I once attended a town hall at the Bank of Montreal hosted by the CEO at the time, Tony Comper.
The gist of the presentation was how to reconcile what appeared on the surface to be competing Corporate priorities – grow revenue/ reduce expenses. I mean you have to spend money to make money after all.
The point Mr Comper focused on was the need to focus on the holistic result (the ultimate goal). In this case improved profitability. If you have greater revenue produced at a lower cost it does not take a rocket scientist to determine profit will increase.
The real question here is finding the balance between increasing revenue and reducing cost such that as you succeed at one objective, it feeds and supports the achievement of the other. If this works both ways think of the momentum created.
Today’s musing is not about business success, the BMO example is just to frame the concept, which is in fact generic and can apply to any objective whether personal or business.
Like my blog of a few days ago on the art of war, this one on “balance your way to success” is just about ideas that can make your life easier and better.
What is it?
Balance as a behavioral concept is not about compromise. Nor is it “I can live with that”. To successfully use this technique you must think in terms of “win/win” (I can’t take credit for that concept by the way as it is firmly embedded in the Harvard Technique for Negotiation).
The key to this practice is to be clear on the goal. In fact “focus on the goal” Which of course means you have to have a very clear understanding of what it is.
Next determine what the objectives are to achieve the goals.
And finally optimize how the objectives are achieved so they complement each other (win/win), in essence the success of one feeds off the success of the other. The process will naturally result in balanced objectives.
How about an example?
In this example the goal is to be more relaxed.
One objective is to achieve greater success at your employment; to receive more praise, feel less stress; be confident and comfortable in your long term prospects.
Another objective is to work less, shorter hours, experience more free time and not think about or focus on stressful things (veg out!)
On the surface these are competing objectives. In fact working working more efficiently with a greater focus and higher quality should lead to shorter hours and less thinking about work in down time. Don’t think of the way to achieve the first objective as working harder (longer) but rather use the time allocated to your employers wishes more effectively. If you do this praise and success will come your and more free time too.
What’s my point?
This is pretty simple. Think about what the goal is and what are the associated objectives to best achieve it before leaping in to solve for goal success. Think it through. To use a tired but accurate old phrase when it comes to achieving your goals work smarter not harder. Think about it!