OnTrack Blog

“How’d you do this year?” people ask. We think about it and we casually answer with what is fresh in our minds – the last few months or weeks or days. It’s been a tough year for many: job losses, health problems, family issues, or other disappointments. For some, the year has been good despite the surrounding conditions. What makes the difference in performance and achievement? How can we do better while all about us seems to be unstable or even crumbling?

Each year we take time to formally or informally assess how we did over the last 12 months. We use the start of the New Year to set goals (resolutions?) in areas that are important to us. However, commitment and follow-through become a problem. Example: look at gym memberships: In January, gym enrollments soar. People resolve to lose weight gained over the year and holidays and to get more fit. Soon, like in February or March, enthusiasm wanes and ”the call of the couch” is louder than the inner voice recalling the commitment to exercise.

Secrets of Transformation

In this article we will look at five principles for transforming performance from the Best Year Yet®*:

1. Appreciate successes; 2. Learn lessons; 3. Shift limiting beliefs;

4. Live our values;  5. Set and focus on goals

Why don’t we reach our goals?

There are many reasons why people don’t reach their goals – some common ones:

Some never set goals                                     Lack of commitment

Not following steps to reach them              No measures of success

No timeframe to give focus                          Fear of success or failure

Lack of belief that the goals are reachable

Outside influences (time, money, friends, circumstances, …)

Think about your reasons FOR reaching your goals. Are you ready to transform your performance and actually reach 80 – 100% of them? If so, here are the five steps to follow with explanation for each:

The Five Steps

1) Appreciate successes

When we work on projects, we follow a cycle:

Create the idea > Do the steps > Complete the project > Acknowledge Success

Human nature has shown that each of us has strengths in one or more of these steps. However, many times when the job is completed, we’re too busy to acknowledge; we lose the chance to build on our success. Acknowledging success re-fuels our enthusiasm and commitment.

2) Learn your lessons

By reflecting on successes and disappointments, we learn important lessons that provide guidance in future endeavors. What are the reasons we fail to reach a goal? What were the driving factors, skills, and tactics used in achieving successes? When we understand the lessons and use them as guidelines to overcome excuses for failure, we are motivated toward success.

3) Shift limiting beliefs

What are you are good at? Lousy at? You can readily see that your attitude contributes to your success in those areas. A wise man once said: “Attitude determines outcome”.

How many people don’t even attempt to understand simple science concepts because of poor early school introductions? The mindset that “I’m not good at science” stops many from even trying to understand concepts. The same is true for weight loss “I can’t lose weight and keep it off – I’m made to be overweight!” Change the limiting beliefs and we can succeed where we previously have failed.

4) Live your values

What is most important in your life for happiness and success. What are your most important values? What values influence you in making decisions? What are you willing to give all you’ve got to protect?

“Character is how we act when no one is watching”. Values are the drivers of character. Ensure that the goals you seek to achieve are in line with your values – you’ll be more successful and fulfilled.

5) Set and focus on goals

That great sales motivational speaker Zig Ziglar teaches: “You’ve gotta have goals; a goal properly set is halfway reached”.  Many studies have shown the great difference in achievement between those who set and follow goals and those who don’t.

Following Ziglar’s goal setting formula:

• Write down your Objective
• Put a Date on it
• List all Obstacles to achieving the goal
• Identify the People, groups, or organizations you need for help
• Identify any Knowledge you need to achieve the goal
• Devise a detailed plan of Action
  • Write down all the Benefits in achieving the goal

Then get busy and persistently follow your plan and track your progress.

With this formula you will transform your performance and your life in all the areas you focus on. Just GET STARTED!

*Note: for more about the Best Year Yet® program go to http://tiny.cc/IndBYY or call Lloyd Franke at 781-721-2123 or Marilyn Edelson at 617-964-3202

© Copyright 2009 Lloyd Franke

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Lloyd Franke focuses on defining and achieving high  performance goals in owner-managed businesses. He is a certified Program Leader for Best Year Yet® and an Associate at OnTrack Coaching. Check his web site at www.LfrankeAssociates.com Email:lfranke@LFrankeAssociates.com Call: 781-721-2123

Title: Best Year Yet Workshop
Location: Waterfield Business Center, 12 Alfred St. Woburn MA

Link out: Click here

Description: Create your personalized plan for success in 2010 online (including one full year software subscription to track you plan)  and attend workshop for an additional $100 to perfect your plan and start 2010 off really powerfully!

Start Time: 9:00
Date: 2010-01-30
End Time: 13:00

My appreciation of Michael Jackson has grown more since his death than in life. I spent the weekend obsessively watching program after program about the phenomenon of Michael Jackson. His music never appealed much to me — or so I thought– but even I, who missed a few decades of music while raising kids, knew the legendary “moon walk” and could appreciate his talent.

Like most phenomena, what he did looked effortless for him, and impossible for the rest of us, which is the stuff of which admiration –even worship– is made. What few people knew– and I learned by watching all those documentaries of his life– was that Michael was an instinctive follower of what Daniel Coyle, author of The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How., calls “deep practice.”  “Deep practice,” states Coyle, is  key to building myelin, the magical substance that surrounds our nerve pathways to and helps embed learning in our systems.

As a child, it is alleged, Michael practiced under the threat of punishment by his dad. As an adult, that morphed into his own perfectionism. He would, according to old interviews, practice routines for hours and hours by himself (no band, no dancers)  to make those moves his own. When I watched those old videos, I noticed the dancers were dancing extremely well but Michael, was dancing “in the zone.”

Why does this interest me now? As a Master Certified Coach (M.C.C.), I want to be a true Master coach, i.e. a master at coaching others to their greatness. The Master coach, according to Daniel Coyle. has four virtues — knowledge, perceptiveness, “GPS reflex” guidance, and “theatrical” honesty. The coach must ignite the flame (or keep it going once ignited) and the client needs to do the rest through deep practice.

Michael knew how to use coaches. He knew what he wanted to accomplish and hired the best to help him get there–  Quincy Jones (Billy Jean), Martin Scorcese (Thriller), George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, to name a few.

I’m an amateur artist. As a teenager at a prestigious NYC public school for music and art, my spirit squashed by a combination of little real direction and the careless comment of a painting teacher who described a hand in a portrait I was working on as looking like “death.”  I had to spend a week doing yoga and painting 25 years later to shed Miss Sherman’s negativity.  My yoga/painting teacher had us finger paint (some of us  even used our feet) and paint with our eyes closed to loosen up, but she also talked about looking for dark, light and middle values, showed us how to compare tones by poking two holes a half inch apart in a piece of white paper, and gave us honest, real (vs. harsh) critiques. A good coach– a Master– shows you the essential supplier for your journey down your path, helps you remove unnecessary obstacles, encourages you when the path gets tricky, and, of course, holds you accountable.

Out of that sometimes genius emerges, at other times the accomplishment of something previously unattainable, and at other times, you simply get where you want to go faster and more easily. Michael didn’t invent the moonwalk. He simply perfected it and made it his own!

When the buzzer sounds ending the first half of the game, the reporter invariably asks one of the coaches heading to the locker room why his team is ahead/behind, what’s working or not working, and changes to be made in the second half? At the mid point of the year, business leaders as coaches for their companies and teams must answer the same questions. If results are not meeting goals set in the annual plan at the start of the year, what are we going to do about it? If we are on track, how will we maintain or improve performance?

The halftime review:

1. Set aside a day for the management team to meet off site, off the playing field. You need concentrated time and everyone’s focused attention to get the benefit of this session.

2. Use a structured approach to review performance toward annual goals. Each of the goals should have a champion assigned who takes responsibility for its achievement. Ask each champion:

• Were last month’s milestones completed?
• Are we on track to meet the goal?
• What have been the accomplishments to date?
• What are the disappointments?
• What lessons have we learned so far?
• What are the milestones for next month?

3. Look for performance facts not excuses, complaints, or blame. Considering the facts, which goals are in trouble (red light)? Which are on track (green light)? And, which are in some doubt (yellow light)? (This is a concept used successfully in the Best Year Yet® program, achieving results for over 25 years. www.bestyearyet.com).

The green light goals may need little attention but to reconfirm their importance, acknowledge the good work of the leaders championing them, and discuss lessons learned and strategies that might help others. The goals considered “red light”, in danger of not being met require more in depth review:

• Is the goal still critically important?
• Do we change it or abandon it?
• How should it be revised?
• What additional resources are needed for accomplishment?
• In light of the current environment, how do we change the game plan going forward? Put on the brakes?
• The Business at Halftime

Those rated “yellow light” also need more scrutiny to push them forward – like many drivers when encountering a yellow traffic light, step on the gas! What are the critical elements to get this in the “green”?

4. Set up Incremental Steps to Success. What should we be monitoring in addition to revenue and profit? What are the indicators that we must watch to prevent end-of-month surprises? In sales, for example, there are many events that lead up to the final closing of the sale: pipeline progress, marketing touches, prospect meetings, and proposals. Each of these can be tracked and measured to give an early forecast of sales. If there aren’t enough prospects in the pipeline, sales will suffer. What’s the closing rate – how many new prospects must we have in order to close one sale? To get prospects, we must make multiple contacts or marketing touches – how are we doing that? Set the goals, and monitor activities regularly to ensure that the final objectives will be achieved.

5. Take Timeouts. Schedule a monthly 2 – 4 hour session with the management team to review progress – it’s essential to keep everyone focused and on track.

6. Attitude Check Finally, before going back into the game, take a reading on the team’s attitude:

• Do we believe in what we are doing and that we can achieve success?
• Are we acting to reinforce our beliefs?
• Are we living the values that are essential to a winning culture?
• Are managers passing the vision and goals to their employees? Spread the word!
• Keep the strategic plan in view and review regularly

Commitment of all the key players is essential to winning in sports as well as in business. Think about the difference in winning teams versus losing – many times it is a matter of attitude and commitment; the difference in attitude of “trying” and “doing”. As Yoda said in “Star Wars”: “Try not. Do or do not. There is no try!”

7. Now execute the game plan!

Cynics will say that nothing comes from these review sessions: “lots of talk but nothing changes.” You as a Leader/Manager/Coach must make sure that there IS action. Watch the scoreboard, make sure the “plays” are being made, provide feedback as needed and look forward to WINNING!

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© Copyright 2009 Franke Associates

Lloyd Franke of Franke Associates (www.frankeassociates.com)  helps companies increase performance through development and implementation obusiness and strategic plans and continuous improvement programs. He is a certified Program Leader for Best Year Yet® and an OnTrack Coaching & Consulting Associate.  His focus is on defining and achieving high performance goals in owner-managed businesses. He can be reached at lfranke@LFrankeAssociates.com or, by phone, at 781-721-2123

Title: Lunch and Learn: Network Your Way to Success, 12-1:30 The program and lunch are free but must make reservations. Email: staff@waterfieldbc.com or call 781-897-1700
Location: Waterfield Business Center, 12 Alfred St. Woburn MA
Link out: Click here
Description: Directions:http://www.waterfieldbusinesscenter.com/location.html
Date: 2009-07-01

Title: Boston Women Commuincators: Mastering the Art of Relationship Networking
Location: College Club of Boston, 44 Comm Ave.
Link out: Click here
Description: Learn 5 key strategies for turning contacts into connections.
Start Time: 8:00 a.m.
Date: 2009-06-17
End Time: 10:00

Imagine a typical software solutions problem. The company needs to improve its bottom line revenue, the customers are complaining and want their problem solved yesterday. At best, the engineer sees a technical challenge involving algorithms and code. At worst, he sees an annoying interruption to solving interesting technical challenges. The engineer’s goal is to build a robust, elegant solution to a problem. The manager, on the other hand, sees something very different. His focus is not on the technology but the process of assembling and coordinating a team. Who has the right skills? What skills are needed? What will this cost? How quickly can it be done? The manager’s goal is to give the customer what they really want, even if that is not the most elegant solution.

Dilbert highlights, to great effect, the gap between management and engineering. Frequently, the two groups seem to live in different worlds. More significantly, they often appear to work for completely separate companies with totally contradictory agendas. Sadly, there is some truth to this. Ed Schein, professor emeritus of business psychology at MIT Sloan, points out, managers and engineers form two distinct, separate organizational subcultures. Each group has very specific goals, which may not always be in alignment. Unfortunately, since both groups are working for the same company, and apparently speaking the same language, they tend to assume that they have the same image in mind. As many managers and engineers have discovered, this can lead to more than a little friction.

Read the rest at Enterprise Management Quarterly

I am very pleased to join Business Expert Webinars as a business expert. I will be presenting webinars on networking, leadership, emotional intelligence and managing change, starting with Mastering Change for Business Leaders (see Blogroll( on Friday 4/3/2009 from 1-2 Eastern time. (http://www.businessexpertwebinars.com/component/option,com_attend_events/task,view/id,1168/)

Okay, my themes are all over the place, but I have to talk about courageous women. My first  is Genevieve Thiers.

When I was the Managing Director of eWomenNetwork’s Boston Chapter several years ago, I had the pleasure of having Genevieve Thiers, CEO of Sittercity, Inc. as a keynote speaker. Genevieve, then 27, founded the #1 online childcare service (that she fondly refers to as the “Match.com” of the babysitting world) right here in Boston several years ago. After being denied venture capital, she printed 20,000 flyers and set out canvassing 20 local colleges by foot. Many blisters later, she had her first 600 sitters and a company was born. Sittercity now has over 150,000 sitters and a vibrant online community to connect parents and sitters throughout the country. (The VCs, by the way, still pursue her although she’s not interested now!) In 2007 she was named to the Forbes Junior Power League.

Sittercity’s growth has included developing corporate contracts and other services including nannies, petsitters, dog walkers, senior caregivers, housesitters and tutors. Go, Genevieve! Did I mention she was also an opera singer and  lead soloist for the Chicago Society of Music in Chicago?!!

Genevieve provided invaluable “tips” on starting and growing a business which she summarized in her “5 Rules for Entrepreneurship– ones that hold even truer in challenging economic times. They are:

1. Keep it simple. Your product and message should be easily understood, easy to see and easy to access. Your internal working systems should be, too.
2. Do what you know. Know it like the back of your hand. Genevieve succeeded in the babysitting business because she had been a babysitter throughout college and understood what working parents were looking for. If you have a business that requires investment capital, you must have the credentials and degree-specific expertise.
3. Never stop talking about what you do. Talk to everyone you can find. You never know to whom you will be talking who will have just what you need.
4. Keep your eyes on the money. Spend what you have wisely. Genevieve believes “a healthy company will grow on its own revenues.” Never accept funding if you don’t know what you will do with it.
5. Create an “All Star” team. Learn to delegate as you grow. Any time you feel you are doing the job of 3, it’s time to hire 1. (As a successful entrepreneur, you probably will always feel you are doing the job of 2!) Make sure their values reflect yours and they are aligned with your purpose.

Genevieve also emphasized that building a business is hard work. If you build it, people will not necessarily come. You need to offer quality products and services and meet real needs and wants. That said, women like to help other women and if you reach out, you will receive the help you need.

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I just returned from a week in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic ( “The Dominican” as they say).  It turned out to be a great vacation but the first few days it rained! It simply isn’t supposed to rain in the Caribbean!!!   So, I had a head full of noise. . . I booked an inferior vacation on an inferior island. . . the one where it must always rain (after all it is very lush) . . . a secret they fail to tell you . . . (Where else do you find an umbrella in every room?) blah, blah, blah.

Fortunately, the sun did emerge on day four– not that there weren’t sunny moments on the previous days– just not the cloudless skies I had come to expect! I noticed that my mood improved markedly.

I happen to be participating in a weekly personal development workshop on success.  I missed a session during my vacation where the discussion was a look at the various ways we have predetermined ideas of how everything should be– all the “shoulds” . . . you know, the rules we barely are even aware of but that dictate our every thought, action and decision. The homework was to look at ways in which our given expectations dictate how we view our lives. One person on a group call we had described giving an important presentation and forgetting to bring her notes. In a moment of clarity, remembering the workshop session, she decided that was “just the way it was supposed to b,” dropped her anxiety and her workshop was a great success. She asked me how I might have viewed my rainy days in the Carribean had I been at that session I missed. It became clear immediately. If I had said to myself, “this is exactly as it is supposed to be,” it would have been much more enjoyable.

It then occurred to me (a thought I briefly had while there but dismissed in favor of my disgruntlement with the weather) that one of my best friends has metastatic melanoma. Perhaps, indeed, I was not supposed to get much sun!

The big lesson here is to extend it (the lesson) to other areas– relationship issues, missing a business opportunity, health issues, financial ups and downs. Just like rain, things will be what they are and one can either accept them and be peaceful or fight them mentally and be miserable. (How ridiculous to be unhappy in the Caribbean. Even in the rain, it was delightful!) Acceptance is also the fertilizer of creativity and resourcefulness. When the mind is peaceful, we see things more clearly, solutions can be found and things flow better. I see evidence of that in how my friend is handling her cancer with amazing grace and finding new resources and helpers for her survival team.

My challenge to readers: take an issue you are unhappy about and tell yourself it is supposed to be this way for now (after all, just like that rain, it can’t be any other way) . . . and see what happens! And do let me know if you have some interesting results.