They're Coming

from Able Leader, January 2008

by Steve Kaye

It's time to meet with your board of directors. They're coming tomorrow to hear a report on the business of your life.

This is a tough group.

They entrusted a most precious asset in your care -- time. Now they want to know what you did with it and what you plan to do next.

To help you prepare, here is an outline to follow.

1) Return on investment.

You just spent a year of your life. Now, what did you buy with it? How did you convert those priceless moments into things of substance and value?

I recommend writing a list of what you accomplished. Put the biggest things at the top, because this group is easily bored.

Then, examine the list and ask yourself if it was truly worth a year of time . . . because they will.

Certainly, they will be impressed with how much money you made. After all, this is a business report. They will also be impressed with larger things such as:

What did you learn? How did you improve? How did you help others?

Before we continue, here is an important caution: avoid preparing excuses to explain your results.

This group has no patience for nonsense.

As your board of directors, they are responsible for the management of your life. They know that some day in the far future when you are evaluating your life you are going to ask them to account for what you did with your time. And they want to have good answers.

But suppose you had a bad year. It can happen to anyone.

What do you do?

Answer: talk about the future.

And this brings us to the part of your report that they really care about.

2) Your plan for the next year.

Begin with a vision of what you want to have and what you want to be a year from now. Provide as much detail as possible.

Here are two important considerations:

First, be good to yourself. Think big. Imagine success.

Second, describe the future that you want, and NOT the one that you expect. There's an important subtlety here: you are creating the future, not predicting it.

Then, working backwards, month by month, identify what you must accomplish in order to have that future. These are the achievement milestones (or goals) that mark your path into the future.

For each of these achievements, identify the actions that you must take in order to accomplish it.

Make plans by going from large to small. That is, plan months to achieve a year, plan weeks to achieve a month, and plan days to achieve a week.

Last, be prepared for tough questions about each of these actions. Your board will want to know when you plan to do these things. They will challenge your commitment. And they will want to know how you will track your progress.

They will ask probing questions about details, realistic expectations, and strategies.

They will also encourage you to seek help, be creative, and take risks.

Yes, it's a tough group. Yet, they want you to do well.

Realize that they will always be impressed by a good plan. So put your best thought into this.

After all, your life depends upon it.

Much success,

Steve Kaye
714-528-1300