Do you have specific, measurable, achievable goals for your staff? Is your sales goal posted? Do you have production goals? Do you have profit goals? Part of your vision is your goals. Your goals are the points along the route that you want to reach in a specific time frame. I drive from my home in the Houston area to my place in Destin, Florida, on a regular basis.
The goal is my specific location in Destin. I know how much time it takes to get to each city. I know that when I’ve been driving two and one-half hours, I should be in Lake Charles, Louisiana. I know when I get to Pensacola, Florida, I’ve got about an hour and a half to go. These time frames work out just fine as long as I don’t run out of gas, there aren’t any traffic jams, or I don’t get distracted and turn onto a scenic route.
All of these have happened to me over the years. I have no idea why I admit the following, but one time my wife and son were in the car with me coming back from Destin. They were both asleep, and I was all worked up over a piece of property I wanted to buy. I was completely and utterly consumed in thoughts and imaginations, when the unthinkable happened. I let my brand-new Lexus run out of gas! How can that happen? That was my wife’s question for sure!
I’ve been making that trek for many years, so many things have happened such as light posts have fallen, thunderstorms so heavy I couldn’t see the lights in front of me (along with lightning so close I thought the glory of God had come down on me it was so bright), and many accidents. Fortunately I’ve never been in an accident on that stretch. One time a tanker truck exploded and the freeway was completely shut down. I got out my GPS and formulated a route through some small Louisiana towns. Hours later I was back on the freeway.
The point is that these kinds of things happen in your business. It won’t always be smooth sailing. But if you don’t have a goal, if you don’t even know where you are going and when and if you ever get there, all you’ll know is that you don’t have gas, or there are problems. When you have clear-cut goals, you’ll know how you are progressing on the journey.
