One of the upsides of being forced to rethink what is important in our lives and businesses right now is that we are forced to rethink what is important in our lives and businesses right now.
We now have the time to work through what we all know in our guts that we should have been doing all along!
When we go about doing things in good times it is easy to think that everything that we do matters; that everything that we do is adding value and moving us toward our goal. In reality this isn’t even close. The net affect (the total outcome of what we do) is usually positive or we wouldn’t be in business, or learn new things, or even be able to put our clothes on each day without falling over. The problem with this is that we often see any positive as the benefit we were after. We often confuse a positive with the achievement of goals.
When you look at what you wanted to get done this year are you still on track? If not, what can you do differently? What is taking you away from that achievement? If you are on track, could you do it more easily, less costly, with greater benefit than you thought?
That’s the usual conversation we have with ourselves, or with the management team.
A more challenging conversation, although the one with greater chance of real benefit, is simple to ask, yet difficult in execution. Should we still be doing the things we are doing? Are the goals we set ourselves really what we want to get done? With everything that we now know, with everything that isn’t as we expected when we started, would we still make the same choices?
You see benefits are only benefits if you still see them as useful and adding value you can measure. If things have changed, then is that still the reality of your work, your plans, your projects or even your career goals. It is only a failure if you don’t change if you really need to. Take away the emotion if you can. You are not your goal. Your value is not in the achievement of a task.
It makes sense to take a look regularly at what you are doing and seeing whether the goals you are working on still make sense and will still be of benefit. If you are not sure, then ask for help. Sometimes a fresh set of eyes can see things without the emotional connection you have with those goals. Friends, colleagues, your staff, your boss, or someone with experience you can build trust with.
You don’t have to do this on your own. You do need the courage to decide to look.
