Too many business leaders fail to point their troops in a single direction where the goal is known and the process to achieve it clear. Some work to achieve good deeds and hope that their efforts will result in financial success over time. Others aim for financial success during the growth of their business and at the liquidity event or sale of the business – someday. So, this is important. Are you aiming your troops at the goal or just hoping for success with your collective efforts?
Is this important?
Look this up sometime in your browser: “Success is a byproduct, not a goal.” You will find it attributed to tens of originators. I first heard this in an episode of Friday Night Lights years ago when Coach Taylor began a locker room speech with those words.
Make planning sessions about success
And yet, when I facilitate strategic planning sessions, I lead executives to create a goal for their enterprise, one which can be reached by successfully accomplishing a series of strategic actions, each of which is braced with a series of tactics to accomplish in its support. The goal is often stated in revenues, such as “Become a twenty-million-dollar company in three years.” Achieving such a goal is a direct measure of the success of the company’s strategies and tactics.
[Email readers, continue here…] But in our example, the goal is success, which is counter to the locker room speech by the good coach.
Focus upon the goal
It is important to focus everyone in the organization on a goal. And when that goal is achieved, another should be set, then another. Achievement of the goal is a byproduct of the successful accomplishment of each of those strategic and tactical actions called for in a good plan.
And reinforce the focus to emphasize everyone’s role
The point to remember is that you, as leader, must set and broadcast a clear goal, one that rallies your troops to succeed. Don’t let the goal be achieved merely by the accident of good work and practice. Make it tangible, obvious, attainable with effort, and worthwhile for the players on your team. In that sense, success is a goal, contrary to the locker room encouragement by the coach.
Image created with DALL-e (MS Designer) using prompt: “A realistic picture of a young casually dressed male leader with a megaphone speaking to a group of about 40 employees on a football field. Size 1200 x 629 pixels,”
