Adjusting focus

Make calculated decisions based on outside factors. As a general rule, they are gradual-type changes that are made; they aren’t radical changes. It’s more of an evolution than a revolution when it comes to change.

You have to weigh on facts, as well as other opinions, as well as your own personal gut feeling. All those kind of have to come into play.

If your team is really focused on the vision, they tend to not always be aware of changes that are going on around them. So, I think it’s important that you stay connected to the outside world, whether it be through professional associations, business associates, clients, prospects, competitors, any source of information that you can use.

Ask yourself poignant questions. First of all is, what sort of trends are taking place within your industry and also outside of your industry. What type of technological factors are coming into play that are changing the way people do business or the way people change their values. Obviously, economic and political factors can come into play. New competition that was not maybe apparent. Those are all factors. Globalization is a big factor, especially in our industry.

Balance staying focused on your vision with needing to adapt. You need to constantly evaluate your progress, and if you set goals and if you’re just meeting your goals or not meeting your goals or marginally meeting your goals, I think that is one definite signal that you need to sort of evaluate those goals. Either they’re realistic (or) you need to adapt in order to be more effective in realizing those goals.

A lot of it is sort of a gut feel. I don’t think you can ever get too complacent. Just because you’ve established a vision and goals doesn’t mean that you cannot modify those goals if trends, competitive factors, the economy, all of the things that come into play. You can’t do that in isolation, so you have to be constantly monitoring all of those factors to make sure that your vision and your goals are realistic and achievable.

Make sure your goals are realistic and achievable. (You have to evaluate your goals) every day. But you have to have large enough windows so you can really realistically do those kinds of evaluations. Just because you have a bad day or a bad week or a bad month doesn’t mean you scrap everything. Sometimes you just have to do a double-check to make sure everything is headed in the right direction and all the factors that you’ve used in establishing your goals are realistic and accurate.

You have to listen to the market. You have to listen to what your customers are telling you. You have to constantly evaluate your progress in terms of your successes and failures to determine if you’re winning business, why [or] if you’re losing business, why. Just make sure you understand all the factors that are in play to validate your plans.

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