Read the original post at the Washington Business Journal
As an Annapolis graduate, a Navy Football letter winner and a coach
in the Navy Football system for three years, you can imagine that I am
quite thrilled that Navy beat Army in football for the 10th straight year. Navy fans couldn’t be happier; Army fans, on the other hand, probably feel more like this.
If I were to give West Point advice, I would simply ask the leadership how important it is to them to beat Navy in sports.
If it’s not that important (I am not advocating that it should be),
they’re likely to keep losing to Navy. Why? Because Navy’s sports
programs are ultimately all about beating Army. When we sing our alma
mater, we end by shouting “Beat Army!” Most of our fight songs obsess in
one way or another about beating West Point. In order for Army to turn
around its program and begin beating Navy consistently (like they used
to), they’ll need a year-round focus on beating Navy. That cannot mean
that they forsake all their other training, but it does mean that the
coaches and players will need to be focused for at least a few minutes
every day on beating Navy.
Achieving something very important to you and your business requires:
1. Getting crystal clear about what you want to achieve with your business.
I’m not talking about generalities (increase profit margin to 16
percent, increase revenue to $10 million, etc.). I’m talking about
something you can really be passionate about that will naturally and
easily focus your efforts.
2. Documenting your strategy and breaking it down to the level of detail necessary to drive execution.
DON’T BLOW THIS OFF -- keeping it in your head never works. Big
achievements require plans with milestones and metrics. These will not
only allow you to monitor the performance of your team against the
strategy, but they’ll also help you invest growth capital efficiently.
3. Getting buy-in from your team. If the goal is important enough to you, replace those who won’t support you with people who will.
4. Realizing that hope is not a strategy. Hoping
that a number of good things will happen is not good enough to
accomplish something great. You must have a plan designed specifically
to help you achieve your goal.
5. Acting like a honey badger (note – some adult language on the video) when it comes to your goal and never giving up. Being passionate and relentless. If it’s that important to you, how could you possibly quit?
What are your thoughts about achieving big goals? Anything that we can add to the list?
