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Motivation the key to achieving your 2010 goals; start with strategic plan, aim at the right target

By Shannon Affholter
Business Planning

As the holiday season approaches and the year draws to a close, business leaders have a wonderful opportunity to reflect upon their accomplishments in 2009 and establish their visions for 2010.
As a business owner or leader, you can also use the year’s end as a chance to reflect inward at — and maybe revitalize — your motivation levels for achieving the goals you have already set and will settle on for the coming year.

Motivation is the inner drive that propels you to pursue an outcome and satisfy the need to succeed. However, self-motivating can often be difficult.

To best motivate yourself and be most effective at attaining your desired result, you must develop the habit of setting goals to help you cultivate a resilient, realistic, and focused attitude regarding your business and personal potential.

The majority of business leaders overlook the need for a strategic plan for maintaining a high level of motivation. The short- and long-term goals that comprise a strategic plan can go a long way toward ensuring the success of your business.

During the strategic planning process, the right goals become the road map that guides a business toward a specific outcome and renews management’s and employees’ motivation.
When a goal has been thoughtfully set, the desire for satisfaction will help overcome any obstacles that may get in the way.

You need to use good business advice and sound facts to set your short- and long- term goals, rather than simply aiming for the highest possible mark and pursuing what may be unrealistic expectations.
The ability to control your emotions when developing your strategic plan is important because the lack of control could create unrealistic expectations that may have a tremendous financial and emotional impact upon your business and employees. If not established properly, goals can become a negative motivating factor instead of the positive one they should be.

Establishing effective goals will provide you with the needed focus to move forward and restrict any behavior that distracts from your desired results.

Your goals carry with them not only your intention to attain those goals, but also your expectations to achieve them in a certain manner, within a certain time, and with a certain degree of effort.
You can maximize the efficacy of your goals by making sure they are well-structured and are an established part of your business culture.

Goals that are most effective at guiding your motivation for success are:
established in writing,
visible for daily review,
simple and understandable,
specific and measurable,
realistic and attainable,
timed and scheduled.

ought to whether you are aiming at the right target. Aiming too high may be setting yourself up for failure, while aiming too low may be selling yourself and your business short.

For example, a monthly sales goal of $500,000 may be unrealistic when the average for the business is only $60,000. A more productive approach is to list the actions you’ll need to take to attain a more realistic goal, such as $100,000 per month.

Details may include what the average sale per client should be, how many prospects you will have to pursue to get one client, and the total number of cold calls you’ll need to make to get an appointment.

As Karen Winger, senior vice president of the Wells Fargo Commercial Banking Group, explained, “I focus on the incremental steps that need to be taken every day in order to be successful. I set daily goals that are activity-based and attainable. By meeting a daily goal, I can feel successful every day knowing that I’m on the right track toward meeting my goal by the end of the year.”

Setting goals or achievement milestones for employees can also go a long way toward keeping everyone’s motivations high. Inspiring pride, loyalty, and a commitment to excellence in your employees will keep them motivated to do well at their jobs and, in turn, help your business do well.

Employees with positive attitudes are more focused and clear-headed than their negatively minded counterparts. Thus, a long-range plan of providing quality feedback and a goal-oriented work environment will produce both positive attitudes and stronger business results.

Ultimately, getting yourself motivated will have a significant impact on what you can achieve in 2010 and beyond. By creating a thoughtful strategic plan, setting appropriate goals, and fostering a culture of achievement, you can best position yourself and your business for success.

Shannon Affholter is a Business Development Executive with Moss Adams LLP who deals primarily with business and management planning. He can be reached at shannon.affholter@mossadams.com or at 425-259-7227.