Decision Making Framework
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The Profit Generator Community Your Decision Making Framework Creating the Framework to Align Your Business & Your Life
Key Points As an entrepreneur, it’s important to remember that life is not a popularity contest – focus is not always trying to keep everyone happy including staff and community Your first focus is on what adds the most value to your life and entrepreneurial venture. Identifying your Primary Aim and Core Values provides a framework to make decisions – what to say yes to and what to say no to. The framework makes it easier to hire and retain the right people – it defines your culture The framework becomes your decision barometer, freeing up your time and energy while aligning your decisions to your life purpose and business’ strategic objective.
1. What is Your Primary Aim? Your Primary Aim is about your life, not your business. Your business is simply one of many important aspects of your life.
Success Training © 2012, Copyright by The Profit Generator. All Rights Reserved.
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Your Primary Aim is the essence of your purpose in life. It is a brief statement summarizing whatever it is in you that is the source of your vitality, your commitment, your passion. Your primary aim isn’t about material things, it’s about what is most important to you Understanding your Primary Aim gives you the ability to live your life intentionally – rather than randomly – by making conscious choices that are consistent with what is most important to you. It helps you set your life’s real priorities and puts your business in its proper perspective. It enables you to understand where the real purpose of your life lies, and how better to serve that purpose. The Primary Aim is intentionally personal. It’s about you. There are no such things as a right or wrong, a good or bad Primary Aim. There is only what is true for you. The keys to understanding your Primary Aim are to explore what you do not want to be like, to decide what you do want your life to be like, and discover the self-imposed limitations that get in the way. Money, status, power, possessions and winning are not the essence of a Primary Aim. It is deeper than that. The best indicator that you have discovered your true Primary Aim is your emotions. If you don’t feel energy, enthusiasm, commitment, and a sense of “in your gut” you haven’t found your true primary aim. Your Primary Aim is a proven way to put your life in perspective. It empowers your leadership and your decision making with a solid understanding of what is and is not important. • It’s about your life, it’s about you and what is most important to you • Empowers the ability to live intentionally and aligned with your core values, desires and beliefs. • It’s not about things, status, money, power, competition, or winning • Look for the fire – what you have enthusiasm for, what you love to do (but you may be overlooking the importance because it is so ingrained and part of you) • We tend to take for granted our core talents – treating them as if everyone else in the world thinks the same way, believes the same thing and has the same talents – and they don’t)
Success Training © 2012, Copyright by The Profit Generator. All Rights Reserved.
2
2. The Primary Aim Discovery Process 1) List what you don’t want in your life – circle up to 6 items that have the strongest negative emotion 2) List what you do want in your life (stay away from material things and money) – circle up to 6 of the items that have the strongest attraction 3) Set priorities and challenge self-imposed limits Rewrite your do want list on new page. Prioritize and identify what gets in the way – what blocks you from having your dwants? (looking for self-imposed limitations – what barriers do you put in your own way with limiting beliefs about yourself and with counterproductive habits. 4) Write your own eulogy In your mind, put yourself into the future. You are at your own funeral – look back over your life and what was your life like such that you were happy with it? What do you want to be remembered for? 5) Write your primary aim Based on your eulogy and your prioritized do-want list, write your primary aim. It will probably take you a couple of edits. Start by writing a paragraph or point form and keep editing and refining until you get it down to a statement. Remember – your primary aim is getting at your core, what is most important to you. It is something, however that you will want to review. As you live your life you may find you want to revise or deepen your primary aim. Aim for getting your primary aim 80% right, and review and revise as you continue to grow and learn.
NOTES:
Success Training © 2012, Copyright by The Profit Generator. All Rights Reserved.
3
3. Applying Your Primary Aim in Life & Business Your Personal Goals Should be Consistent with Your Primary Aim: Personal objectives or goals are the specific things you want to accomplish within a defined period of time. Your business has to serve your primary aim. It should be an extension of, and allow you to fulfill what is most important to you. Either you develop your business in such a way that it frees you to pursue other interests, or the business could itself be a reflection of the very essence of what is most important to you in life.
4. Your Business’ Strategic Objective Your Business’ Strategic Objective is another way of saying the Vision for your Business. What is the vision of your business as it will be when it is fully developed? Your business’ strategic Objective (or vision) is aligned with your primary aim. In other words – the Strategic Objective in your Business is an expression of what is most important to you.
Exercise: On a sheet of paper write across the top a date in the future when you want to have realized your Strategic Objective (three, five, ten or more years) Then in your mind, put yourself to that future date and describe your business such that you are happy with it and your progress. Use the rest of the page to fully capture what that future looks like. You can draw pictures, write out a description, or capture it in point form.
NOTES:
Success Training © 2012, Copyright by The Profit Generator. All Rights Reserved.
4
5. Defining Your Culture with Core Values You have personal and business core values. Your personal core values are expressed in your primary aim. Examples of personal core values: • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Lead by example Integrity Sincerity Trust Love Family Balance Creativity Innovation Respect Compassion Consideration Understanding
• • • • • • • • • • • •
Honesty Worthwhile relationships Self-fulfillment Gratitude Love Joy Abundance mentality (I am enough) Spirituality/religion Courage Acceptance Freedom Truth
Defining your business’ core values also defines the culture you want in your business (your culture is an expression of core values). The culture and organizational structure at Zappos.com has been used as a model for employee engagement and productivity. Tony Hsieh, Zappos’ founder also wrote the book Delivering Happiness – which is what ended up being the Zappos impact statement. Zappos’ Core Values (as an example of company core values): 1. Deliver WOW Through Service 2. Embrace and Drive Change 3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness 4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded 5. Pursue Growth and Learning 6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication 7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit 8. Do More With Less 9. Be Passionate and Determined 10. Be Humble Success Training © 2012, Copyright by The Profit Generator. All Rights Reserved.
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6. Steps for Developing Your Company’s Core Values This process is adapted from the Delivering Happiness blog (http://www.deliveringhappiness.com/core-values/) 1) Identify your personal values. • It’s surprisingly harder than you think – what are the key three or four that are most important to you. • Be honest with yourself. • Take a look at Tribal Leadership author Dave Logan’s “Mountains and Valleys” Core Values exercise at http://www.culturesync.net/happiness to help you define your personal core values by reviewing significant milestones in your life and/or life-changing events.
2) Get key people’s personal values. • Partners, managers, and/or influencers. 3) Combine people’s values. • Don’t do this by committee – just 1 or 2 people. Success Training © 2012, Copyright by The Profit Generator. All Rights Reserved.
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4) Ask managers to test values against employees & ex-employees. 5) Send to entire company, and ask for feedback. 6) Combine people’s values (again) • Don’t do this by committee – just 1 or 2 people. • You can’t make everyone happy. 7) Roll out core values to entire company. 8) Integrate core values into everything you do. • Especially hiring, firing, and performance reviews. Once you have identified your core values, they will be alive or not in your company based on whether you apply them or not to making decisions For example, are you willing to hire/fire people based on whether they fit your core values, even if an employee adds a lot of value in the short-term?
NOTES:
Success Training © 2012, Copyright by The Profit Generator. All Rights Reserved.
3
Decision Making Framework To-Do List (Tip: post this) Set aside some time when you won’t be interrupted and go through the Primary Aim Discovery Process Once you have defined your Primary Aim, review your Company’s Vision or Strategic Objective – does it need to be refined and updated? Identify the Core Values of your Business – engage and involve your team Roll out the Core Values and use along with your Primary Aim as the Framework to make effective decisions that consistently move you and your business forward to your Strategic Objective.
To reach Patti: [email protected] 905-873-9802 direct phone 866-293-3053 fax
Success Training © 2012, Copyright by The Profit Generator. All Rights Reserved.
4
The Profit Generator Community Your Decision Making Framework Creating the Framework to Align Your Business & Your Life
Key Points As an entrepreneur, it’s important to remember that life is not a popularity contest – focus is not always trying to keep everyone happy including staff and community Your first focus is on what adds the most value to your life and entrepreneurial venture. Identifying your Primary Aim and Core Values provides a framework to make decisions – what to say yes to and what to say no to. The framework makes it easier to hire and retain the right people – it defines your culture The framework becomes your decision barometer, freeing up your time and energy while aligning your decisions to your life purpose and business’ strategic objective.
1. What is Your Primary Aim? Your Primary Aim is about your life, not your business. Your business is simply one of many important aspects of your life.
Success Training © 2012, Copyright by The Profit Generator. All Rights Reserved.
1
Your Primary Aim is the essence of your purpose in life. It is a brief statement summarizing whatever it is in you that is the source of your vitality, your commitment, your passion. Your primary aim isn’t about material things, it’s about what is most important to you Understanding your Primary Aim gives you the ability to live your life intentionally – rather than randomly – by making conscious choices that are consistent with what is most important to you. It helps you set your life’s real priorities and puts your business in its proper perspective. It enables you to understand where the real purpose of your life lies, and how better to serve that purpose. The Primary Aim is intentionally personal. It’s about you. There are no such things as a right or wrong, a good or bad Primary Aim. There is only what is true for you. The keys to understanding your Primary Aim are to explore what you do not want to be like, to decide what you do want your life to be like, and discover the self-imposed limitations that get in the way. Money, status, power, possessions and winning are not the essence of a Primary Aim. It is deeper than that. The best indicator that you have discovered your true Primary Aim is your emotions. If you don’t feel energy, enthusiasm, commitment, and a sense of “in your gut” you haven’t found your true primary aim. Your Primary Aim is a proven way to put your life in perspective. It empowers your leadership and your decision making with a solid understanding of what is and is not important. • It’s about your life, it’s about you and what is most important to you • Empowers the ability to live intentionally and aligned with your core values, desires and beliefs. • It’s not about things, status, money, power, competition, or winning • Look for the fire – what you have enthusiasm for, what you love to do (but you may be overlooking the importance because it is so ingrained and part of you) • We tend to take for granted our core talents – treating them as if everyone else in the world thinks the same way, believes the same thing and has the same talents – and they don’t)
Success Training © 2012, Copyright by The Profit Generator. All Rights Reserved.
2
2. The Primary Aim Discovery Process 1) List what you don’t want in your life – circle up to 6 items that have the strongest negative emotion 2) List what you do want in your life (stay away from material things and money) – circle up to 6 of the items that have the strongest attraction 3) Set priorities and challenge self-imposed limits Rewrite your do want list on new page. Prioritize and identify what gets in the way – what blocks you from having your dwants? (looking for self-imposed limitations – what barriers do you put in your own way with limiting beliefs about yourself and with counterproductive habits. 4) Write your own eulogy In your mind, put yourself into the future. You are at your own funeral – look back over your life and what was your life like such that you were happy with it? What do you want to be remembered for? 5) Write your primary aim Based on your eulogy and your prioritized do-want list, write your primary aim. It will probably take you a couple of edits. Start by writing a paragraph or point form and keep editing and refining until you get it down to a statement. Remember – your primary aim is getting at your core, what is most important to you. It is something, however that you will want to review. As you live your life you may find you want to revise or deepen your primary aim. Aim for getting your primary aim 80% right, and review and revise as you continue to grow and learn.
NOTES:
Success Training © 2012, Copyright by The Profit Generator. All Rights Reserved.
3
3. Applying Your Primary Aim in Life & Business Your Personal Goals Should be Consistent with Your Primary Aim: Personal objectives or goals are the specific things you want to accomplish within a defined period of time. Your business has to serve your primary aim. It should be an extension of, and allow you to fulfill what is most important to you. Either you develop your business in such a way that it frees you to pursue other interests, or the business could itself be a reflection of the very essence of what is most important to you in life.
4. Your Business’ Strategic Objective Your Business’ Strategic Objective is another way of saying the Vision for your Business. What is the vision of your business as it will be when it is fully developed? Your business’ strategic Objective (or vision) is aligned with your primary aim. In other words – the Strategic Objective in your Business is an expression of what is most important to you.
Exercise: On a sheet of paper write across the top a date in the future when you want to have realized your Strategic Objective (three, five, ten or more years) Then in your mind, put yourself to that future date and describe your business such that you are happy with it and your progress. Use the rest of the page to fully capture what that future looks like. You can draw pictures, write out a description, or capture it in point form.
NOTES:
Success Training © 2012, Copyright by The Profit Generator. All Rights Reserved.
4
5. Defining Your Culture with Core Values You have personal and business core values. Your personal core values are expressed in your primary aim. Examples of personal core values: • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Lead by example Integrity Sincerity Trust Love Family Balance Creativity Innovation Respect Compassion Consideration Understanding
• • • • • • • • • • • •
Honesty Worthwhile relationships Self-fulfillment Gratitude Love Joy Abundance mentality (I am enough) Spirituality/religion Courage Acceptance Freedom Truth
Defining your business’ core values also defines the culture you want in your business (your culture is an expression of core values). The culture and organizational structure at Zappos.com has been used as a model for employee engagement and productivity. Tony Hsieh, Zappos’ founder also wrote the book Delivering Happiness – which is what ended up being the Zappos impact statement. Zappos’ Core Values (as an example of company core values): 1. Deliver WOW Through Service 2. Embrace and Drive Change 3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness 4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded 5. Pursue Growth and Learning 6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication 7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit 8. Do More With Less 9. Be Passionate and Determined 10. Be Humble Success Training © 2012, Copyright by The Profit Generator. All Rights Reserved.
5
6. Steps for Developing Your Company’s Core Values This process is adapted from the Delivering Happiness blog (http://www.deliveringhappiness.com/core-values/) 1) Identify your personal values. • It’s surprisingly harder than you think – what are the key three or four that are most important to you. • Be honest with yourself. • Take a look at Tribal Leadership author Dave Logan’s “Mountains and Valleys” Core Values exercise at http://www.culturesync.net/happiness to help you define your personal core values by reviewing significant milestones in your life and/or life-changing events.
2) Get key people’s personal values. • Partners, managers, and/or influencers. 3) Combine people’s values. • Don’t do this by committee – just 1 or 2 people. Success Training © 2012, Copyright by The Profit Generator. All Rights Reserved.
2
4) Ask managers to test values against employees & ex-employees. 5) Send to entire company, and ask for feedback. 6) Combine people’s values (again) • Don’t do this by committee – just 1 or 2 people. • You can’t make everyone happy. 7) Roll out core values to entire company. 8) Integrate core values into everything you do. • Especially hiring, firing, and performance reviews. Once you have identified your core values, they will be alive or not in your company based on whether you apply them or not to making decisions For example, are you willing to hire/fire people based on whether they fit your core values, even if an employee adds a lot of value in the short-term?
NOTES:
Success Training © 2012, Copyright by The Profit Generator. All Rights Reserved.
3
Decision Making Framework To-Do List (Tip: post this) Set aside some time when you won’t be interrupted and go through the Primary Aim Discovery Process Once you have defined your Primary Aim, review your Company’s Vision or Strategic Objective – does it need to be refined and updated? Identify the Core Values of your Business – engage and involve your team Roll out the Core Values and use along with your Primary Aim as the Framework to make effective decisions that consistently move you and your business forward to your Strategic Objective.
To reach Patti: [email protected] 905-873-9802 direct phone 866-293-3053 fax
Success Training © 2012, Copyright by The Profit Generator. All Rights Reserved.
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