What makes an entrepreneur successful? While there are many factors that lead to success, a large part of it is being able to make data-driven decisions, grounded in reality.
At the risk of stating the obvious, entrepreneurs who make decisions without a clear understanding of the circumstances or decisions that are not backed by data and facts, often end up making poor decisions. More often than not, we base our decisions on our impression of reality.
A good rule of thumb is to check yourself and remind yourself that your impression of reality needs confirmation. External sources and research are excellent way finders for this. By making sure that you check yourself, you are ensuring that there is precision while setting realistic goals and being proactive on executing appropriate business strategies.
NXT-9 found some interesting information about business decision-making in David Rock’s book titled “Your Brain at Work.” Our brains can only retain three or four pieces of information at one time, and these pieces of information will influence any decisions you make. This becomes important and relevant when we make decisions around resources – where to allocate time, money, and team capacity?
We are constantly bombarded with information from all sides. This information comes to us from people and includes the distraction of mobile devices. So, when we do sit down to focus and map out our goals, our brain is usually accessing the following:
- The Most Exciting things (that have happened or are on the horizon)
- The Most Recent things (the delicious coffee you just had)
- The Scariest, most Painful or Fearful things
This information is what is commandeering your brain.
What you actually need to remember is that the most important things that will help you make the decision are just not available. To make the right decisions, all the peripheral buzzing noise needs to be dissipated; we will need to create room for the important. This will ensure that when we set our goals, they are strategic and align easily with the business objectives and intent.
Strategic and long-term investment
When looking at your goals, we encourage you to look one or two levels up. What do we mean by this?
For your quarterly goals look at your annual plan or your 5-year plan. That’s one or two levels of details for you to consider. Similarly for the other time horizons, like monthly and weekly goals, you’re just going to look up a level. Subsequently, when you are setting your daily goals, look at your weekly goals. This leads to being aware of monthly and quarterly goals, ensuring you remember the Big Picture – your most important priority.
When you sit down and focus on the goals for today, you are actually enabling your priority outcomes required on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis for your business to succeed.
By creating clarity, you are able to respond appropriately and accurately for your business. By regularly reviewing your Big Picture, you are ensuring that these daily acts lay the foundation for you to get to your top priority outcomes. And success!
For more information, contact marketing@nxt-9.com or visit nxt-9.com.
