Apply the 80/20 Rule to everything you do. Just 20% of the things you do will account for 80% of the value of your work. It is essential that you work on the top 20% of activities that account for most of your results.
5. Practice Management by Objectives
One of the most effective forms of corporate goal setting is “Management by Objectives.” Management by objectives is a technique that should only be used with competent people, with people who have mastered the job and know what needs to be done. This method requires that you entrust an entire task to an individual.
There are four steps to management by objectives. First, define the desired goal or result clearly, in discussion with the person who will be have the 60
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responsibility of achieving it. Take the time to agree exactly on what is to be accomplished.
Second, discuss and agree on the plan of implementation. What steps will be taken to accomplish the goal? How is it to be done? How will you measure success? What standards of performance will you use? How will you know that the job has been done well? And especially, what will be the consequences for doing or not doing the job in an effective and timely way?
Third, agree on a time of completion, and set a schedule to review progress and problems. When is the job expected to be done? The setting of clear deadlines and schedules is a vital part of management by objectives.
Fourth, leave the person alone to do the job. Once you have assigned a clearly defined job with output responsibilities and standards of performance to a competent person, leave the person alone to do the job in his own way.
The key to delegation is to delegate the task completely, and refuse to take it back. Do not interfere. Give whatever advice, guidance and support is necessary for the person to do the job, but make it clear that the job is the responsibility of the person.
One of the most powerful ways to build competence, confidence and ability in other people is to assign complete responsibility to them for the achievement of an important task. When a person knows that he is completely responsible, it gives him a greater sense of personal power and control. It builds initiative and resolve. It develops persistence and 61
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determination. It is one of the most powerful of all people building tools available to parents or managers. And it is a great time saver.
Achieve Your Goals Faster
There are four important thinking tools that you can apply to the achievement of any goal. The application and use of these tools greatly improves your competence and ability to accomplish the goals that you have set for yourself, and for your business.
1. Remove the Obstacles
Identify the obstacles that stand between you and your goal. What is holding you back from achieving your goal? Why haven’t you achieved it already?
Write down every single obstacle or difficulty that you feel is limiting your ability to achieve the goal that you have defined.
These may include internal obstacles, obstacles within yourself. They may be external obstacles, obstacles that are created by circumstances or the situation in the world around you.
Once you have determined the obstacles that are holding you back, identify and determine your largest single obstacle. What is the major obstacle that is standing in your way of completing this task? Resolve to go to work on this one obstacle and concentrate single-mindedly on it until it is removed.
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Peter Drucker said, “In every complex problem, there is usually a single large problem that must be solved before any other problems can be solved.”
Your job is to identify the biggest single problem or difficulty that is holding you back and then focus on solving that before you get sidetracked by smaller problems and difficulties.
2. Identify Your Limiting Step
Determine your limiting step in the achievement of your goal. In the accomplishment of almost any goal, or the completion of any job, there is usually one step that determines the speed at which you get from where you are to where you want to go. This is the bottleneck or chokepoint in the process. Your ability to identify and remove this bottleneck can often move you toward the achievement of your goal faster than any other single action.
In almost every production process, in the achieving of almost any goal, in increasing of your income, doubling your sales, losing weight, there is usually a limiting step or constraint that sets the speed on how fast you achieve it. One of the most important techniques for efficiency and effectiveness is to concentrate on alleviating this constraint between where you are and what it is you want to accomplish.
The 80/20 Rule applies to this principle of constraints, or limiting factors, in a special way. In this case, the 80/20 Rule says that, “80% of the reasons that you are not achieving your goal are contained within yourself, or your company.” Only 20% of the constraints on your ability to accomplish what 63
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you want are contained in external circumstances or the environment around you.
The starting point of personal effectiveness is for you to first of all to define your goal, and second, to ask yourself, “What is it in me that is holding me back?” When you look into yourself, you will almost always find that it is the lack of a particular skill, quality or behavior that is your main constraint on achieving a particular goal or result. This is the “what” that you need to work on before you do anything else.
3. Determine the Knowledge and Skills You Will Require Identify the additional knowledge or skill that you will require to achieve your goal. What else do you need to learn? What else do you need to know?
What is the most important additional knowledge, skill or experience that you will require in order to achieve the goal that you have set for yourself?
As speaker Les Brown said, “In order to achieve something that you have never achieved before, you must become someone that you have never been before.” In order to accomplish bigger and better goals, you will have to develop new skills and acquire new knowledge. You cannot achieve more than you are achieving today without developing yourself to a higher level.
Remember, knowledge is power. But only practical knowledge that can be applied toward getting desired results is true power. Ask yourself, “What practical knowledge do I need to acquire in order to move more rapidly toward the achievement of my goals and the accomplishment of my tasks?”
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Sometimes the practical knowledge you require is in marketing and sales.
Sometimes it is the skill of managing people. Sometimes it is the knowledge of strategic planning or organizational development. Often it is knowledge that is hard to identify, but discovering the critical knowledge you need and then going to work to acquire it, can have an inordinate impact on your results.
4. Determine the People Whose Help You Will Need
Identify the people whose help, support and cooperation will be necessary for you to achieve your goals, both personal and business. Whose help do you need? Who can help you to get to the goal? Who can block you from achieving your goal? Who do you need to work in cooperation with to achieve your goal in a timely fashion?
Often when you set a goal that is going to take a lot of your time, you will need the cooperation and understanding of your family. If you want to rise to a position of prominence in your company or industry, you will need the cooperation of your boss, your coworkers and your subordinates.
Think through the people whose cooperation you will require and what you can do to get them to want to cooperate with you. What is in it for them?
How will they benefit from helping you to achieve your goals? Always start with what others need and require and then work back to what it is that you need and require.
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Ask Yourself the Right Questions
Here are some final questions that you can ask to keep yourself clear, focused and on track in the achievement of your goals and objectives.
First, you should ask regularly, “What am I trying to do?” Exactly what is it that you are attempting to achieve as the result of your work and your efforts? Vagueness and fuzziness in your answer to this question makes it almost impossible for you to achieve your goals on schedule.
Second, you should ask, “How am I trying to do it?” Is your current method working? What are your assumptions? What are you assuming that might not be true? Could there be a better way to achieve your goal than the method that you are currently using?