Stop Chasing Goals. Start Chasing Strategy. 

By Craig Davis | Ascend Xperience Coaching & Consulting

There's a sales leader I work with who was watching his team slowly stop hunting and began missing their goals.

His hunters were becoming gatherers.  This wasn't a dramatic change, it's the slow creep of "busy complacency." And the harder he pushed on the goals, the worse it got, and the team morale was slipping.

So I gave him the most important and counterintuitive advice to break the complacency and turn his gatherers back into hunters.

F' the goals. Stop chasing them.

That's right, as an Executive Coach, my brilliant advice was for him to stop chasing goals. 

What Happens When You Chase a Goal

Goals act like a destination, which feels like chasing a horizon.

And the goalposts inevitable move. Even when you hit the goals, that five minutes of celebration goes by, and now the next goal is set. 

Constantly chasing goals creates a gap.  A scarcity mindset.  And become motivation killers and momentum stoppers. Busy complacency sets in.

If Leaders are driving this, adding more pressure, more accountability reviews, more "what's your results this week," team morale worsens and people get stuck.

Goals are a vision.  A milestone.  A direction.  And a result worth celebrating, but they are not what drives execution, momentum, or success.

I know exactly what this means and feels like to constantly chase results, money, and the mythical destination that solves everything.  As an Executive Leader throughout my career and running large teams; as an Executive Coach now working with leaders; and especially as an entrepreneur who also gets stuck and has to take his own medicine.

I'm not only the president. I'm also a member...

Just yesterday, I wrote on my whiteboard: "Stop Chasing Goals, Start Chasing Strategy"

The Perfect Day Protocol

Here's the reframe that changed everything for my client.

The goal is a result of what? Stop chasing the goal, and start chasing the "what."

I asked my client, what are those activities that drive results, i.e the what's.  These are the non-negotiable, money-producing activities. Two or three of them, per day.  That's it.

Perfect Day Protocol: Identify 2-3 non-negotiable activities per day that drive revenue and move your business forward.  Make them consistent and identify what they are, every day.  Make each day thematic to those activities.

This creates consistently without decision fatigue, and momentum over motivation. 

Now we can measure activity. And if you can measure it, you can improve it and build accountability.

And what's more, we tie success to those activities, everyday. 

Two or three money-producing activities make a perfect day. Five perfect days make an ideal week. Ideal weeks add up into months, and so on.

If you or your team is stuck, grab a complimentary huddle with me and I guarantee I can help get you unstuck in 15 minutes by optimizing your Perfect Day Protocol. 

Now Celebrate Activities and Change Everything

Here's the step most leaders skip, which is like forgetting icing on the birthday cake. 

Celebrate the activities, everyday. Not just the closed deal or month-end number. The activity itself. The calls made, the meetings set, conversations had. The work.

What's really going on and why this is critical to generating momentum and morale is because we're now energizing the habit loop in the brain around the activities that lead to the desire results. 

This is what creates a gainful mindset versus a scarcity mindset.

Think about what actually creates lasting behavioral change and results we want: Is it celebrating daily activities designed to build results or punishing missed goals? 

Furthermore, where does accountability have the most impact?  Activities or results?  

You are tying success to actions and activities, daily. Energizing abundance.  And tapping into the neuroscience of the habit loop.

In other words, you're building success habits that lead to hitting the goals, and so much more!

What This Reframe Does to Your Leadership

When you shift focus to activities, something else happens... you get your mojo back!

And beyond team morale and culture improving, you're also building ownership. 

You can't always own the result, there are external factors that influence things, such as the market, the company, the world...  It can become easy to blame those external factors, to hide behind them, and justify busy complacency. 

However, now that we're driving and measuring activities.  Rewarding and building success habits. Getting our mojo back.  We can own what's in our control and stack perfect days.  

Ownership is a momentum multiplier. 

Driving the Results We Want 

Going back to the Sales Leader.  Once I helped him break this pattern of chasing goals, everything changed.

I started by having him identify the 2-3 money zone activities per day that moves the needle and asked, what if every rep did those? 

We then created optimization zones in the calendar for time blocking.  This means it's inked, and the rule is, no noise.  Texts, emails, phone calls, and social media go dark. 

Now, we identified the money zone activities per day to create alignment, consistency, patterns, and to reduce decision fatigue. 

I coached him on how to build community, reward, and communication around the daily activities.  We gamified, labeled the days for themes, and built a visible daily scoreboard for the activities met.    

In one week, more appointments were made. In two weeks, morale shifted. In three weeks results showed up. In one month, the reps were hunting again and owning their outcomes, on purpose and with momentum. 

Now my client was hitting goals and leading, not managing.

F' the Goals

Not because goals don't matter. They do. But the strategies, actions, and activities that lead you to your desired results matter more.

The habits and rewards as a result will generate positive momentum fueled by success, not fumes.

This is the bridge that moves apathy to energy, and scarcity to abundance.

Stop chasing goals.  Start chasing strategy, activities, and actions.

Got strategy?

If your team is caught in the busy-complacency trap, hunters becoming gatherers, energy low, volume down, and leadership stuck, let's talk. Book a complimentary discovery huddle at ascendxc.com and let's break it!