Business owners and sales people are driven to achieve goals.  The pressure to achieve your goals can create a sense of urgency that leads to anxiety and actions that can have a negative effect.  Setting specific dates for reaching goals sets up a win-lose situation.  Hit your goals by said date, you win.  Miss your goals by said date, you fail.  That’s one example of what I call “hard side” leadership and culture.  I believe you can have a high performance culture within a “soft side” leadership and goal setting environment.  If a person commits to the goal, and is focused on applying all resources and capabilities towards reaching that goal, would it be better to drill down and take the necessary actions to reach the goal?  Progress equals milestones.  Milestones equal achievement.  Achievement leads to reaching goals.

Most people are in a hurry these days.  Increasing sales gives sales people and companies the opportunity to innovate, invest and grow by hiring great employees, developing new solutions and products.

One key to creating harmony within yourself as you move towards achieving your goals is to be very good at strategic planning.  Sales people should plan as if the plan were there to support a business…your business.  Business owners should invest time in the planning process quarterly with the master planning session occurring in December for the new year ahead.

Know that if you plan well and use your plan to guide you towards your goals, you’ll find that you can minimize the concept of failure in your career and your company.  If you’re strategy is on target and you take action on the specifics of your plan, you’ll always be making progress and achieving milestones.

Being patient along the way will become easier if you know you’re on plan, even if your plan changes.  You may find that it’s really the journey that matters and what happens along the way is merely the struggle, the pains and the happiness that comes from your commitment to achieve something great for you and your customers.