Gaps – See Them, Close Them, Create Them

The fact of the matter is that there is always a gap between our desired results and our current performance, or there should be. In our drive to high performance, one key is our ability to perceive and understand the gap between what is currently happening in our business and what should be happening.

Once we have perceived this gap, it is imperative that we close it.

However, in addition to this, it is also incumbent upon us as leaders in our business to create gaps, so that we continually stimulate and drive our business to higher and higher levels of success and performance.

We must create this mindset in ourselves by constantly asking the following questions:

• Is there an existing gap in my current performance?
• What am I going to do to close that gap?
• How can I improve my performance and drive it to new, higher levels?

I ask myself these questions everyday. When I adopt this type of thinking in a conscious way, I am continually creating opportunities for improvement.

Practice asking yourself these questions everyday for a week and writing down your answers. You will be astounded by the number of new initiatives that you generate and how these initiatives will inspire you to take action.

Proper Planning Insures the Important Things Get Done

I always stress to my employees and clients that in our business we cannot be all things to all people. We must exert the discipline necessary to box all of our activities within achievable and realistic parameters. Otherwise, we typically find ourselves scattered and our results disappointing.

The danger for the entrepreneur is to be constantly generating a stream of ideas, without ever nailing down any particular one, properly or completely.

The key to avoiding this pitfall is proper planning. Organizing our priorities with clear action plans that are aligned to our Mission and that include appropriate deadlines for results insures the important things get done.

Sometimes in business the range of items on our plate seems daunting at best. However, if we take the time to sit down, think, set our priorities with assigned time lines for deliverables, write down a plan and then work to that plan, it is amazing how much we can actually achieve.