DEFINE THESE 3 OBJECTIVES IF YOU WANT TO BE MORE SUCCESSFUL AT WORK
Every year in order for an organization to grow, everyone needs to become more effective in their work. Effectiveness is not the same as efficiency and it can be very easy to confuse the two. You can be efficient at responding to hundreds of emails in a given day, but you might not be effective in accomplishing anything of substance.
When I sit down with professionals and discuss how to drive more effectiveness in their role, it always boils down to the same advice:
define the 3 most important objectives that you must absolutely accomplish without fail, in order to drive success in your role for the organization.
For instance, a sales manager may determine that in order for one of their associates to be successful and bring in $5M in revenue they must complete the following each month:
- Increase quality leads by 20% that are valued at over $250K each
- Schedule 20 meetings w/ new & existing clientele to discuss product offerings
- Close 3 New Clients and uplevel 1 existing clients spend by 10%
ALIGNMENT IS CRITICAL
Of course this example has been simplified dramatically, but the associate knows exactly where to focus, how a quality lead is measured, how many meetings they should aim to have, and how many deals they should close in order to achieve their goal. Most importantly, they are in complete alignment with leadership. Having these conversations and aligning on what’s most important together is critical, otherwise it can lead to lost productivity for your organization. For example, a professional recently told me they were denied a promotion because they did not accomplish objectives that were never communicated to them. It left them blindsided and destroyed their morale — expectations for success meant one thing to them, and something entirely different to leadership.
SCHEDULE THE CONVERSATION
Unfortunately situations like this are the norm, so I like to empower people to write down their 3 objectives and schedule time to discuss it with their managers, colleagues, or co-founders. Ask yourself, If I had to only focus on three items every day, what will drive the most success in my role for the organization? If leadership or my employees came to me today, am I prepared to define these 3 objectives properly? Having these conversations will undoubtedly provide you with clarity on the definition of effective objectives and will result in increased respect because you will be viewed as someone that values alignment and a clear path towards success.
Success isn’t achieved by doing more. It’s about doing the right things, effectively and consistently.
DRIVING MORE RESULTS
But, why does this drive more effectiveness? Identifying your 3 objectives allows you to determine the 10% of your work that accounts for over 90% of your success. It’s not that you are doing less, but rather you are focused more on the areas that drive the most results.
To give you some perspective, this is similar to a business concept called Price’s Law. It states that over 50% of a project’s success is contributed by the square root (√) of the total number of people that are working on it. To illustrate, let’s revisit the sales manager. If his sales team has 100 employees, 50% of the revenue is being contributed by only 10 people. Why? A small number of people are driving exponential growth because they know exactly where to focus their efforts, which makes them much more successful than their counterparts. I must provide a caveat, because this is not an invitation to cut team members but rather an opportunity to learn from the top performers and help lower performing teams focus on the areas that count. Imagine if you took the time to take these learnings and define the 3 objectives for the rest of the team? The entire business would flourish.
In closing, there are only a handful of items in your role that truly matter more than anything else and these are the 3 objectives that you are looking to define. If you allow yourself to get these 3 objectives wrong, and everything else right, it can severely hinder your progress. However, if you do everything else wrong, and get these 3 objectives right, you can propel your career and business to new heights. This is the kind of value that increases revenue substantially, that drives growth, innovation and moves the business forward. So, before creating or considering a new position ask, “what are the 3 objectives that need to be accomplished in this role to define success?” Everyone wants to do great work, they just need to know where to focus their efforts.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Oscar is the Founder and General Manager of ZERO1, a minority-owned Professional Services Firm specializing in business management, consulting, recruiting, design, and advertising. Their work spans across a range of industries, such as real estate, sports, automotive, media & entertainment, CPG, and more. He’s a Board Member of HUNTERS HOUSE ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, an advisor to GLG & GUIDEPOINT, and a 13 year RED BULL Veteran. Oscar regularly writes and speaks on business strategy, advertising & marketing, professional & personal development, and more. Follow across social via www.oscarchow.com
