As business leaders I think we all believe that we could generate amazing financial outcomes if we could simply get everyone to work together on the right things. In other words, what if everyone asked themselves continuously: "What can I do today to help the company achieve its long term goals?" This idea is supported by an important study in the field of human achievement. The noted sociologist Dr. Edward Banfield of Harvard University performed a long-term study to determine how and why some people become financially independent when others don't. He discovered that the greatest determinant of a person's success was not demographics, education, or other variables; rather it was their ability to apply long term perspective to daily decisions.
Individual Focus
On an individual level, being the best at something, or even one of the best, takes a tremendous amount of time and effort. With only 24 hours in a day, to achieve greatness we invariably have to make important daily choices about what to do and what not to do. Take Lance Armstrong, arguably the best cyclist of all time. He was the US National Sprint Triathlon Champion in 1989 and 1990, but in the 1990s he gave up triathlons to focus on cycling. Then in 1998 he dedicated himself exclusively to the greatest cycling competition of all, the Tour de France. From then on he competed in only a handful of shorter races each year and, although he won a number of them, his purpose was not to win. It was to prepare himself so that he could dominate the Tour de France, which he did for the next seven years. Lance made choices each and every day about what to eat, how to train, and what races to enter on the basis of how well they supported his goal of winning that year's Tour de France.
Collective Focus
It's the same in business where optimal allocation of scarce resources is the name of the game. Granted, the challenge is bigger given the more complex environment and larger numbers of people, but it can be done. Consider the achievement of Mobil Oil's U.S. Refining and Distribution Division. In 1992 the company was last among its peers in sales growth and profitability. Yet less than three years later it had remade itself and moved into the number one spot. How? Mobil's leadership team kept the entire workforce focused on the company's long term goals and the path to achieving them.
Here's what they did. Faced with a higher cost of crude oil supplies, Mobil was unable to compete on price. So they crafted a strategy to attract drivers who were willing to pay a few more pennies at the pump in return for fast service and clean, well-stocked convenience stores. It was a smart strategy. But many smart strategies go nowhere. What made this one exceptional is that it was fully implemented. Mobil communicated the financial vision and strategy to everyone in the company so that each employee knew how their job supported it. Then they involved everyone in reviewing progress against the strategy and they rewarded everyone for reaching strategic milestones. In short, Mobil made strategy (i.e. long term perspective) part of everyone's job.
Just Do It
According to the Palladium Group, "85% of executive teams spend less than one hour per month discussing strategy," and "only 5% of the workforce understands the strategy." If that's the case, then how can our managers lead strategy execution and how can our workers contribute? As leaders we clearly owe it to ourselves, our workforce, our customers, and our shareholders to be different. Let's resolve to make long term perspective the guiding force in our everyday lives.
reference:ezinearticles.com
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