1st Quarter Check-In

At the beginning of the year, I asked you to take a 90-Day Snapshot of your first quarter.  I asked you to define success on April 1, 2010.

Well, April 1 is two days away - How did you do?

My top objective was to add 4 new franchisers to our prospect list.  We added three and one is already been filtered out.  So, I didn't hit my objective this quarter, but we definitely made some progress and have learned a lot about what we really need to do to be successful.

Now it's time to take your second quarter snapshot.  Here it is:

Stop what you're doing and answer this question:

It's July 1, 2010 and you're reviewing the second quarter of the year. Precisely how will you measure success? What will it take to give yourself an 'A'?

Are you done with the list?

Now, choose the single most important item - if you could only achieve one item on your list, what would it be?

Why is answering this question so important? Because we all have a tendency to try to do too much and to lose focus. The key to success, especially in challenging markets, is to focus. It is far, far better to over-allocate resources to fewer opportunities than it is to underallocate resources to many. Don't ever lose sight of what is most important - and ensure that you over-allocate your resources - time, money and energy - to that.

Want to exponentialize the results? Have every single person in your company answer the same question and post the answers in a central location - or company wiki.

If you'd like the benefit of public accountability, share your most important success in the comments section.