The Manager - Edition 53 - 2019 - Happy New Year - by Rob Lambert
Cultivated Management Newsletter
Hi,
I hope you've had a great Festive break and New Year start.
We had a cracking Christmas and I got to spend a lot of time with my family and friends which was lovely. I also spent a lot of time reading and plotting for this next year.
I published the annual review in the last and this newsletter is a short introduction to how I set career and personal goals - along with insight in to those I'm planning for this year. I hope you find the process interesting and worthwhile - after all - it's also roughly the same process you could use at work - for your own organisations goals.
The trick is to make it all about systems and behaviours - and not just about the inspiring goal itself. Without the right system and behaviours in place it's likely you'll fail to meet what you set. And the other thing is - the money is always a side effect of achieving something else.
Hope you enjoy and I look forward to serving you well in the year of 2019
Rob
Start with a Painted Picture
I always start my year by writing out a new Painted Picture. It is a detailed description of what I want my life to look like. Not just for this year, but for a "perfect" life. Very little of it changes, but there are some subtleties, which is why I write it out each year.
I try to be a specific as I can with my painted picture, but keep it loose enough that the finer details can change.
I always write it in the present tense, and I also make it positive.
As it is a personal painted picture for me, I won't share the whole of it. But here is a paragraph from it if you're interested. This is from the business and money section, but I also write out what my health, relationships, community engagement and some material possessions would be also.
"I'm grateful that I make a 6 figure living from my growing Media and Publishing business which includes Cultivated Management and Parent Brain. I make over 70% of my revenue from courses, training and writing, with the rest coming from consulting and speaking gigs. I make £X per year with a profit margin of 75%. I do this through Podcasting, writing, training, speaking, coaching, consulting and in general - helping people remain relevant, employable and effective. I help thousands of people with their careers each year.
I donate 5% of profits to Naomi House to help children with life limiting illness. I publish every week, write two books per year and launch a new course each year. I have enough money in savings to pay for a whole year of living which is £X. My children's future is stable with enough money in savings to send them all to University if they wish to."
You get the feel for it. It's personal, it's specific, it's meaningful, and at least to me, it's inspiring. It gets me through the tough times.
What's Stopping Me Achieving This?
I then take some time to write down all of the things that are stopping me achieving this painted picture. The blockers are normally always to do with myself - very rarely is anyone else stopping me from achieving this painted picture.
For example, this year I identified the following:
My own fear of publishing. It's why I only published a handful of articles last year. I have a mental block on publishing. I'm worried about getting it wrong, getting feedback and the haters. It's a personal problem. 99% of comments are positive, but there are always a few haters - and recently - they've really got to me. I need to overcome it.
Inability to stick to a schedule. Systems are the key to productivity, but I think I took on too much in 2018 and my schedule was blown out of the water. My health was miles away from being good last year which also meant some days I would get up and not feel like doing anything. I'm fixing this.
Lumpy income. My income, although positive, is not predictable so I need to somehow create a pattern that allows me to plan more. I'm not sure how to do this yet, but it helps with financial planning if I can predict when I will have money coming in.
Not enough Cornerstone content on my blog. I don't have enough cornerstone content around the Pillars of Management, principles of management etc - I have a plan to fix this.
Not enough content full stop. Content needs to be created - it's how I attract sales, clients and readers. I have created an editorial calendar which is insanely busy but I'm happy it's doable. I've planned the whole year out with a new article each week. The good news is that because I didn't publish much last year (not because I didn't have content, but because I had the fear of publishing) I have a tonne of work in draft which is close to being ready.
Plus some more, which are frankly more personal :)
For each of these reasons I have a plan in place to address it. The rest is psychological - I need to overcome my demons and hit publish. What's the worst that could happen? :)
The Goals - And the Pillars of Management
Once I have a painted picture in place of what I want my future to be like and I have a list of reasons why I'm not achieving it yet - I can get to work defining some goals for this year.
Some people recommend creating goals for 2-3 years out - and I used to do that - but I stopped a few years back as i realised the painted picture is solid enough to give me direction. Some people may need more direction by breaking that future vision to more tangible steps. I didn't find it worked for me - so I dropped it.
But I do create goals for each year.
As you would imagine - they are all based around the Pillars of Management.
Education & Personal Development
Health
Family
Money & Finance
Societal Impact
Effectiveness & Productivity
I spent a long time jotting down goals and refactoring them. It took about two days of plotting. Once I'd created my list, I got to work writing them down. I don't stick to X number per pillar or anything like that - instead I just list the ones I'm most passionate about - and ensure there is at least one per pillar.
In a notebook I draw a table with four columns.
Column 1 is titled Pillar.
Column 2 is the goal itself.
Column 3 is Due date.
Column 4 is Measure - i.e. how will I measure it.
I only ever tend to make goals measurable and time bound.
And now I run my own business I use "Quarters" rather than dates as it aligns with my accounting and planning too. I fill in each goal in the table ensuring each one has a date, is related to a pillar and has some way of being measured. And sometimes, the measure is nothing more than I can write down that I did it. I'm cool with that.
Here are a few of this years goals if you're interested:
Complete Red January (doing well so far - follow me on Instagram if you're interested in how this is going - and more behind the scenes stuff)
Book a summer holiday
Learn shorthand
Learn "Fallin" on the guitar
Organise a new Will
Tighten savings to hit savings target for the year
Learn how to take stunning car photos and finally publish Parent Car Scene zine
Publish Squirrels who ruined everything
Publish Zero To Keynote
Sell 10 Communication workshops in Q1 and Q2
In total I have around 20 goals. Some people would say that is too much, but when you spread them across a year and make them all part of a Pillar of Management - I feel they are doable.
The key things is to ensure they're:
Achievable with a little push
Not contradicting each other
Measurable
Time bound
Interesting
Tied to the Painted Picture
Set up the system
Having a painted picture gives me a purpose. Knowing what's stopping me achieving it is helpful in understanding my limitations. Setting goals gives me clarity and focus for my time, energy and commitment for the year. But none of this is possible without systems, routines and discipline. Motivation is over-rated.
Productivity systems are just containers with rules. For example, a Kanban systems is a container (The Kanban Board) and some rules (Limited WIP etc). So find the system that works for you. I tried personal Kanban and found it too heavyweight.
So I opt for a calendar with recurring events and then I try to muster the discipline (Not motivation) to complete stuff. I print the weekly Google Calendar out and I stick it to the fridge. It becomes my accountability fridge. I see it everyday. I tick those items I complete. I see the ones I failed to complete. I write my financial, training and weight numbers on it each evening. I can see how I am progressing and I can also see how much I'm trying to squeeze in to a week.
If it doesn't fit on my calendar it is not getting done - and this alone is a powerful way of seeing if I have too many goals.
Each goal has a slot on the calendar. If I really want to learn Fallin on the guitar I need to practice. This needs time and a regular commitment. It goes on the calendar.
If I want to lift weights - I need to find some time on the calendar. If I want to publish a new post each week - it gets time on the calendar - including time to set up social media and promotions. Recording podcasts - scheduled. Spending time with my boys every Saturday - the only thing scheduled on the calendar for Saturdays!
You get the point.
There is a second set of systems that are not reliant on my time in the long run, just in the set up. For example, my savings goals will be achieved by the automation of saving money. So I have a standing order to move money around. I have automated everything I can when it comes to saving articles for this newsletter, social media sharing, finances and money management and managing my business.
Everything else goes on my calendar and becomes a system. A routine activity that gets completed.
Yes it's boring. Yes it can be monotonous, but it creates a huge amount of freedom.
As with all things goal related, it is very personal. What works for me might not work for you.
I hope that by sharing what I do you'll find some nuggets of insights that might help you with your planning and goal achievement.
I am very excited about the content and support I have coming for you. I hope to have a great year with you and I thank you for your support and readership.
Go forth and create a plan for 2019 - and feel free to share it with me if you like!
Thanks
Rob
Thanks for reading this week's edition of The Manager.
Thanks
Rob..