Vicki Anderson

Who’s got your back? Who’s holding your hand as you walk a new path? Who is challenging you to go where you are afraid to go by yourself? Who is your Bob or Jillian? As a consultant and coach, I am a support to my clients who want to discuss ideas, I provide feedback, and I support them as they try new things. I sometimes teach when they want or need new information.

While I don’t scream at my clients like Bob and Jillian do on “Biggest Loser” I do help my clients pull back the screen and be honest with themselves. So often we want to be different. We want to try something new, but we have deluded ourselves with our own story so long that we believe it is the only truth for us. Sometimes having an outside person can help you get perspective.

This morning as I was doing exercises on my Wii Fit I tried a couple new exercises that I couldn’t do very well. What I like about the Wii is that it gives you some feedback. It’s not always that accurate if you aren’t really trying because it can only measure certain movement. However, it does give you a sense of your fitness level if you are doing it right. And, you can do it in the privacy of your home without being embarrassed.

The feedback is the biggest part of support, I think, because having someone or something outside yourself give you a reality check helps you move toward your goal. It provides accountability. If you are really trying to make changes, you need some kind of support. Ask a friend, a colleague, a family member, or an outside expert to meet with you regularly to discuss your progress and your practice. Keep track by writing it down. Document what you did to get you where you are and what you plan to do next. Before you know it, you’ll arrive at your goal and you’ll have someone to celebrate with.

Well, here it is 2011. Another new year along with resolutions and goals to be accomplished. Yet, 30 days from now most will be abandoned. This happens not only for individuals, but also for organizations. We start out with a new strategic plan or a new set of guidelines, but as we get busy, we forget about referring to the goal and do what we’ve always done–which gets us what we’ve always gotten.

Any time you make new goals, resolutions, or practices, you have to define a way to make it consistent. Develop a way to monitor and keep you on track. It’s like starting a diet and saying, “I’ll just cut back on what I eat.” However, you don’t keep track of what you eat, so you don’t really know whether you cut back or not. Then you wonder why you didn’t lose any weight and give up.

The same is true of any goal you have in an organization. Working to change behaviors is hard work. Old habits die hard because we feel more comfortable and competent in them. We don’t like the learning curve and incompetence that comes with trying something new. If you are trying to build a stronger culture of employee involvement you have to keep reinforcing the values and behaviors that will gain you the results you seek. Watch for people doing the right things and recognize them. If people are falling back to the old ways, say something. Talk about natural consequences. What is likely to happen if you don’t change? What will happen to jobs, your customers, your business, or your employees? Be vigilant and don’t allow complacency to set in.

If you want 2011 to be any better or different than 2010, it takes work to consistently move you toward your goal. Take it a day at a time, but measure your progress. Look for small incremental movement. Doing makes it so.

Many people say that if you do the right behaviors you will get the right results. This may or may not be true, but how do you know what the right behaviors are? For that matter, how do you know what the right results are?

When you set goals you are looking for specific results, but there are often many ways to achieve those results. By focusing only on one set of behaviors, you may be limiting yourself in achieving the results. On the other hand, there will be behaviors that will keep you from achieving the results.

To achieve your goals I believe it is a combination of the what and the how. The what is the result you are trying to achieve and the how is the behavior that will get the right result. You can not do wrong behaviors and expect right results. You can, however, have multiple behaviors that might be acceptable.

When setting goals, I think it is important to talk about the hows as well as the whats. It’s about setting parameters for the hows, not about proscribing them. Provide examples of acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. Then offer freedom to create within those parameters to achieve the results.

Great performance comes from having a goal and knowing what it will take to achieve it; then get feedback along the way as to whether you are on the right path or not. As a leader, it is your job to provide this.