As a business owner, you probably feel like the Red Queen from Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass." At one point, the Red Queen's says, "It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place." The Red Queen has to stay perpetually active, otherwise she will fall behind.
Business owners can relate. The good news is, there is a better way.
At TAB, business advisory services, we have a Strategic Business Leadership (SBL)® program. Strategic Business Leadership helps business owners achieve their company vision which is aligned with their personal vision. A key element to the process is to identify the Critical Success Factors or CSFs.
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CSFs are factors that are most important to achieving your business vision. It takes a great deal of consideration, reflection, and prioritization to determine your CSFs.
Strategic Business Leadership takes this one step further. It asks business owners to identify their Driving Critical Success Factor, or DCSF. Think of your DCSF as your "one thing."
Do you remember this scene from the movie City Slickers?
Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is? (He holds up one finger.) "This."
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't means.
Mitch: But, what is the "one thing?"
Curly: That's what you have to find out.
Strategic Business Leadership does indeed help you find out your DCSF.
How does your DCSF address the Red Queen syndrome? It provides the beacon to keep coming back to as you evaluate opportunities and make decisions. As Stephen Covey advises, Put First Things First. That is, focus on importance rather than urgency. Your DCSF provides you with the mechanism to focus on what is important. It prevents the tyranny of the urgent.
We'll dig deeper into DCSFs in next week's post. In the meantime, hold up your finger. What is YOUR "one thing?"