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You are here: Home / Archives for 2014

How NOT to Achieve Your Goals Next Year

December 31, 2013 By Dave Ferguson 1 Comment

How NOT To Achieve Your Goals Next Year

Over the past few months, we’ve talked about how we are going to tackle our goals and dreams drastically differently in 2014. We’ve also talked about a process I call RPM to help you identify and build a plan to hit your goals. Now, let’s talk about why some people fail to achieve their goals (so it doesn’t happen to you).

I have found these 7 common reasons people fail to achieve their goals:

1. The goals are too many and too big. Yes, it is possible to set too lofty and too many goals for yourself! Some goals can take months and even years to achieve. If you have too many of these, you will probably stretch yourself too thin. Ideally, you should only have a few big lofty goals at one time. You need to ensure you have the time and energy to work on them, so don’t overdo it. A good suggestion is a few killer goals and a half-dozen small goals.

2. They fail to write the goals down. I am amazed at the number of people I ask to show me their goals and they can’t produce anything. Usually, they tell me the goals are in their head and that they don’t need to write them down. I usually answer with some statistics that show it’s much more effective to write your goals down. Folks, use the RPM process we discussed last week…write them down…on paper, in your journal, on a white board, or on your bathroom mirror…just get them down somewhere other than in your head. I carry mine with me all the time!

3. They don’t personalize their goals. Why do you want to accomplish the goal? How will you feel when you achieve the goal? What will it mean for you to achieve your goal? If you don’t have clear answers to these questions, chances are you don’t want to achieve the goal badly enough. You won’t be able to sustain the drive to achieve the goal. You need to be clear about the significance of your goals…crystal clear!

4. They don’t look at their goals often enough. We humans can be forgetful, can’t we? If you don’t physically write down and keep your goals in a place where you can see them every day, chances are you’ll forget about them. “Out of sight, out of mind.” I give my clients a neat little planner they can carry in their pocket or purse. They can carry it with them wherever they go…okay, not in the pool or lake, but it certainly can sit in the beach bag.

5. They don’t review and adjust the goals. Things change, people get off track, and sometimes people set goals way above their abilities. If you are checking in on your goals often enough, you can adjust and change them where necessary. It also gives you a chance to review your effort and plan. Are you really attacking the goals like you planned?

6. They keep the goals to themselves. These are the chickens. They are scared to share their goals with anyone as they fear failure and humiliation. How many times did Thomas Edison fail before he got the light bulb working? Once you have written down your goals, I highly recommend you publicize them. Yes, announce them to everyone you know; family, friends, enemies, co-workers, etc. Post them on your website and on Facebook. It may make you feel a bit uncomfortable but you know what I say about that. “To change, you have to get uncomfortable”. Put yourself out there this year…put it all on the line! You will get to read mine next week.

7. They don’t have a support network. While they are your goals, you don’t have to be out there on an island. This is where a good coach can really assist you. Accountability and follow-up is imperative in the goal process.

Now that you know the many pitfalls, it’s up to you to put yourself in the position to achieve them. Don’t fall victim to these seven common mistakes. If you’re reading this column, chances are you aren’t common. I challenge you to hit it out of the ballpark in 2014! Call me, and I will gladly help you.

Give Yourself the Gift of Good Health

December 26, 2013 By Dave Ferguson 1 Comment

Give Yourself The Gift of Good Health

I have one more gift for you this year! Each year, late in the month of December and over much of January, many people approach me and ask for advice on fitness, diet, and overall health. As we all know, many people start of each year with some health resolutions. While I am primarily a business coach, I do quite a bit of life coaching along the way. While today’s topic may appear to be a non-business subject, don’t be fooled. Just as business people read this column to assist in their business, there is no reason why health shouldn’t be just as important. Your health is absolutely critical to not only your personal success but also to the overall success of your business, whether you are a business owner, or not.

Today, record numbers of people are losing their lives to cancer, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stress and more. The latest statistic I could find on diabetes is a staggering one. It states that, “one in three children born today will contract diabetes, primarily due to obesity, which is caused mainly by poor diet and lack of exercise.” In addition, the “highly acidic” lifestyles many of us live, which creates massive amounts of toxins in our bodies, is thought by many to be the leading cause of cancer. Can we effectively run a business when we are living lifestyles that destine us for these diseases?

Regardless of the physical or emotional shape we are in, we can always improve it. With good physical health comes energy, which is vital to our success. All the experts tell us that if we truly want to make a change in our life we should find a mentor to help us. In essence, we should find someone who has already made the changes we want to make and model them. Today, if you’ll let me, I’d like to be your mentor for physical health. Without going into too much detail (I save that for my one-on-one clients) I want you to know that this past year I let “things” get in the way, and I lost control of my diet and didn’t take good care of myself physically. I’m taking steps I will discuss with you today to get back on a healthy track. You will not believe the amount of energy and creativity you’ll gain by practicing these habits. I’m excited!

1. Reduce the amount of these you put in your body:

  • Processed Fats and Oils: Cooking fats makes them unusable and toxic to the body, resulting in acidic and disease bearing conditions.
  • Animal Flesh: This is the leading source of saturated fat and cholesterol and a big cause of heart disease. Watch the red meat!
  • Dairy Products: These are also a leading source of saturated fat and cholesterol. They are extremely fatty and one of the most destructive things we can put in our systems. As a former cheese lover, I can tell you this was personally a very challenging change to make, until I really looked at the flip-side.

2. Drastically reduce or eliminate your dependence and consumption of these acid additions:

  • Sugar (there are 14 teaspoons of sugar in one can of soda)
  • Alcohol
  • Nicotine
  • Caffeine
  • Drugs

3. Eat a diet that consists of water rich foods:

  • This should be about 70% of what we put in our mouths.
  • We should also drink half our body weight in ounces of water per day.

4. Make Aerobic training a priority:

  • At a minimum of 30 minutes, 4 days per week.
  • Heart rate should be between 70 and 80% of your maximum heart rate.

5. Include supplements in your daily plan: I will gladly discuss the many options with anyone who contacts me.

6. Exercise daily.That’s right every day. All you need is 25 minutes per day. A mix of strength and cardio exercises is recommended.

While making these changes in your lifestyle are difficult, I can tell you from personal experience, that you will indulge in life much more when you have the energy, vibrancy, and clearness that these healthy habits afford you. You will think, act, and feel at a different level, and your business will follow. Join me! If you need any assistance or if I can answer any questions for you, please do not hesitate to email or call me.

I will close with a quote from the great Zig Ziglar: “Discipline yourself to do the things you need to do when you need to do them, and the day will come when you will be able to do the things you want to do when you want to do them!”

Happy Holidays, and Awesome Health!

Dial Up the RPMs!

December 18, 2013 By Dave Ferguson Leave a Comment

Dial Up The RPMs

Over the past several weeks, we have discussed making changes in our goal and planning processes, getting rid of resolutions, being progress oriented, and finally, how to decide what’s important now (WIN). First, I have to ask you, “Are you committed to creating goals that will be ‘musts’ for you next year, and not just ‘shoulds’?”

I think I heard a resounding “yes”, that’s great!  So, now that you are onboard, let’s get down to the business of how you actually create your goals and plans.

First, I’d like to talk with you about getting and staying focused on what’s really important to you. You probably know what you want, but do you really understand why you want it? Do you build a plan to achieve your wants or do you just wish for them? Review your WINs and decide if they are “shoulds” or truly “musts” for you. Once you commit to a handful of “musts”, let’s move on.

I recommend you use a simple plan I call RPM
(Result, Purpose, Methodology).

Identify the RESULT you want.

Regardless of whether you want to double sales or cut your weight in half, you have to identify and spell it out. I highly recommend you do this on paper. So, let’s say your company’s sales last year were 3 million dollars. If the result you want for the coming year is to increase sales by 20%, then your target number is 3.6 million. That is the minimum result you want. Or let’s say you want to increase the number of days and intensity you exercise. The result you might want is exercising five days a week for at least an hour each day. This is the minimum result you want.

Take a few minutes and write down five results you want this year.

Identify the PURPOSE Behind the Desired Result

Okay, now that you have those five results written down, you’ll need to define the purpose behind wanting to achieve these results. Answer this question for all of your results. Why do I want to achieve this result? Do I want to increase sales 20% to increase profits? Or, do I want to do it so I can use the extra capital to buy out a competitor? Do I want to increase my exercise to lose weight, or do I want to be able to compete in a triathlon?

Take a few minutes and write down your purpose for each of your results.

Identify the METHODOLOGY You Will Use to Succeed

You know the results you want and they each have an accompanying purpose, so we can call them actual goals. Congratulations!

Now we need a plan to accomplish them. What methodology will you use to succeed?

I suggest you have at least five steps to accomplish each goal.

So let’s break one down.

Result: Increase Sales 20%

Purpose: To increase overall profitability

Methodology:

  1. Meet with sales staff and set specific goals with each sales person. I recommend you build in some extra in case you have to let a low-performer go during the year.
  2. Build a plan to target your current customer base to go deeper and sell them more.
  3. Build a plan to target new sales prospects.
  4. Hold each salesperson accountable to the plan (weekly, monthly, and quarterly).
  5. Create monthly sales contests with incentives to the leaders.
  6. Hold yourself accountable to the overall results. (Here’s where you may need a coach.)

If you truly put the time and energy into developing goals, strategies, and action plans…you’re about a third of the way there. Execution is always the biggest challenge. If I can help you and/or your team, let’s talk. No excuses! Have a great week.

6 Critical Tactics for Your Business

December 11, 2013 By Dave Ferguson 2 Comments

In today’s crazy and often unpredictable economy, it’s easy for us to lose track of what is most important to our business. We too often get caught up in the day-to-day clutter and distractions (email, voicemail, cell phones, etc.) that must be re-directed, re-focused, and re-oriented continually. Our employees are no exception. As a leader, you need to share your focus and vision for your business with your employees.  If you ignore this critical focus, the possibility of wasting energy, time, talent and resources on trivial matters will keep them from attaining the company’s vision and its mission-critical priorities. Can you afford that?

You probably have heard it said that managers do things right, and leaders do the right things. The first statement speaks to efficiency, and the latter refers to effectiveness. It is easy to be busy but hard to work on the right things. You as a leader should focus on doing the right things – those things that matter most to the success of your department or organization. In short, to be effective, you must drive the focus of the organization. You must channel your time, talent, energy and resources into making an earnest effort to focus on the key priorities and goals of your organization. Keep your focus by constantly asking yourself, “What’s important now?” (something I call WIN).

As you formulate goals, strategies, and action plans for the coming year, I strongly suggest you focus your team’s attention and concentration on these six primary areas:

1. Satisfying your customers/clients.
Your team should know clearly that you expect a culture whereby your team falls in love with its customers and their wants/needs. You are in business to attract, delight, and retain customers in a profitable manner….period.

2. Becoming outcome driven; expecting results, not excuses.
Develop a corporate climate that expects achievement and not just activity. Be a leader who admires thinking and planning.  Be a leader who demands effectiveness and rewards it more than efficiency. It is critical you understand that one of the most important jobs you have is establishing a performance and a goal-oriented environment; then hold employees accountable to it.

3. Learning and continuous improvement.
If your people and systems aren’t improving, your company won’t improve! You must champion an investment and dedication to employee learning. Commit to your employees that you want them to continually learn and improve what they do and how they do it. I’m amazed today at the number of companies that have stopped investing in the continuing education and training of their employees. Crazy!!

4. Maintaining and driving profits.
Lead an offensive, not defensive strategy for success. Don’t forget profits! Remember both top line and bottom line growth. Replace high-maintenance/low revenue customers with low-maintenance/high revenue customers. Watch all your margins, and try to improve them where you can. Now is not the time to reduce your value.

5. Letting them know you are in it for the long run.
Don’t be short-term oriented. Make sure everyone knows you’re in it for the long run. If you have a short-term business mentality, you can’t expect employees to think the other way. Business is a marathon, not a sprint. Pace yourself in 2014, and you will cross the line ahead of the pack.

6. Having fun!

Finally, focus on making your business fun. Celebrate progress and reward your employees for superior results. Make coming to work a meaningful event. If you can master this one, you’ll reduce one of the biggest expenses associated with operating a business…turnover.

If you incorporate these six critical tactics into your business plan and continually focus on “What’s Important Now”, you should be in the WIN column in 2014.

Have a great week! Next week we’ll start adding some RPM’s to your plans. Stay tuned!

Why Resolutions Don’t Work

December 4, 2013 By Dave Ferguson 2 Comments

Last week, I opened with a discussion around how in December many people start making resolutions for the upcoming year, and less than 1% of them are still attempting to execute these resolutions 30 days later. If you are reading this week, then you must be willing to try something different this year. Are you really? Remember, lists (or as most people call them in December, “resolutions”) are useless without proper focus and a deliberate mindset. Once you have those two things, you still need to develop action plans; but wait, you’re not done yet.  What about executing your plans?

As I mentioned last week, this coming year, I am challenging you to try something new. You’re reading again this week, so I’m assuming you’re on-board. You see, I don’t like seeing busy people waste their time and energy on activities that are fruitless. They may feel like they are being efficient, but are their activities effective?

This week, I’m going to share a few more reasons why I believe resolutions don’t work. My goal here is to get you to move over to a system of progress, not one of change. Wouldn’t you be much happier if you had plans that you continued to execute on because you consistently see progress?  Of course you would.

Let me tell you why I believe most people fail at this type of setting resolutions process.

First, let me recap the first four I gave you last week (if you missed last week, email me, and I will gladly forward them to you, in detail):

1. They get too greedy with their resolutions.

2. They don’t make their resolutions personal.

3. They actually don’t write them down.

4. They don’t make their resolutions visual.

Here are the three additions for this week.

5. They don’t review their resolutions often enough. If you’re serious about making changes and/or progress, you have to review them periodically to check your progress. Just as pilots have to check and adjust flight plans, so must we with our business and life plans. Makes sense doesn’t it?

6. They keep their resolutions to themselves. Why do you think people are afraid to make promises? I believe it’s because most people are afraid to put themselves on the line. It’s not different when we make these annual resolutions. We share them with few to no people. I suggest people tell everyone – and if you’re really serious, take out an ad in your local paper and post your goals for the year. Any takers on this one? Look for mine in the next few weeks.

7. They don’t have a support group. Why be out there on an island all by yourself? I believe you will stand a much better chance of success if you have a support team and/or group. That is one of the reasons I have started my “Synergy Circles” groups. What’s better than having a team of motivated business owners   around you, strategizing to grow each other’s businesses?  Not to mention, a coach leading the group.

I’m sure many of you have been setting New Year’s resolutions for years. While I’m sure some of you accomplished things through the years, think about how much you could accomplish with a proven process and system in place. Next week, we will get into these and I hope you’ll seriously consider giving them a shot in 2014. Of course, I’m always available to assist. Have a great week!

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