Sometimes doing you best is not good enough. You plan your sales calls, you make sure that you plan your route and get the most number of visits in the day. Your briefcase is full of literature, pens, note paper, brochures and maybe even a price list. You go about your business and at the end of the day; the potential clients had good meetings with you and did not commit to buy or even talk further – how very frustrating!
There are other days you just get out there. Meet people at networking meetings, have a coffee with them. They warm to you and the products or services you are offering. They agree to talk to you in their office about prices and specifics – why is that!
I came across a study by Latham & Yuki (1975) where a hypothesis was tested.
Which was:- ‘People who are given the hardest goal should perform best.’
They had three sets of workers who were given the task of cutting and transporting wood, working in small groups. They were called ‘Do your best group’, ‘Assigned group’ and ‘Participative group’.
The ‘Do your best group’ was not given a specific goal to achieve.
The ‘Assigned group’ were assigned a hard goal to achieve.
The ‘Participative group’ were tasked to set their own specific hard goal.
The results were very surprising:-
The ‘Do your best group’ moved 46 cubic feet of wood an hour.
The ‘Assigned group’ moved 53 cubic feet of wood an hour.
The ‘Participative group’ moved 56 cubic feet of wood an hour.
The participative group worked as a team, were motivated as a team, were motivated by setting their own high goal, they were motivated to achieve it – as they had set it.
Working towards a goal – however high is a must for people in business and commerce. To stretch oneself and the team will forge a work ethic that will be beneficial to the business. It will keep people aware of what is needed, it will maintain output, and it will increase sales and therefore profits – ultimately leading to job security for the workforce.
So what are your goals – what are you working towards?
If you are in business, what is your long term goal?
Is your plan to sell after X years?
Is it to still remain part of the business and put a management team in place?
Are you looking to franchise what you do, or float it on the stock market?
To do your best – you need to look at that big picture. What are you doing all this for? What will you be hearing when you have achieved your goal, and how will that fell for you?
This is not ‘airy fairy’ stuff – you need to know where you are going – what you are about and what you will have achieved when you get there. Clearly a lot of hard work and planning has to be done. Key Performance Indicators have to looked at to ensure you are heading in the right direction.
Companies like mine can help business people focus their attention on what is important in setting that end goal.
OUTCOME – EFFORT – REWARD
Have a great day
Richard Cockell's Blog 