Flawed Question, Tough Answer

Dear Managers and Leaders!

Recently, I’ve been facing a very tough question. Every night, I’m asking myself whether the steps I made during the day brought me closer to revenue. In more general terms, one could translate my personal question to “Has what I did today brought me closer to success?”  I’ve been struggling with that question for many weeks now because I can never clearly answer it. The only answer I can give to that question is that I do not know! Frustrating, isn’t it...

I must admit that I start to see this question differently now. (Hey, do I have a choice after all that struggle?) I start to see that it is actually a flawed question! It is flawed at least in its current form. It is not complete. I will never be able to answer that question unless I define the concepts better.

First, I need to define what success is. At the moment, for me, success is defined as generating revenue for my business. But this is actually quite vague. It is not really a SMART goal, is it? I need to bring the concept of success further and define more specific goals if I ever want to feel success!

Second, I need to elaborate a plan to achieve my goals. I can then validate my plan by having other people looking at it or even by looking at it myself to see whether it is realistic, achievable, and complete.

With goals clearly defined and plans properly elaborated, you can easily see whether progress in the right direction is made on a daily basis. It becomes easy to evaluate your situation and correct course when you find that you are not going where you are supposed to.  

I know all this is going back to basics. But it is easy to forget about the basics when you are faced with new challenges, with a new situation. In that case, it is essential to go back to basics and make sure that you are covered at least from that perspective.

What about you, dear leader? Have you ever found that the question you were asking was flawed and unanswerable? Have you ever caught yourself forgetting about basic principles?

Until next time,

Remi Cote