I was walking along the promenade in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Stretched in front of me were vendor after vendor selling to the evening crowds. I love cake. At one table, a woman and her family had the most amazing cakes for sale. I bought a slice of the chocolate one and sat across from them to enjoy it. Afterwards I watched as between busy periods the woman and her spouse were close together.
Standing in our front hallway I was ready to head to the airport. I needed a cab to get me there, so out came my iPhone, into Google I went, and typing “call yellow cab vancouver” I pressed the number Google showed me without a second glance. I was surprised that rather than be put on hold a voice answered immediately and said:
“Black Top Cabs, David speaking”
Karalee and I were riding up the gondola together first thing in the morning on Blackcomb Mountain. It was looking like a great ski day when one of the people we were randomly put together with looked over at our ski poles and said “those must be old–they still have leather straps.” He was right.
Entrepreneurs need to set clear goals to get what they want in their business. The question then becomes what is a clear goal? A clear goal is one where everyone can agree that a finish line has been crossed when you get to the end of a quarter or year.
While the concept might be simple, finding, setting, and making clear goals is often more art than science. When you meet with your senior executive team to set your annual and quarterly goals, look for these three things when goal setting.
I spend a lot of time helping entrepreneurs and their teams figure out why they do the work they do, what they are going to focus on, and how they are going to measure their success. While these are important, the most important question is:
Who?