Achieving Goals Without Being A ‘One Man’ Island

No man is an island and achieving goals and productivity requires involvement of other people. Jokingly, I’d call that a big flaw, but getting people to do what you say they’re going to do, much less extra work, is a difficult feat.

So the first thing is, when you are going to make these kinds of demands of others you need moral authority, and that means you've got to be living it.

My favorite story is from many years ago. As a favor for a doctor who was in our practice management program, I agreed to do a little time management class in his office on a Saturday morning for his staff. And his biggest complaint in life was his staff, and including the fact that they couldn't get there on time; they went for a 45 minute lunch and took an hour and a half. And the insurance billing was never done each week, et cetera, All time, productivity and management issues.

And so he's in Huntington Beach, California, and he's supposed to pick me up at 8:30 in the morning, drive over to his office and do this little class from like 9:00 to 10:30. And he shows up to pick me up 20 minutes later. So we are nearly an hour late to conduct the time management class for the staff. And I said, “Kind of pointless.” You know, they're sitting there saying, “This is bull” and you know, you can't blame 'em - they're right.

So you better be serious about it. You better be committed to go the distance and you better get your act right before you start really laying it on others.

Now, having said that, then it starts with your rules and procedures. As an unemployable, my whole deal with rules is that parking signs are for the rest of the world, but they sure as hell didn't intend it for me - it doesn't have my name on it.

So on the employee side of this, most of us wouldn't like it, but there's a reason we're not employees. So why do you set rules? President Bush, the younger one, said in an answer to somebody's question about his ‘My way or the highway’ attitude that if you don't set your agenda, others will. There it is in a nutshell.

So you now determine how your business life is gonna function and how everybody in it is gonna function with you. And you put it out there and you begin to teach people how they interact with you and you get involved in hiring and firing. And not just the hiring and firing of employees, but I mean of everybody - the guy who parks your car, your barber, vendors, clients, and employees. You may have to fire some who won't get it and replace 'em with somebody who will get it.

My rule is that if they haven't got it after two or three exposures, that’s that. It’s kinda like me training people how to be on the phone with me. If they don't get it the first time, that's understandable because based upon their experience and expectations, etc. Now it's weird if they don't get it the second time, and it may still be understandable, but it's like three strikes and you're out. It's apparent you either aren't gonna get it or you are refusing to get it.

You gotta go and you decide when your zero tolerance policy is gonna kick in, and then you make sure it kicks in and understand that everybody is replaceable. And this all comes to being willing to annoy people and not being disturbed by that. And, and being willing to say, “Next.”

So be extremely selective about employees, clients and customers. Create the rules, follow the rules and say, “Next,” if someone can’t follow ‘em. I go on about how to have the brass balls needed to own your business in my Brass Balls training. If you want to listen to it for free, let me give it to you along with multiple other courses for testing my newsletter here.