Monday, December 29, 2014

5 Keys for Success in 2015


2014 is almost gone and 2015 is knocking on the door, but are we ready to face the New Year yet?

Here are some basic steps that can help you design, plan and put in execution what could turn out to be a great 2015!

1.       Figure your Objective
This is what you want to achieve in the year 2015, not a list of things that you want to do. Don’t clutter your mind or objective with the how, what and details of your objective. Keep it simple, just what you want to achieve in 2015 for example, “I want to be healthy”. Here is some reading material - Make 2015 Your Breakthrough Year.
2.       Develop the Process
Once you have figured your objective (hopefully, just the one and not a laundry list!), you should start developing the methods and procedures to achieve that objective or target. You can use a mind map or just a simple list to note down the processes and refine them. Using the above example as an illustration, the processes to “Being healthy” according to you could be “run / jog / walk”, “light workout”, “mediate”, “eat well”, “balance work and life”, etc. This post also gives some interesting insights - 7 P’s Leaders use to Achieve Goals
3.       Define the Metrics
In this step, you list out the milestones and what stage in your objective that you should have progressed to. Again, using the example above, you could say “walk 5 miles a day, 4 days a week”, “lift 10 pounds twice a week”, “meditate 20 minutes every morning”, etc. You should also have some timelines attached to these processes like “I should have lost x pounds in 3 months”. These metrics will help you monitor and make course corrections, if required.
4.       Assign Responsibilities

In this step, it is easy to collapse all processes and metrics and assign the responsibility to yourself and be done with it, especially if the objective is personal, but don’t do that! Even where it looks like the responsibility is yours, make it look like the task is “assigned” to someone else. For example, if you have a running or walking partner, then make it look like the task is assigned to that partner!

5.       Monitor and Improve

The objective is known and even made into a poster and stuck on the wall, the processes are well laid out and metrics are meticulously defined with roles and responsibilities assigned. But all this would count for zip if you don’t monitor diligently at the deadlines and refine or make course corrections as required. So, make the calendar of milestones and deadlines count, and if required and you think would be a great idea, involve an advisor or mentor or partner to sit with you to go over the milestone achievements.

In summary, these five simple steps will provide an effective strategy of processes and a framework to achieve your objective. Focus on the now and commit to the processes. Initially, the objective will seem far away and unattainable, but like the Chinese Bamboo, if you keep doing the processes right, your goal will be automatically achieved in the targeted timeframe.

Good luck and a Happy New Year, 2015!

Kall Ramanathan
@KallRamanathan
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ValueStrat Consulting @ValueStrat helps businesses understand where they are currently and what they need to do to get where they want to go. For this, we provide essential strategic plans and approaches, called “Keys”, to enable businesses to open up competencies and clear inefficiencies.

ValueStrat gets to the DNA of business - Desire, Need and Ability - to help you ask some critical questions such as discussed above. Check out http://www.valuestrat.in for more

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