It’s vital you start this new year quickly. Here’s how to make progress fast.
Before you know it the quarter will be over. I am urging all my business coaching clients to do the following things:
1. Have an attitude of urgency.
Harvard Professor John Kotter researched the top performing CEO’s over a 10 year period, then looked for common elements of the moist elite achievers.
What did the best business leaders have in common?
They acted with urgency.
So shorten your deadlines. Put time pressure on your team, yoru suppliers and yourself.
Act as if you had to achieve great things by March 30. An attitude of urgency will very swiftly elevate your results.
2. Win the first 2 hours.
I use a technique with the CEO’s I coach called ‘The 2 Hour Day’.
It works like this.
You structure the first two hours of your business day as if you have to stop work after that point.
So let’s say you start work at 9am. Your aim is to do several key tasks that can really move the business forward by 11am.
You don’t need to do a lot of things, but you must do important, income increasing things.
Putting an 11am deadline on making genuine progress is an incredibly effective way to ensure you drive your company forward, rather than getting caught up in busywork.
3. Clearly identify a weakness to work on. And focus on it all year.
The brilliant billionaire investor and business partner of Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, believed the most effective way to succeed was to avoid doing foolish things.
As he put it, ” It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.”
What is one of your biggest business weaknesses?
Identify it, put it on a Post It note on your desk so you’re constantly reminded of it, and focus on not doing it all year long.
Avoiding this one important error will do more for your business success than doing many things well.
So there you have it. Three powerful ways to start this year fast.
Let’s go!
