One of the most difficult questions for any business owner to answer is Why are you doing this? Why do you do what you do?
For many this industry is all then know, their business was started by a previous generation and they have inherited their role as owner, leader and CEO from their father, grandfather, or another family member. So why are they doing this job?
For me, my role in this industry is to help others to grow, learn and develop and become leaders in the industry. Leaders who can then influence their colleagues, peers and workers to also grow, learn and develop and become leaders themselves.
In many cases this is not happening, and lots of people are just here for the pay check, or turn up because they have no alternative.
There is hope for everyone though; if they set their minds to work and plan their future they can do almost anything!
Zig Ziglar in his book Born to Win says that “you were born to win, but to be the winner you were born to be, you have to have a clear plan to get there, this means having specific goals that you are shooting for.”
How many of us have set clear goals for our future, ever? Physical goals, spiritual goals, mental goals, family, financial, personal and career goals? I suspect that many of us have a few goals on parts of our lives, but not all, and many will not have any goals over any part of their lives.
Once I realised that I needed a clear focus for my working life, a reason to work for example, then everything became much clearer and better defined. I want to help others become leaders in the vehicle recycling industry, and as I put everything I have into that then success has followed.
But how does this help the CEO facing financial problems, or regulatory issues, or lack of employees I hear you ask. It doesn’t give them immediate answers, and may not be swift enough to avoid financial collapse or a court hearing, but it can give them the focus, motivation and reason to go to work, to make a difference and be successful. If they can realise the ‘why’ of their role, understand what it takes to win, and lead others down that winning road then their business will be successful, their employees will thrive, their customers will be happy and satisfied and their profits will grow.
This is a life time of effort, because you never stop getting better, never stop growing, never stop learning, never stop teaching: and as soon as you reach one of your goals you need to set another so you do not lose momentum.
So what should you goals be? And how do you set goals that are achievable?
Goals will be different for different stages of your life, for your personal status( single, married, parent, grandparent), for your employment status (owner, leader, employee, retired), for your financial situation (home owner, renter) and more; separate short and long term goals will be required.
Time needs to be taken to analyse your current situation and where you would like to be in a year, five years, ten years etc. Then write the goals down - nothing is true until it is written down - and then plan how to achieve each goal. Every goal is just a series of small steps between your current situation and success, breaking them down into chunks of activity makes them much less daunting and gives you a plan to follow.