I just finished re-reading Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink and wondered to myself if there is a way to “thin slice” successful business owners and executives. By this I mean, if you drown out all the noise and all the variables that could possibly be measured, are there a simple few things that determine success? With this headset I began to contemplate the characteristics of the most successful business owners and executives I know to look for a common thread. The age, experience and personalities are all quite different as are the size and industries of the organizations they excel in.
The commonality is in the way that they approach their work. Two habits pervade all that they do: Focus and Urgency.
Habit #1 Focus:
Everyone works hard (or at least most do), but most people work hard at the wrong things. They are inefficient or irrelevant. Those that are exceptionally successful know what to focus their efforts on. They know what their strengths are and they concentrate on those and get results. They are able to think strategically about what needs to get done and then identify the roadmap to get there. Lou Holtz calls this WIN-What’s Important Now, David Allen calls it Getting Things Done. Whatever you call it, it boils down defining what needs to happen and then orchestrating it through action.
Habit #2 Urgency
Ever wonder how you manage to clear your desk before you leave for vacation or how a huge project or order for an important customer gets completed when it absolutely has to. Why, because of deadlines. Many people fail to set or fail to meet deadlines. They are late to meetings, late on project deadlines, do not follow through. The successful people approach their work with a sense of urgency. They have their own internal deadlines that are more stringent than the world around them. If something is due Friday it is finished on Tuesday. If a call or email message with an opportunity comes in, it is answered before the day is out. Something deep inside of them screams “Don’t Let It Wait!” Because of this they are better prepared and more adaptable to changing conditions and opportunities.
For success, focus and treat your work with a self-imposed sense of urgency.
Tags: Startups, BizOwners
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