Are Your Business Efforts Supporting Your Corporate Goals?

Entrepreneurs place high value on productivity and performance. Working twelve hours a day is pointless if business results do not reflect this effort. Goal setting is an important part of business strategy but it is only half of the story. Business owners should ensure that their efforts align with the corporate goals they have established. A hectic daily pace makes it easy for entrepreneurs to spend time on things that do not support corporate objectives.

Business owners should stop and think about whether their time is being used effectively. Creating a written account of how each day is spent reveals whether daily activities match business goals. Entrepreneurs who spend their time putting out figurative fires and doing the jobs of others are not helping their companies achieve greatness. Work that contributes to achieving corporate goals should be high on the daily to-do list. This list can be divided into short, medium, and long-range timeframes.

Goals should be ranked based on the planned direction for the business and skills of the entrepreneur. Those that correspond with the strengths of the business owner should be ranked higher than those that do not. Large goals can be broken into smaller chunks in order to track progress. The task list for each day or week should include several action steps for each large goal. By creating smaller targets for each objective, entrepreneurs can assess the progress they make toward goal achievement. 

Entrepreneurs should review the top three organizational objectives and determine metrics for evaluating performance in these areas. They should also think about what changes could help them accomplish these major goals. In some cases, it may involve hiring additional talent or spending more time communicating with customers. The sooner these changes are made, the better.

Action steps for goals can generally be categorized as those that enable goal achievement and those that are part of daily operations. These steps should be ranked from low to high. By quickly addressing many of the low-priority tasks, entrepreneurs free themselves to focus on the higher-priority action steps that contribute to goal achievement. For example, if developing a new product is a goal for the upcoming year, increasing production staff will prepare the business to handle the task and give the entrepreneur time to focus on the creative aspects of product development.

After action steps and goals have been listed and ranked, entrepreneurs should review their daily schedules to determine whether these align with goals.  Identifying the three major activities that consume most of the entrepreneur’s time may reveal the answer. Realizing that the majority of time is spent on low-priority action steps and goals can be a shock for entrepreneurs who previously considered themselves productive.

The most effective way to create a successful business and earn a six figure income is to align work efforts with corporate targets and goals. Entrepreneurs who spend more than half of each day working on low-priority activities should make an immediate change. Addressing important goals on a regular basis keeps the company progressing toward greatness.