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Monday, January 23, 2023

Lean Tips Edition #198 (#3181 - #3195)

For my Facebook fans you already know about this great feature. But for those of you that are not connected to A Lean Journey on Facebook or Twitter I post daily a feature I call Lean Tips.  It is meant to be advice, things I learned from experience, and some knowledge tidbits about Lean to help you along your journey.  Another great reason to like A Lean Journey on Facebook.


Here is the next addition of tips from the Facebook page:

Lean Tip #3180 – Encourage Each of Your Employees to be Their Authentic Selves. 

Everyone has their own unique personality, hobbies, sense of style and passion. No one wants to be a robot or a number. Obviously, there should be some guardrails, but the more you allow your employees to freely express themselves, the happier and more productive they will be.

Lean Tip #3181 – Include Everyone in Goal Setting

It’s important that everyone is heard during the goal-setting process. Each member of your team should feel they can speak openly and contribute their ideas for goals.

Having everyone’s input will help create goals that everyone is invested in.

Write down each team member’s ideas, no matter how silly, so that they feel heard. Together, you can go through each goal to decide if it works for the whole team.

Lean Tip #3182 – Choose Goals That Are Achievable Stretches

The fact that goals have to be achievable is standard advice on the topic of how to set goals. Pretty well everyone knows that there's no point in setting a goal that you will never be able to accomplish. All you'll do is get frustrated and abandon it. Less well known is the fact that goals need to stretch you in some fashion. If a goal isn't engaging, you'll get bored and abandon it.

Lean Tip #3183 - Prioritize Your Goals

Goals don't have to be huge projects that take months or even years to attain, but because they require commitment and need to be worked on regularly, every single goal that you set will be demanding. So don't sabotage yourself by taking on a bunch of goals at a time. Assuming that you are following all the other goal-setting tips presented here and know how to set goals that are worthwhile, I would recommend working on no more than three at a time, and even then you should choose one goal as your top priority.

Lean Tip #3184 - Make Your Goals Visible

To keep your eyes on the prize, put your written goals somewhere you’ll see them. It should be a place you visit regularly so that you’re constantly reminded of where you want to be.

If it’s your personal goals, put them on your bathroom mirror or fridge as a nudge every morning of what you want to achieve.

For teams, your group goals should be somewhere all your team members can see them. This could be a bulletin board or incorporated online into your group management software.

Lean Tip #3185 - Reflect and Adjust

Maybe you haven’t achieved your goals in the time frame you wanted to. Maybe your goals were a bit too unrealistic. And that’s ok.

Rather than feeling defeated, take time to review your goals and see what you can change. You might need to adjust your goals or maybe just tweak your plan to achieve them.

Lean Tip #3186 – Map out Your Plan

It’s not enough to have a goal. You need an action plan to accomplish it, too. This is where many people fail.

They set goals but don’t follow-up and create a plan with the important steps to get started. When this happens, big goals seem overwhelming, and you’re more likely to give up.

Create a road map to reach your goal. Plan one or two actions you can take each week, and focus on doing small things every day. The key is to break your goal down into smaller steps that are more achievable.

Lean Tip #3187 – Take Action Every Day

It doesn’t matter how much you learn if you don’t take action. Don’t get caught up in analysis paralysis. The best way to learn is by doing and to embrace failure—it’s the stepping stone to success for all successful people and their long-term goals.

Everyday actions don’t have to be big. You simply need to take one small step in the right direction.

Lean Tip #3188 – Plan for Setbacks

Being a good goal-setter is kind of like boxing; you need to learn to roll with the punches because you know you’re going to get hit. The best way to minimize the impact of setbacks is to plan for them. Have a contingency plan for when things go wrong, and be prepared to react and learn from those setbacks.

Keep in mind that, while you may have created a timeline, you may need to tweak it later. Life is full of unforeseen complications. If you run into one, adjust your timeline without feeling negative about the change. It’ll only help you move forward in the end.

Lean Tip #3189 – No More Negativity

American writer Earl Nightingale once said “our attitude towards life determines life’s attitude towards us” and it’s true. Project negativity to the world and it will come right back at you. Tell yourself ‘you can’t do this and you can’t do that’ and you won’t be able to do it. As cliche as it sounds, having a ‘can do attitude,’ even if you’re faking it, can really help you realize your goals. Whenever doubt starts to creep into your mind, swat it away and be a glass half full kind of person.

Lean Tip #3190 – Make Your Goals Challenging

Besides making your goals fun and exciting, you must also make them challenging. Why? Because that’s the only way you can grow.

You see, Albert Einstein once said, “A ship is safe at the harbor, but that’s not why it is built for.” Your life is meant to be fun, exciting, and challenging. You want to live a remarkable life, isn’t it? Hence, make your goals challenging.

Think about it, if you are currently earning $5,000 a month, making an additional $100 isn’t going to make you jump out of your bed in the morning. What you want is to have a goal that is challenging and inspiring.

You want your goals to force you out of your comfort zone so that you can grow and become someone better, and worthy of the goals.

Lean Tip #3191 – Embrace Failure

Goal setting rarely runs smoothly. You will hit stumbling blocks that make you question why you attempted in the first place, but that’s part of it, and the sooner you accept that the better. Rather than letting failure bring you down, acknowledge that it’s happened and learn from it. Take note of what worked well, what didn’t and move on. It’ll make you a stronger goal setter.

Lean Tip #3192 - Visualize The End Result

Losing sight of the end result will encourage you to veer off course. One of the best ways to stay motivated is by visualizing the change you want to see. Make this image clear in your mind - the ‘you’ in X amount of weeks time - so when the odd setback does happen, you won’t be fazed and will come back stronger than ever.

And when you do hit your target, treat yourself; you deserve it. Managed to make it around the marathon course blister-free? There’s a post-race beer with your name on it.

Lean Tip #3193 - Identify the Lead Measures

Lead measure is an important measure of your goals. Most people focus on their main target or the results they want, but they don’t focus on their lead measures, and this is why they fail.

Your lead measures are the measures that directly impact the results of your goals.

For instance, if your goal is to lose weight, the two main lead measures are exercise and diet. How much time do you spend to exercise each week? And do you track your diet and calorie intake?

When you achieved your lead measure goals, you will achieve your main goal, which is to increase your sales. So, focus and work on the lead measures.

Lean Tip #3194 – Focus on Making Progress

Next, don’t always think about your goals and the results, when it comes to maintaining your momentum, you need to focus on making progress.

Can you notice the difference? Having a goal is important, but to achieve your goal, you need to make progress. Hence, it is more important to focus on the progress than to only think about your goals and do nothing.

Let your progress motivate you and get you to your goals.

Lean Tip #3195 – Believe in Your Goals and Trust Yourself That You Can Do It

You need to believe in your goals and trust yourself that you can do it. First, you must believe that your goals are possible. And second, you must trust that you can achieve them.

When you truly believe you can achieve your goals, you will do whatever it takes to reach them. Think about why people buy lottery tickets. Well, it is because they believe that they stand a chance to win, right? If you don’t believe you stand a chance to win, you will never bother buying the lottery ticket.

The same goes for your goals. When you believe that you can achieve them, you will do it with a 100% commitment rather than a half-hearted attempt.

Therefore, believe that your goals are possible and trust that you can achieve them.


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