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Step 1 Have ‘Clearly Defined Outcomes’

Most people are not aligned because they don’t know what they should be working towards. Asking your team 4 simple questions can help to clarify what their clearly defined outcomes should be:

Question 1. What are you going to achieve? Here you want to get specific around what it is that must be achieved. Is it acquiring a certain number of Strategically Significant Customers (SSC’s)? Or is it about launching a new product to the market? You need to be clear exactly what the outcome is

Question 2. How are you going to achieve it? The method of achieving the outcome is vital and where many people fall down. How exactly are your team going to achieve the thing they need to achieve? Don’t assume they know, work out the steps.

Question 3. When are we going to achieve it? Every outcome should have a planned completion time. Avoid just allowing 12 months in case it slips and is always 12 months away. Pinning date is best, at least to aim for.

Question 4. Why are we going to achieve it? This question is deeper than it looks at first. It’s not just about an extra 5% of revenue. Why specifically does your team member want to achieve this outcome. Here please remember that ‘WHY Power’ is far more powerful than ‘WILL Power.’ Getting your team to understand their why can make miracles happen.

Step 2 Build a simple plan.

We like to help people build a one page plan we call 1-3-5. Here you would create ‘1 Simple Concise Vision’ of what success looks like. Then create ‘3 Core Objectives’ (not 33 objectives!). Most people here create their objectives around Strategy, Operations and Team. What is the overall strategy, what operation needs to be in place to achieve the strategy. Finally, what should the team look like to be able to run the operation to achieve the strategy. Once your Vision and 3 Core Objectives are sorted you then need to set some simple Goals. We like to see ‘5 Stepping Stone Goals’ per Core Objective. We find people make more progress when they know the steps to take.

Step 3 Refine Your Plan

Look at the plan you have created and ask yourself:

“What rating in terms of intensity would I give my plan?” If you score yourself less 7 or under it needs work to be more more intense. Ideally you want a 9 as this is going to become “The Mission” and you need to feel good about it. This need s to become a real burning desire for the team.

Step 4 Set up a Weekly Routine

I’ve never been on a plan where the pilot decided to skip the ‘pre-fight routine’ or a surgeon that overlooked the ‘pre-op.’ It always makes me smile when I hear an Entrepreneur just starting or ending their week without any structure. So if you want to sign your team you need to design a simple ‘Start and End of Week Routine.’

Mine includes, writing out my main goals every day, then reading my plan, then setting a weekly outcome, then setting 3 things to do every day so that I can make progress. Only then do I start my week. At the end of the week, I always review how I have done and rate my performance.

Whatever you do don’t start your day or week with email. Get control!

Step 5 Get the whole team to focus on progress

Ideally, you want to develop the practice of focusing on how far you have all come rather than how far there is still to go.

It’s a great idea to allow a little time at the end of the week to reflect and then Identify, Acknowledge and Reward yourself and the team for how far you’ve come. One team I work with get everyone around a ‘Wow wheel’ on a Friday and discuss how far they’ve come. The person with the most progress wins a prize.

Five steps that help you to align the team in your business