Blind spots can severely impact an executive’s strategic vision, their course of action, and their rate of success. They impact decision-making and creativity (or lack thereof) in solving problems and they act to limit the strategic initiatives we are willing to consider. They even affect how we relate to others – hampering our leadership effectiveness, our political adeptness, and our executive presence.

It doesn’t matter what our experience in life or in business has been, what our background is, our age, level of education, or intelligence. We’re all subject to blind spots. Executives, like everyone else, acquire blind spots from life, but as leaders, they suffer additional blind spots caused by their need to operate within the corporate environment.

Blind spots show up in our beliefs, our thoughts, and our actions. These beliefs are self-limiting and are often at odds with the goals we say we want to achieve. Our beliefs are formed – good or bad, limiting or expansive – as we develop from children into adulthood. We formulate these beliefs from the stories we invent as we seek to explain events. Unfortunately, we view these events through the lens of immaturity and without having all the facts. These flawed stories act to limit us and sometimes even come to define us. The key to moving past these limiting beliefs is to replace them with beliefs formed from fresh perspectives.

When it comes to our thoughts, the same thinking that got us where we are can’t take us further. If we keep thinking in the same way, we’ll keep coming up with the same kinds of solutions. Our thinking becomes stagnant without outside stimulation. The only way to expand one’s thinking is to seek out new perspectives, which of course, come from reading and seeking outside input.

When we get attached to the process of how we imagine success will be attained we become blind to other possibilities. And when that happens, we’re like a fly incessantly beating its wings against a pane of glass trying to reach its goal. It doesn’t matter how hard we try if we’re pursuing success in the wrong way. When we’re not willing to consider other courses of action, we limit our success. How does one distinguish between dogged determination and blindness? It usually requires input from an outside, unbiased source.

Blind spots within the corporate world arise from two sources. The first source is corporate culture – corporate culture in a general sense as well as the specific “culture” of an organization. We hold beliefs about how organizations should function, how they should be structured, and which behaviors are valued. Every organization has its own special culture – either by design or by default. And while a corporate culture can be an asset, it often acts to create blind spots with executives. The second source of executive blind spots arising from the corporate world stems from the need of leaders to achieve productivity through others. As executives, we run the risk of our thoughts and beliefs being influenced by the thoughts and beliefs of the people under our guidance.

Breaking free of limiting thoughts and beliefs is essential for achieving the results we want, however, there are some inherent challenges in releasing blind spots. Many blind spots are so deeply ingrained within our make-up, we’re no longer aware they control us. Without outside perspective, these beliefs appear to be truths. It’s important to keep in mind that generally these limiting beliefs are YOUR truths rather than THE truth.

It is critical that we identify and release the self-limiting blind spots which hold us back if real progress is to be made. To that end, it requires outside perspective and input from someone who can point out what we can’t see for ourselves.

See if this scenario sounds familiar.  You decide to work towards some new level of accomplishment.  So you set a goal for yourself.  Actually, you probably set a few goals.  The first goal you set is for the end result.  Your goal might be to reach a certain level of sales, or to drop X pounds, or to build a sales team of a certain size.  You get the idea…

Next, you set an activity goal.  No… more like 2 or even 3 activity goals.  Because you know what it will take to succeed and you’re “committed” to your success.  So you have one or more daily activity goals, maybe a weekly activity goal, and perhaps even a monthly activity goal.

But after a month passes, not much has changed.  Things started out pretty strong, but then… well… you know… life got in the way.  Things just seemed to spring up, derailing your plan.

So then you decide to set S.M.A.R.T. goals.  S.M.A.R.T. goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Specific.  Logically, these make sense.  What more could you ask for from a goal?  But of course, they don’t work for us.  After all, our original goals weren’t THAT different from a set of SMART goals.

And then there’s the strategy of creating a prioritized list to keep us focused and on track.  How perfect is that?  Make a list of all the things that have to get done and then decide which ones have highest priority, which ones come next, and so on and so forth.  The only problem is that half our time is spent re-prioritizing our list and the other half is spent justifying why a lower priority task should be done first.  Besides, “stuff” always gets in the way – interruptions and distractions.

So although setting goals seems like it should work, it doesn’t.  This brings us to the question of why goal setting doesn’t work.  Why is it that when a sales agent creates a marketing plan for the coming year, the result is that nothing really changes?  Why is it that so many people set “New Year’s Resolutions” only to fall back into old habits?

The reason is that although most people basically know what to “do”, they either 1) lack the motivation to do what needs to be done or 2) they wrestle with “conflicting intentions and beliefs”.  Only by being sufficiently self motivated and by being free of internal conflict can goals be achieved.  Most people “put the cart before the horse” by setting goals before they’re truly committed to making a change.

Self motivation is powerful but often elusive.  The challenge with becoming motivated is moving from the “logical” to the “emotional”.  For example, logically it makes sense to lose weight and get fit, but the reason most folks struggle with their weight and their fitness is that they’re not emotionally motivated for self improvement.

Someone who’s emotionally self motivated won’t let distractions and interruptions knock them off course.  When we’re self motivated, we’re driven to achieve our goals.  We’re enthusiastic about them.  Putting in action to achieve goals we’re motivated to achieve energizes us.  In contrast, putting in activity to work on something we’re not motivated to do is draining. (Hence we tend to avoid doing it.)

Then we come to the issue of “conflicting intentions”.  The concept of “conflicting intentions and beliefs” is important to understand.  This is one of the main reasons – if not THE main reason – that people don’t succeed in reaching their goals.  Let me explain more about this concept.  A person has a conflicting intention when they say or want one thing, but in their head or their heart, they want or believe something else.  For example, they might declare that their goal is to make $250,000, but secretly they don’t really believe they could ever make that amount of money.  Or they believe they’re not “worthy” of making that kind of money.  Or they believe that the effort to have the level of success would overwhelm them.  Or they believe that people who make a lot of money are superficial and materialistic.

The consequence of harboring conflicting intentions is that every action, every activity, and every effort is “energetically” counteracted.  In other words, the positive gains from one’s efforts are canceled out by the conflicting or negative energy, resulting in an outcome that is “OK”, but not nearly what it could or should have been.  This principle affects everything in our life – money, relationships, success, you name it…

The bottom line is that setting goals and working towards them often will be a frustrating exercise until one is truly motivated for self improvement and has cleared out any major conflicting intentions and beliefs.  When you’re self motivated and not in conflict, you’ll reach your goals faster and easier than you ever thought possible.

Let’s start with a discussion of how stress affects our work and our leadership.  You’ve probably thought of a couple of consequences of stress already, but I’ve identified five areas of significant negative impact from stress.

When you suffer from continued stress, you will see a marked drop in:

•    Health
•    Energy
•    Patience
•    Creativity
•    Productivity

Health – As stress settles into our lives, it begins to take a physical toll on our bodies and our health.  High levels of stress can cause heart problems, weight gain, headaches, and sleeplessness.  It often affects the balance in our life.  By focusing strictly on our work or our challenging situation, and neglecting our health, eventually the Universe will swing the pendulum the other way for us.  In other words, we’ll become unhealthy and essentially be forced to care for ourselves (and sometimes have to neglect/abandon our work).  Talk about a drop in productivity and a shift in time management!

Energy – Stress in an energy drain.  If you’ve ever been or presently are under a lot of stress, you know how it just saps the energy right out of you.  Your ambition drops, your stamina declines, and your focus isn’t anywhere to be found.

Patience – We all know that when we are feeling stressed, our patience can go right out the window.  Since leadership is a matter of effectively relating to others, our leadership competencies often get “high-jacked” whenever we feel stress/pressure.  Since much of a leader’s productivity is a result of the effort of others, productivity and long-term leadership effectiveness can suffer greatly when we experience long periods of high stress.

Creativity – The creative process takes place in the neo-cortex of the brain, while emotions (like stress) are processed in the amygdala.  Here’s the challenge we face:  When our brain is focused in the amygdala, it essentially blocks out our ability to properly tap into our creative processes.  It’s like when we hear someone who’s stressed say, “I’m so angry I can’t think straight!”  High stress blocks the creative process and hampers logical thinking.

Productivity – Our productivity drops significantly when we’re under stress.  We don’t think clearly, we get overly tired early in the day, our self-discipline drops, and we aren’t able to concentrate.

So what can we do about all this?

In my workshops, I’ll ask participants for examples of stress-causing situations or events.  They’re always eager to offer real-life examples of stressful events.  (Some examples may have already popped into your head as you read this.)  But the reality is that there are no stressful situations!  It’s how we react to events and circumstances that cause us stress.  I guarantee that I can find someone who will not be stressed out by a situation that causes you to feel stress.  This is an important point…

It’s not what happens to you that creates stress, it’s how you react to what happens to you that causes stress.

It only stands to reason then, that we have the ability to reduce or eliminate our feelings of stress.  They’re not a “given”.  You’re not obligated to feel stress, even if everyone around you feels stress.  You are free to choose to experience your circumstances in any way you want.  The question then, is how to affect how we experience the events in our life.  Here is a list of things that can help change the way you are able to deal with the challenges in your life and to minimize or eliminate the feelings of stress.

1.    Exercise
2.    Meditation
3.    Diet & Nutrition
4.    Sleep
5.    Perspective
6.    Attitude
7.    Play

1. Exercise: OK, OK, we’ve all heard about the benefits of exercise, but not always as it relates to the feelings of stress.  When we work our muscles and our heart, we release the tensions held in our bodies.  When we store tension, it causes fatigue, headaches, pains, and makes it hard to concentrate.

2. Meditation: Meditating allows us to gain intuitive insights and helps us gain new perspectives.  Meditation does not have to mean sitting quietly and chanting (unless you want to).  Meditation is about quieting the mind and eliminating the “chatter” we have running in our heads.  There are a number of ways to accomplish this.  It can be through classic seated meditation or through active methods.  One of the classic forms of meditation is archery!  For you, it may mean walking in nature, immersing yourself in a hobby, quietly listening to classical or new age music, or meditating in some other way that works for you – your own approach to meditating.

3. Diet & Nutrition: When our energy is low, our patience and our creativity drop, and our stress level rises.  When are nutrition is lacking, it affects our blood sugar level , which in turn, causes us to deprive our brain and our muscles of necessary energy.  Eating balanced meals (protein, carbohydrates & fats) maximizes energy levels and therefore productivity.  Cut out fast foods and junk foods, and don’t skip meals.  Additionally, since the nutrient value of the foods we eat is nowhere near what it used to be years ago (that’s a whole other discussion…), it’s important to take a high-quality vitamin-mineral supplement or eat SuperFoods.  Think of it has Health Ensurance instead of needing Health Insurance!

4. Sleep: Besides the obvious requirement for sleep in order to have a good energy level, I’ve noticed that when I don’t get enough sleep over a few nights, my outlook on the future and on the possibilities for success drop noticeably, which causes the feelings of stress to rise.  I have found this to be true with other people as well and maybe you’re one of them.  Getting sufficient sleep is critical for high productivity, high energy, positive attitude, and high creativity.

5. Perspective: A smart way to manage your level of stress is to keep those stress-causing events in perspective.  Very few incidents put our life or our health in jeopardy.  Give yourself credit for having the ability to figure out a solution if things don’t go as planned and let your feelings of stress drop.  And by the way, … learn from your mistakes.

6. Attitude: A major factor in determining the level of stress we feel from a situation depends on one’s attitude.  We live in a world where we’re literally bombarded by messages day and night.  Unfortunately many, if not most, of those messages are negative.  Therefore, in order to protect our attitude we need to regulate what we see and hear as much as possible.  First off, cut out the negatives.  Stop watching and listening to the news, stop reading the newspaper cover to cover, and avoid negative people who are pessimistic or who belittle your goals, dreams, or abilities.  Then, add positives.  Read personal growth books – books that help you adopt new success attitudes and habits, or books about people you admire.  Listen to tapes or CD’s which do the same.  (Two of my favorite sources for these programs are: www.nightingale.com  and www.success.com )

Protecting your attitude is one of the best things you can do to lower stress and ensure your success.

7. Play: Sometimes the best way to break out of the cycle of stress is to stop working and start playing.  Take a break and do something fun.  (Don’t confuse “fun” with “pleasurable”.  They’re not always the same.  Make sure that what you do isn’t self-destructive.)  Whether it’s a hobby, a sport, a get-away, or a simple diversion, taking a break and taking your mind off your circumstances can really help you get things under control.

Working to effectively minimize or even eliminate stress will have a significant impact not only on your health, but on your creativity, energy levels, people skills and relationships.  The most productive people I know have learned to deal with events in their lives in such a way as not to feel much stress.  It’s not that they are indifferent, thick-skinned, or robots.  Instead, they’ve developed “rituals” to deal with situations that might cause others to feel stress.  They carefully guard their attitude and their energy levels, along with having a clear sense of priorities.

If you want to be at the top of your game, spend the time to determine which “rituals” help you to alleviate stressful feelings and be committed to taking care of yourself.  I have a Zen Buddhist saying on the wall of my office which says, “Live half for yourself, and half for others.”  It’s a good philosophy to live by.

Let me start to explain this concept by way of an example. A couple of years ago, a client was frustrated with his productivity. He had just come back from vacation and wondered to me why he couldn’t be as productive on his return as he had been on the day before he left. On the day before he left, he was a whirlwind of activity – plowing through the important phone calls that had to be made, responding to all the important emails on his computer, and clearing his desk of all the paperwork that needed his attention. By the end of the day, everything important had been attended to. He had had one of his most productive days. But upon his return, he had fallen back into his routine – productive, but not highly productive. He wanted to know how, or if, he could be highly productive on a daily basis. The answer is yes … and no.

The reason for each answer has to do with energy management. Good energy management can allow you to be highly productive on a regular basis and poor energy management can keep you at average productivity or worse. Everything we do – from making calls to conducting meetings and presentations to attending little league games – requires energy. Most of us fail to take into account the importance that energy plays in our lives. Without the right amount of energy, properly focused and applied, we simply can’t be as productive as we otherwise could be. Certainly, even with a poor level of energy, we can be productive – most everyone is. We’re just not highly productive. Think about your day. Do you get up feeling tired? Do you put yourself on “cruise control” with a steady flow of caffeine throughout the day? Is your mental capacity diminished by mid-afternoon? Are you too tired to be active with family or outside interests in the evening?

Energy management has even greater impact than just physically getting us through the day. I don’t know about you, but when most people get tired their creativity drops, their persistence abandons them, and they get a bit edgy and less tolerant of people and challenges. A drop in energy impacts virtually every area of our lives.

What affects our energy levels? You already know the answer to that question. Nutrition, sleep, stress, physical fitness, attitudes, emotions, and environment are the major influencers of our levels of energy. How do you improve these aspects of our life so we maximize our level of energy throughout the day? Easier said than done – after all, we all pretty much know that these things affect us but haven’t done much about them so far. Usually we have a hard time making changes because our motivation is lacking. On the other hand, many of us know people who were out of shape, found out their health was in permanent jeopardy, and then found a way to get fit. It’s all a matter of self-motivation. How would your life be different if you were highly productive in your efforts on a consistent basis? What difference would it make if you had good levels of energy throughout the day – every day?

There is too much information on this subject of becoming highly productive to cover thoroughly in a simple article, but we can touch on some good ways to start improving your energy management.

Nutrition: Most nutritional experts agree that eating a number of modest meals throughout the day is much better than a couple of big ones. Don’t forget to include protein with every meal.

Stress: There are no such things as stressful situations. It’s our reactions to events that cause us to feel stress. You know what works best for you to reduce your feelings of stress. Set time aside to take care of yourself throughout the week. If you don’t take time, soon enough you’ll have no choice due to health issues.

Physical Fitness: Do I really need to go into this? Doing something -anything – is better than doing nothing at all.

Attitude: Our attitude colors our view of our past, present and future. Most people allow the world to determine what we hear and see. Start to take control of what you mentally and emotionally feed yourself. Cut out the negatives and start introducing positives like listening to personal growth tapes or CDs.

Another critical key to effective energy management is to understand the many positive implications of stretching our abilities and then taking time to recover and rejuvenate. Regular recovery and rejuvenation are essential to becoming highly productive. I can’t stress enough the impact that regular – often daily – rejuvenation can have on your energy, attitude, creativity, enthusiasm, and spirit.

Let’s get back to the client example I started this article with. My client wanted to know how, or if, he could be as highly productive on a daily basis as he was on the day before his vacation, and my answer was yes and no. The yes part of the answer is that you can be highly productive on a regular basis, day after day, by managing your energy and the things that influence it. On the other hand (the “no” part of the answer), it’s impossible to be highly productive without allowing your body, mind, emotions and spirit to recover and rejuvenate regularly. Remember, when we’re tired we tend to slow down, make more mistakes and have a harder time being creative. After all, the main reason vacations exist is to allow us to recover and rejuvenate. You can accomplish more, with less effort and more creativity by backing off from time to time to recharge. Choosing how and when to recharge throughout the week is another story…

To recap what we’ve discussed in this article, the key to being highly productive is to manage your energy. By attending to your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs you can accomplish more with more enthusiasm, more creative and more enjoyment than you ever have before.

This isn’t a formal process.  However, I can share some of what I do each year so that you might also experience the same benefits that I do.  In fact, in the years when I haven’t spent the time to reflect and reinvent, my business has languished and it shrank during that next year.

Each year, as the year comes to a close, I begin by looking at each aspect of my business.  I examine how well each revenue stream performed.  With some streams, I just take an overall look at performance.  With other streams, I do a more detailed analysis.  I’ll examine the results of various marketing efforts and review feedback from clients.  I’ll compare them to the goals I had set for each revenue stream.  After I look at how well (or poorly) a particular aspect of my business did, I then look at 1) whether I did a good job in marketing it, 2) whether I did a good job in delivering it, and finally 3) whether there was, and is, a demand for what I offered.  In truth, one has to answer the marketing and delivery questions first before the demand question can be answered.  In order to properly evaluate your marketing performance and delivery performance, you need something to compare them to.  One of the best ways to gauge whether you’ve done an excellent, average, or mediocre job is to be a student of marketing and delivery.  Become a student of marketing.  Study how others are marketing their products and services.  Stay on top of new, innovative ideas that come across your desk throughout the year and keep tabs on how well these new ideas performed.  Generally, especially towards the early stages of one’s business development, having good technical knowledge doesn’t get new clients – it may keep them, but it doesn’t get them.  Marketing gets new clients.  Commit to becoming a professional marketer.  In addition, learn how others are successfully delivering their products, their services, and their business.  Commit to delivery excellence.  Be open to different ways of conducting yourself and your business.  “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.”  Look for ways to set yourself apart – to differentiate yourself.  Become aware of what you aren’t doing.  Become aware of what you are doing well.  And become clear as to what you’re doing that could be improved upon.  You don’t need to implement every marketing and delivery idea out there.  But it is important to be aware of as many ideas as possible so you can refine and embellish what you do.  Once you’re aware of what is possible, you can then more accurately assess how good a job you do in marketing and delivery.  You need to be aware of how others are successfully marketing and delivering their services.  (By the way, make sure you’re learning from people who are having success and not from folks who just like to hear themselves talk.)  It’s critical to continue to educate oneself with respect to marketing and delivery throughout the year.

Once you’ve fairly evaluated how well you’ve been doing, you can decide whether to implement new ways of marketing and delivering your products and services.  You’ll be able to refine current approaches to be more effective.  You may even decide to re-think whether or not to offer certain existing products and services altogether.  You’ll come up with new products and services to offer, and new ways to offer them.  If you’ve been studying what others are successfully doing in your field or a related field, you’ll no doubt come across products and services which you don’t presently offer.  Reflect on whether any of these other products or services could be worthwhile additions to your business.  If so, develop a plan of action to implement and market them.

By examining what you offer, how well you market, and how well you deliver your products and services, you will reinvent your business and yourself.  You’ll breathe new life into them.  You’ll bring a new level of professionalism to your business and yourself.  You’ll discover new levels of energy.  You’ll find greater enjoyment and satisfaction in your work.  And you’ll reach new levels of financial success.

It’s December.  It’s time to reinvent yourself.

Let’s break events/demands/tasks into four areas, which are fairly self-explanatory:
•    Urgent and Important
•    Not Urgent and Important
•    Urgent and Not Important
•    Not Urgent and Not Important

The first question to ask yourself is, “How much of my day do I spend in each area?”
Take some time to give yourself a clear and accurate picture of your typical day.  Usually we have a sense of how we imagine our day to be, but the reality can be quite a different story.  One way to get a true snapshot is to make your way through a day or two, noting which area each task falls into.

The second question to ask is, “Where do I want to spend the majority of my day?”
Surprisingly, many clients and workshop attendees answer this wrong. (Which helps explain why time management is an ongoing issue!)

Many people will look at the four areas of priority and importance, and decide that their time is best spent on the urgent and important.  Know why this is the wrong answer?  The explanation lies in understanding what the Urgent and Important represents.  Most people would describe these tasks as “Fires”.  The truth is, if we are to be highly productive, we need to minimize the fires and spend the majority of our time on Important tasks before they become Urgent (Not Urgent and Important).  We are in our most productive state – effective and creative – when we aren’t in a state of stress or duress.

However, we can’t get to work on Important matters before they become Urgent if we are constantly dealing with “Fires”.  They are things that are critical to address immediately.  And they truly are.  The key to minimizing the number of fires, once you have dealt with them, is to work to keep them from happening again.  How do you do that?  It starts by understanding that the fire is a symptom rather than a problem.  Work to uncover the real problem and then solve it.  Usually the solution is fairly straightforward – it’s uncovering the problem that’s the challenge.

The other two areas, the “Not Important” ones, are usually made up of tasks that can either be delegated or postponed to a time of the day or week that makes sense.  These would be times that are not “Prime Time” or times of low personal energy – perhaps late in the afternoon or just after lunch.  We’ll discuss the concept of Energy Management as a productivity tool later.

The last part of moving into and staying in the “Not Urgent and Important” area is to be self-disciplined enough to work on and complete tasks before you “have to”.  Develop the habit of dealing with responsibilities as they come to you instead of waiting to the last minute.

When we develop others, we add to their value.  They become more versatile, more productive, and more confident.  As a person’s knowledge base expands and their ability to accurately assess situations improves, their capacity for creative problem-solving increases.  As their breadth of knowledge and abilities expands, so does the pride they take in their work.  And pride in work and workmanship leads to higher productivity, more creativity, and the desire to go the “extra mile” to ensure excellence.  Their ability to take on more responsibilities increases.  Their potential for advancement elevates, and their likelihood of becoming another leader moves closer to reality.

Additionally, as we demonstrate an interest in the progress and success of others, they in turn, become more loyal to us.  Taking an interest in the success of others helps them take an interest in our success.  As a leader, it’s important to be respected by the members of our team, and effectively developing others nurtures this respect.

There are even more direct benefits to us as a leader when we develop others.  When we increase the capacity of our team members, we create the ability to delegate more and more.  The more we can delegate, the more we can leverage our time and our effort.  Delegation leads to greater productivity.  In addition, the more of our work we can delegate, the easier it is for us to rise above the grind of always working “in” our business and spend time working “on” our business.  One of the things that holds us back from taking our business or our career in new directions is not spending enough time stepping back from our busy-ness to see the bigger picture.  Effectively delegating allows us to take that step back.

Besides improving our personal productivity and insightfulness, we also move others closer towards taking on a leadership role of their own when we develop them.  Which means that we are grooming someone to take over our responsibilities from us.  At first glance, this may seem like a foolish thing to do by making us replaceable, however it allows us to easily “fill in” behind us, which in turn, makes us more “promote-able”.  If no one else can do our job, then we aren’t in a position to move on to bigger and better opportunities.

OK, now that we’ve established the importance and wisdom of developing others, let’s talk about how to actually do that.  How do we effectively develop others?  One of the challenges in developing people effectively is that development is an art rather than a science.  It takes a bit of skill and judgment to become good at it.  Effective development requires the ability to read people and understand their strengths and weaknesses.  It requires the judgment to know which areas to develop a person in, which tasks are good candidates to delegate, and how hard to push someone’s growth.  It takes being sensitive to the other person’s demeanor to decide whether to ask them if they have a desire to take on something new or, in the alternative, to simply place the new task in their lap.  The whole process can be broken down into deciding on which tasks to delegate and then deciding on how to delegate to whom.

Let’s start by discussing which tasks or responsibilities to delegate.  These fall into two categories – those that require no judgment (like compiling a report) and those that do require judgment.  Clearly, tasks that require no judgment are always good candidates for delegation.  Key points for being effective in delegating these tasks are 1) to ensure you choose the right person, 2) ensuring they have the proper tools and knowledge, and 3) clearly communicating your timeframe and level of importance.  Tasks or responsibilities that do require judgment are good vehicles for developing someone past the basics of “getting the work done”.  You must choose these tasks/responsibilities carefully so as 1) to avoid undermining the person’s self-confidence and 2) not to create problems if poor judgment is demonstrated by the person being developed.  You’ll need to gauge the person’s level of self-confidence before you assign a challenging task.

How do you ensure that a misstep doesn’t wreak havoc on your organization?  Two suggestions: 1) Don’t delegate anything too critical and 2) When you delegate something that requires judgment, make sure you regularly check in on their progress and always leave enough time for review and correction before the results are released to others.

As far as determining how to delegate and who to develop, it really depends on the task and where a person is in their skill level, state of mind, capacity for change, level of self-confidence and self-image.  Someone who is lacking in self confidence or is just starting out on their development path requires more guidance and “hand-holding” than someone who is experienced and has already developed a higher level of confidence.  Sometimes people need to be asked whether they’re open to learning something new or taking on more responsibility.  Remember, a key to effectively developing others is to make sure that they are open to growth and to stretching beyond their current state or present comfort zone.  Too often, we believe in others more than they believe in themselves, and as such, may push them harder and faster than they want to go.  While it is important to stretch people, we don’t want to “break” them.  This is part of the “art” of effectively developing others.

Clearly the amount of judgment you expect someone to demonstrate will depend on their level of experience and their track record of making good decisions and good choices.  Placing someone in a position to make decisions in an environment they are unfamiliar with creates the opportunity to teach and mentor for growth.  Just make sure you use the opportunity to teach and mentor, and don’t react to mistakes or poor judgment with criticism or belittlement.  Situations that are new and/or challenging offer us great opportunities to teach.  An excellent way to teach and develop is to adopt a “coach-like” manner in your leadership.  Rather than tell or criticize, guide and reveal insights to the other person.  Be a guide and mentor, not a manager or boss.

By refining your development skills, becoming an effective delegator, assessing others accurately, and adopting a coach-like approach, you’ll help others grow, add to their value, improve their self-confidence, and further your own interests as well.  Effectively developing others will propel you towards exceptional leadership.

Why Delegate?
There are three very important reasons not only to delegate, but to become excellent at it.  First of all, delegating appropriate tasks simply allows you to accomplish more.  You leverage your time.  It frees you to work on tasks that produce income.  Secondly, delegating allows you to also work on the bigger picture, rather than getting bogged down in the routine tasks.  It creates the opportunity for you to work on your business rather than always working in it.  And finally, effective delegating allows you, as a leader, to develop people by expanding their expertise, their independence and their areas of responsibility.

The key, of course, to achieving these goals is to delegate effectively.  There’s nothing worse than delegating a task and having it done wrong, done poorly or even worse, not done at all…

Causes of Poor Delegation:

•     “I can do it better” syndrome – You know this kind of thinking.  “If I ask someone else to do this, I’ll just have to redo it anyway…”  This is either due to poor communications on your end or having the wrong people on your team.
•     “Too hard to pass off/teach” – You’ve seen this one, too.  “It will take me longer to teach him/her how to do this than it will for me to do it myself.”  That may be so, but when you add up a year of doing it compared to teaching it one time, it’s no contest.
•    Too few people – Everyone’s overloaded already, so I just can’t delegate anything else.  You need to reduce their load by streamlining and creating systems or you need to hire more folks.
•    Wrong people working for you – Sometimes you come to a realization that the person working for you is really not the right one for the job.
•    Poor communications – (see below)
•    Inadequate timeframe – Don’t wait until the last minute to delegate.  Work to create a habit of taking action sooner than later.

How to Effectively Delegate:

1.    Choose the right tasks to delegate
Clearly not all tasks are good candidates for delegation.  A rule of thumb that I’ve used for years is that a task which does not involve judgment is usually a good candidate for delegation.  It’s not that the other person can’t make a decision, but you are in the position you’re in because someone trusts your judgment.  Ultimately the responsibility falls on your shoulders.  Also, don’t delegate production-oriented activities; those stay on your plate, too.
2.    Select the right individual(s) for the task
Make sure you choose a delegate whose talents match the skill set needed for the task.  If necessary, rearrange delegated tasks to give the right person the time for the new task.
3.    Be clear in your communications
Ever give someone a task or report to do and have them do something completely different than what you wanted?  Be clear on what you’re requesting and have them repeat their understanding of your request.  Also, get in the habit of checking in on the progress of important tasks. (See #6 below.)
4.    Make certain each person has the right tools and sufficient knowledge to use them properly
Sometimes the right person doesn’t have the tools or knowledge required for the task. (and they may be reluctant to admit it!)  If you suspect that may be the case, make sure they know who to go to or where to go to find the information and/or tools.
5.    Create accountability
There are few things worse than delegating a task and finding out it’s not finished when you need it.  Most of us have experienced this challenge.  It’s important to be clear on the importance of the deadline associated with the task.  Regardless of whether the delegate “should” be on track or not, a missed deadline falls on your shoulders.  You’re the one who will ultimately feel the stress caused by a missed timeline.  Make sure you stay on top of important delegated tasks.  In addition, if you state that a task is important but then neglect to give it the attention it deserves, it reflects on your integrity.  It demonstrates that you will say one thing but will do another.  Do what you say you will do and say what you mean to say.
6.    Provide ongoing communication and feedback
In order to ensure that your deadline is met and the work is being done properly, it’s important to check in on the progress of the assignment.  Course corrections are critical to the successful and timely completion of important tasks.

Effective delegation will leverage your time and your efforts.  It will work to develop your team and make them more valuable, more productive and more loyal.  If you want to boost your production, spend more of your time on efforts that produce and less time on tasks that are administrative.

As a coach, I’m always in favor of people setting goals and developing a game plan to reach them.  We stand a much greater chance of reaching a goal when it’s properly developed and it’s written down.  A properly written goal is S.M.A.R.T. goal.  In other words, it’s Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Rewarding, and Time-specific.  Additionally it should be stated in positive terms.  As an example, don’t create a goal such as: “I won’t be disorganized in the coming year” but rather one stated: “I will organize my time better this year.”  If we examine this goal, keeping the SMART concepts in mind, we’d ask:  Is it Specific? (No)  Is it Measurable? (No)  Is it Attainable? (Yes) Is it Rewarding? (Maybe) Is it Time-specific? (No)

A better version of “I will organize my time better this year.” would be: “I will develop a system for scheduling my day by January 15th.”  Specific. Measurable. Attainable. Time-specific.  Whether this goal is Rewarding depends on what benefit you’ll receive by being more efficient.

Let’s take the goal-setting process one step further by refining a production goal.  Often I’ll have clients tell me they have a goal of reaching a certain income level in the coming year.  We’ll use $100,000 as our example.  If the goal is stated as, “I earn $100,000 in 2004.”, it qualifies as a SMART goal.  The problem is that while it may be a SMART goal, it isn’t a useful one!  It is a necessary goal (stating an income target) but it isn’t sufficient to help you get there.  While setting a goal of reaching $100,000 (or $200,000 or $500,000) is important, not setting activity goals that support the attainment of your goal is like planning to climb Mt. Everest without planning all the steps along the way!  A key, therefore, in attaining a big goal is to set goals for the steps that will bring you there.  For instance, if you know your conversion ratios you can set the appropriate activity levels which will allow you to reach your bigger goal.

As an example, if you’re a professional who focuses on recruiting, you may have a goal of recruiting three good agents during the coming year.  If you “convert” one agent out of every three agent trainees, it means you need to find at least nine trainees during the year.  If it takes two interested and qualified prospects to get one trainee, it means you’ll need to find 18 qualified and interested prospects during the year.  If it takes five interviews to find an interested and qualified prospect, you’ll need to conduct 45 interviews throughout the year, or about one a week.  You might be tempted at this point to develop a goal of conducting one interview each week of the year.  The problem with that is that it’s like setting a goal of conducting 20 interviews a week.  Nice idea, except that the real key is how you’re going to get those interviews.  The last step, therefore, is coming up with a plan to generate an interview each week.  There are many ways to find candidates and to generate interview opportunities. (My e-class on Highly Successful Recruiting helps you develop systems that fit your marketing style.)  The key is to develop enough recruiting activity (usually two or three systems) to produce your interview goal.  Once you’ve developed those, the goal(s) that will make a difference in your success will emerge.  One of those goals might read something like: “I visit my better agents every other month to ask them for candidate referrals.”
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Now that we’ve tweaked your goal-setting skills, I’d like to throw out a challenge for you to consider…

Most folks I speak with are sincere on working towards achieving the goals set by their company.  But isn’t working towards the company’s goals just striving for the minimum?  Isn’t that striving for mediocrity?  Is it really such a great accomplishment to just “get by”?  I challenge you to put the company’s goals aside and instead, set goals that reflect who you are; goals that reflect your greatness.  If the company wants 20 policies sold each year, why not sell 40?  If the company wants you to add 3 new agents each year, why not add 10?  The question really is: Are you the kind of person who wants to be known for not being disqualified or are you a person who wants to be known for setting an example of excellence?

Start engaging in what I call possibility thinking.  Rather than look to incrementally improve, why not ask yourself, “If I can sell 20, what’s stopping me from selling 30 (or 40 or 50)?  There may be valid obstacles in your way, but by asking that question of yourself you begin to identify what has to change in order for you to accomplish your new goal.  Clearly not everything stands in your way towards success.  By identifying the one or two issues which are obstacles, you begin the process of eliminating or reducing the bottlenecks and impediments to your progress.

Rise above the average.  Don’t strive for mediocrity.  Strive to be the best you.