, I strongly recommend establishing your current driving question and changing it to one that serves you more powerfully.
When I first did this exercise a while ago, I realised that had several driving questions which included:
How can I do that?
What am I missing?
Why did I do that?
Why can’t I get what I want?
Where’s the learning?
What am I doing wrong?
Why can’t I get beyond this?
I summarised them as one question: “What can I learn from this?”
Some of these questions presuppose that I was doing something wrong so I concluded that if I was driven by the need to find the learning it might be possible that I was creating the mistakes to ensure learning could take place. So, assuming this were true I then asked myself what would be a more empowering and driving question that focused on achieving the goals I choose? The result: How can I create even more love, contribution, inspiration and wealth in my life right now?
The use of “even more” in this question presupposes that I already have all of it at some level and there is room to get more. The “right now” presupposes possibility; that it can be done immediately. The “how” also presupposes possibility; that it can done at all. The content “love, contribution, inspiration and wealth” are directly related to my purpose, vision and mission, so the question does indeed become a more powerful driving question than those I started with.
By finding your driving question and creating a more powerful one directly related to your purpose, vision and mission, you will find that you are far more motivated to move forward with action. You will be less likely to procrastinate or hesitate and you will therefore be much better placed to achieve what it is you say you want to achieve.
So, to make 2008 your best year ever, a simple and powerful step towards that result is create a new and exciting, powerful driving question for you.
Create a Powerful Driving Question to Improve Results - To learn more about this author, visit Simon Smith's Website.
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Nearly all the research and development correspondence I receive at this time of year is about making the next year even better than the last. My tips include:
Review last year – Review the most significant results from 2007. Learn from what worked well and remove from your life or business what doesn’t work.
Unclutter – Get rid of the unnecessary clutter in your life. File or throw away paperwork that you don’t need or are unlikely to look at again. Clear out your wardrobe of unused clothes and give them away. Tidy up your office and remove all the out of date material from notice-boards and your desk. Clear up your inbox. Remove those things from your to-do lists that are never realistically going to be completed.
Step back – Give yourself some thinking time and ask yourself questions about what will make the most difference to you in 2008.
Create your goals – Plan what you want to achieve in 2008. Set goals in several areas, such as career/business, finance, health and fitness, personal development/education, relationships/family/friends, fun time/recreation and contribution/service. Decide what you want to complete in each quarter so that your goals are meaningful and can be broken down into realistic and achievable results. Work backwards from the completed goal and consider what would have needed to be handled to ensure that each goal is delivered. Remember to keep them realistic. It is said that we overestimate what we can achieve in a year and underestimate what can be achieved in a lifetime.
In addition to these tips, I strongly recommend establishing your current driving question and changing it to one that serves you more powerfully.
When I first did this exercise a while ago, I realised that had several driving questions which included:
How can I do that?
What am I missing?
Why did I do that?
Why can’t I get what I want?
Where’s the learning?
What am I doing wrong?
Why can’t I get beyond this?
I summarised them as one question: “What can I learn from this?”
Some of these questions presuppose that I was doing something wrong so I concluded that if I was driven by the need to find the learning it might be possible that I was creating the mistakes to ensure learning could take place. So, assuming this were true I then asked myself what would be a more empowering and driving question that focused on achieving the goals I choose? The result: How can I create even more love, contribution, inspiration and wealth in my life right now?
The use of “even more” in this question presupposes that I already have all of it at some level and there is room to get more. The “right now” presupposes possibility; that it can be done immediately. The “how” also presupposes possibility; that it can done at all. The content “love, contribution, inspiration and wealth” are directly related to my purpose, vision and mission, so the question does indeed become a more powerful driving question than those I started with.
By finding your driving question and creating a more powerful one directly related to your purpose, vision and mission, you will find that you are far more motivated to move forward with action. You will be less likely to procrastinate or hesitate and you will therefore be much better placed to achieve what it is you say you want to achieve.
So, to make 2008 your best year ever, a simple and powerful step towards that result is create a new and exciting, powerful driving question for you.
Create a Powerful Driving Question to Improve Results - To learn more about this author, visit Simon Smith's Website.
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Casey GollanCasey Gollan, Business Coaching & Mentoring Programs. Add $1 Million to $10 Million in the next 1 to 3 years. Since 1996 Casey has to added hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses. Watch a free video see client results Business Coaching website. - Visit Casey Gollan's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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