KISS Leverage, Quadrant ii and Tiny Steps: 3 Steps to Grow Smart this Year

Are you still procrastinating on developing your Strategic Plan for the year? Or, maybe you know your Most Important Goal, but you're not sure where to start? Either way, just 10 minutes to map out a few things will give you a new burst of energy and commitment.

Get a blank sheet of paper out and spend the next 10 minutes nailing the best trajectory for your business for this year, big rocks and all.

One of the most important concepts successful financial advisors use to coach their clients toward financial success is that of tradeoffs. Understanding, weighing and accepting tradeoffs is what helps clients make decisions and commitments they can stick to. In fact, it’s what drives success in all parts of our lives.

You too, in order to achieve success in growing your business, must make tradeoffs in how you spend your time. That’s what prioritizing is after all, and that’s what makes it hard. Especially when you remember to focus on the "priority” in the singular.

One way to make it easier to make these necessary tradeoffs is to focus on the outcome the priority will drive, and how it will leverage you.

Step 1 Leverage

At Qii, we like to prioritize goals that will give us leverage: getting better outcomes with less effort. Try it. Ask yourself what the authors of The One Thing did: “What is the one thing I can do, that by doing it, everything else would be easier or unnecessary?” Stop, think, and write down what comes to mind.

Now, to paraphrase Dan Sullivan, if we were talking on January 1st of next year, what is the ONE THING that happened that would leave you feeling totally stoked with 2021? Write down more of your thoughts.

Step 2 Quadrant ii

The most leveraging goals are often those that fall into Quadrant ii, “important, not urgent.” Other people are often the best leverage we can bring into our growth plans. Is there a relationship you need to develop? Perhaps, there is work you need to do with your team to help them shine. Or maybe it’s something that will more deeply engage your clients in their relationship with you. Write down a few more thoughts now.

Step 3: Tiny Steps

We all know this, but a reminder is helpful. Success most often happens in tiny, consistent, steps. By now you should have a pretty good picture of your Most Important Goal for the year. Now, click here to access, the Strategic Achievement Worksheet.

This worksheet will help you break down your Most Important Goal into all the components necessary to keep it moving forward all year long. Once you have those components, it is easier to K.I.S.S. and choose one thing every quarter, and one thing every month, to ensure progress throughout the year and success at the end.