Black. Strictly speaking, black isn’t a color at all. It is, in fact, the absence of all color, of light and, indeed, of anything else. Black does not reveal all, but keeps the most important things under wraps. It has an allure epitomised by the legendary ‘little black dress’. Quite simply, it symbolises the power of attraction.
Much like my favorite color, I believe the best leaders manage their business with an absence of color, light or anything else that is not relevant to what the business' objectives are. And thats what makes them so appealing to the rest of us. Think Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Indra Nooyi or the legendary Jack Welch.
And the challenge in today's business world is that there is a lot of external factors trying to make their way to your management agenda. Think social initiatives like diversity or the environment. Think contemporary fads like social media or politically motivated initiatives associated with suffering around the world. Let them in at your own risk.
The world is full of distractions. Its incumbent on you to block those distractions out to ensure you achieve and exceed your personal and professional goals. You are no good to your family, friends or causes if you aren't happy with your own performance. Yet the majority of professionals surveyed in a dozen job satisfaction surveys over the past two years complain they are not happy or satisfied with their own performance (as well as other factors). To them I say its up to you to change that, not your company or management.
Its not that things like the environment or social media are not important, quite the contrary. They are just not what makes a business successful. Period. You can't give to a cause if you are out of business, and it doesn't matter how great your Twitter account is if you have no results. You can't market your way out of failure contrary to what the marketers will tell you. No, business is about relentless focus on the things that matter, not the nice to haves.
As an active Advisory Board member to several organizations I often see how easily they let non-essential factors get in the way of execution. Business after all is about execution and people, so why do we spend half our time during the day doing things that bear no impact on our stated goals and objectives? I don't just mean the Facebook, Twitter or YouTube kind of distractions. I'm talking about business leaders letting competitors, consultants, critics and even customers get in the way of achieving their goals.
One thing I have learnt in building businesses is that you have to focus on the few things that matter most, nothing else. Much like the color black, its essential to block out the multitude of things that don't matter and focus on how you are going to execute your plan. Anything more may actually be anti-productive and kill your ability to achieve results.
Simple example: if you want to run a marathon in 7 months then you need to know what you need to do today in order to be able to run 26.4 miles in 7 months from now. Too many people who train for marathons will go out and try to run 10 miles when really all you may need to do is actually just run 2 miles today. By mile 5 you start to doubt your ability to get to 10 miles, and by mile 7 you give up on the whole idea and head for a beer. If you had worked out that all you need to do today is run 2 miles and then 2.5 miles in three days from now, then 3.5 miles by next week, then there is no doubt in my mind that you would achieve 26.4 miles come 7 months from now.
Your business works exactly the same way, regardless of whether you are an entrepreneur, a manager or an employee. Distractions are everywhere. When I was building a managed service business for a software company I remember the first few months of our project was mired by internal nonsense that had nothing to do with our main objective of getting the business off the ground. I quickly scrapped all the color the Finance, Sales, and Management were adding burdening us with and huddled the team around one simple goals: get customer number 1. In the ninth month of our first year we landed our first customer with a 5 year contract.
I had a CEO of a medical technology company once tell me that his job was to watch all his employees to ensure they got things done and didn't get side tracked. He had a policy of no personal internet usage at work. What a crock. I recently heard Jason Fried refer to checking your personal e-mail or twitter account at work as just another form of a cigarette break - its not a productivity killer or distraction, its a necessary component of humans taking multiple breaks during a work day. I agree with this. The real productivity killer is you, if you let yourself focus on the non-essentials and spend all your time on Facebook or YouTube. No amount of management or oversight is going to change that, only you can.
To help me focus on whats important I always identify the "highest value actions" that relate to a specific goal. Actions accompany goals and objectives. For example, if your stated goal is to lose 10 lbs, its not enough to write it down and carry it with you on a piece of paper. To lose weight is an outcome, not an action, so you have to identify the 3 or 4 or 5 actions you must take in order to lose 10 lbs i.e. drink 8 glasses of water per day, work out 3 times a week, eat more protein, eliminate carbs after 5pm, get 8 hours sleep a night etc...
Again, your business works much the same way. A CEO who needs to cut cost has to identify the most important 4 or 5 actions that need to happen in order to cut cost. A salesman trying to earn a seven figure income needs to focus on making 10 to 20 daily calls associated with customers and prospects. The founders of a start-up need to focus on getting to a viable product that they can then test in the market and prove there is a need people are willing to pay for. Think about how much external color others will try to put on these scenarios. You have to block it out. You have to focus on the things that matter. You have to go black.
Much like my favorite color, I believe the best leaders manage their business with an absence of color, light or anything else that is not relevant to what the business' objectives are. And thats what makes them so appealing to the rest of us. Think Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Indra Nooyi or the legendary Jack Welch.
And the challenge in today's business world is that there is a lot of external factors trying to make their way to your management agenda. Think social initiatives like diversity or the environment. Think contemporary fads like social media or politically motivated initiatives associated with suffering around the world. Let them in at your own risk.
The world is full of distractions. Its incumbent on you to block those distractions out to ensure you achieve and exceed your personal and professional goals. You are no good to your family, friends or causes if you aren't happy with your own performance. Yet the majority of professionals surveyed in a dozen job satisfaction surveys over the past two years complain they are not happy or satisfied with their own performance (as well as other factors). To them I say its up to you to change that, not your company or management.
Its not that things like the environment or social media are not important, quite the contrary. They are just not what makes a business successful. Period. You can't give to a cause if you are out of business, and it doesn't matter how great your Twitter account is if you have no results. You can't market your way out of failure contrary to what the marketers will tell you. No, business is about relentless focus on the things that matter, not the nice to haves.
As an active Advisory Board member to several organizations I often see how easily they let non-essential factors get in the way of execution. Business after all is about execution and people, so why do we spend half our time during the day doing things that bear no impact on our stated goals and objectives? I don't just mean the Facebook, Twitter or YouTube kind of distractions. I'm talking about business leaders letting competitors, consultants, critics and even customers get in the way of achieving their goals.
One thing I have learnt in building businesses is that you have to focus on the few things that matter most, nothing else. Much like the color black, its essential to block out the multitude of things that don't matter and focus on how you are going to execute your plan. Anything more may actually be anti-productive and kill your ability to achieve results.
Simple example: if you want to run a marathon in 7 months then you need to know what you need to do today in order to be able to run 26.4 miles in 7 months from now. Too many people who train for marathons will go out and try to run 10 miles when really all you may need to do is actually just run 2 miles today. By mile 5 you start to doubt your ability to get to 10 miles, and by mile 7 you give up on the whole idea and head for a beer. If you had worked out that all you need to do today is run 2 miles and then 2.5 miles in three days from now, then 3.5 miles by next week, then there is no doubt in my mind that you would achieve 26.4 miles come 7 months from now.
Your business works exactly the same way, regardless of whether you are an entrepreneur, a manager or an employee. Distractions are everywhere. When I was building a managed service business for a software company I remember the first few months of our project was mired by internal nonsense that had nothing to do with our main objective of getting the business off the ground. I quickly scrapped all the color the Finance, Sales, and Management were adding burdening us with and huddled the team around one simple goals: get customer number 1. In the ninth month of our first year we landed our first customer with a 5 year contract.
I had a CEO of a medical technology company once tell me that his job was to watch all his employees to ensure they got things done and didn't get side tracked. He had a policy of no personal internet usage at work. What a crock. I recently heard Jason Fried refer to checking your personal e-mail or twitter account at work as just another form of a cigarette break - its not a productivity killer or distraction, its a necessary component of humans taking multiple breaks during a work day. I agree with this. The real productivity killer is you, if you let yourself focus on the non-essentials and spend all your time on Facebook or YouTube. No amount of management or oversight is going to change that, only you can.
To help me focus on whats important I always identify the "highest value actions" that relate to a specific goal. Actions accompany goals and objectives. For example, if your stated goal is to lose 10 lbs, its not enough to write it down and carry it with you on a piece of paper. To lose weight is an outcome, not an action, so you have to identify the 3 or 4 or 5 actions you must take in order to lose 10 lbs i.e. drink 8 glasses of water per day, work out 3 times a week, eat more protein, eliminate carbs after 5pm, get 8 hours sleep a night etc...
Again, your business works much the same way. A CEO who needs to cut cost has to identify the most important 4 or 5 actions that need to happen in order to cut cost. A salesman trying to earn a seven figure income needs to focus on making 10 to 20 daily calls associated with customers and prospects. The founders of a start-up need to focus on getting to a viable product that they can then test in the market and prove there is a need people are willing to pay for. Think about how much external color others will try to put on these scenarios. You have to block it out. You have to focus on the things that matter. You have to go black.
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