Gap vs. Gain

For the past two years, I was fortunate enough to be a member in a mastermind group led by Michael Hyatt. During that time, I learned some incredible concepts, ideas, and perspectives that I can guarantee will impact the rest of my life. One of these concepts is called the Gap vs. Gain perspective. As simple as it is, the idea can be life changing if you will implement it.

For the sake of illustration, let’s say I started 2016 with an email subscriber base of 500 people that receive weekly updates to this blog and I had a goal of increasing that number to 2,500 by the end of this year. Over the period of the year, I had some successes and some failed efforts and I ended with close to 1,700 subscribers. In this illustration, I missed my goal by a significant amount, right?

Which Perspective Is Best?

Looking at this hypothetical situation, it would be easy for me to be very disappointed, even frustrated with my year. This negative attitude could even have an adverse affect on my planning for the upcoming year. Of course some people might be energized by the “miss” and double down, but others might let the failure derail their mindset.

The Gap vs. Gain concept says that we should not focus our attention on the “Gap” between our original goal and our final result. In this case, my focus should not be on the “Gap” of 800 subscribers that I failed to enlist. Instead, I need to celebrate the “Gain” of 1,200 subscribers and refocus on repeating, even multiplying, the successes that resulted in that “Gain”.

Focus On The Gain!

This concept works during the year as well. Say I review my goals in May and realize I am behind on the pace I need in order to hit my year end goal. Rather than beating myself up over the huge “Gap” I see in my results to date, I need to focus on the “Gain” so far. In doing this, my attitude is lifted and I am better positioned to increase my pace over the remainder of the year.

On multiple occasions over the past several years, I have received an email or comment from a fellow Christian business owner or leader regarding the perceived lack of ministry they are achieving through their business. Invariably, I get the sense that they are reading my posts about some of the ministry going on in our business or that of someone else I have described.

The clear message I get from many of these communications is that these leaders are frustrated with how little they think they are doing compared to what they perceive our business is doing. As I read these emails and comments, I always think the same thing – “I wish you would focus on the Gain rather than the Gap!”

Year End Perspective

Another example of this could be the questions from my last post. I listed seven tough questions for Christian business owners and leaders to ask themselves as they review their performance over the prior year. Every year, as I read these very questions, I often get frustrated at my poor performance in certain areas. I sometimes interpret these questions to be setting near-impossible standards for me!

However, as I apply the Gap vs. Gain concept, I begin to relax a little. I begin to see my progress in each of those areas, knowing that this Christian life is a journey toward these standards. I then acknowledge that I will never be able to answer all of these questions with 100% success. I allow myself to fail, but never to stop progressing. I simply want to continue creating “Gains” as I move forward. I do not worry about the “Gap”.

Change Your Perspective

I encourage you to stop and take some time to apply this Gap vs. Gain concept to your own situation. Begin celebrating, individually and with your team, the gains you are making toward your goals. Stop getting overwhelmed and frustrated with the gaps. The key is to keep moving forward, always making progress!

Do you practice the perspective of focusing on gains, not gaps?

If so, what benefits have you experienced?

If not, what steps do you need to take to change?

Photo by phototechno/iStock

My Best Year Ever

As with anything I share here, I do not claim that my process is the best. I do not pretend to have it all figured out. What I will say is that I am personally coming off of my best year ever in regards to my annual goals. I was able to accomplish more this past year across every area of my life than any year before.

For that reason, I encourage you to start with my last post (Steps #1-3) and then pick up below with Step #4. Go through this process and see if you think it can work for you. As always, if you have any questions, please contact me HERE and I will do my best to answer them.

Step #4 – Review Last Year

My next step in the process is to review my prior year. This review can provide key insights into what I do and do not need to work on in the upcoming year. Thinking back through the last 12 months can be very helpful in determining my goals for the coming year.

There are a couple of tools I use to accomplish this review in a structured way. The first tool is the C12 Yearly Audit. You can find a copy of this tool ** HERE ** in my Resource Library. The C12 Yearly Audit walks you through 10 different areas of the life of a disciple of Jesus. Each area is scored according to your effort and results.

Another tool I used for the first time this year is Michael Hyatt’s Lifescore Assessment. This is a tool that is similar to the C12 tool because it also assesses 10 different areas of your life. It is not specific to the Christian faith like the C12 tool, but it does go a little further in the scoring process and is easier to get a more objective score. Plus, it comes in an Excel spreadsheet that is very cool to use!

Regardless of the tool you use, the review of your prior year is a critical step in completing your plans for making the upcoming one your best year ever. I encourage you to try one (or both) of these tools to get started. I think you will quickly see the benefits!

Step #5 – Set Your Goals

If you ask 100 people whether they set goals every year or not, it is likely that most would say they do. Unfortunately, I am betting that the majority of those who would say they do are actually referring to their New Year’s resolutions. While I understand their perception that this practice qualifies, I would have to disagree. I see these two practices as completely different from each other.

The reality is that the vast majority of New Year’s resolutions are abandoned before the end of January! I don’t know the stats, but I would bet heavily that very few resolutions make it past March. Why is that? What is so different about setting goals and making New Year’s resolutions?

When I describe goal-setting, I am talking about a very serious process that consists of several steps (including my steps 1-4 in my previous post). While I have been setting goals for years, I have not found a better process for doing so than Michael Hyatt’s Best Year Ever program. Quite simply, I have had more personal success since I started using this program. It is fantastic and I strongly recommend it to everyone that is serious about seeing results next year. I will most certainly be using it again this year!

The bottom line is that you must spend time in this part of the process if you want to see results. You need to make sure your goals are spread across your various roles, not focused on only one or two of them. You should make sure they follow the SMART guidelines. Finally, you MUST write them down! Commit to them and you will achieve them.

Step #6 – Find Accountability Partners

One of the keys to follow through on setting goals is accountability. The odds are low of pushing through and completing all of your “best year ever” goals on your own. A select few may be capable of doing it this way, but the rest of us need help. We need support, advice, and the occasional kick in the rear from accountability partners. When this support is in place, the odds of achieving your goals will skyrocket!

The best practice is to find a couple (or more) like-minded individuals that are just as serious as you are about setting and accomplishing goals. Engage these individuals in the process with you and set regular group meeting times throughout the year (monthly is best for me). At these meetings, each member reports to the group on their progress toward their goals, their greatest accomplishments, and where they are struggling or need help.

If you have found the right partners, you will see the group come together through the process. You will likely see a high completion rate and an ongoing sense of confidence and excitement. Once you have gotten stuck a couple of times and experienced the “kick” from the group, you will appreciate the value of this part of the process!

Step #7 – Review Regularly

The final step is to create a process for regular review of your goals and plans. While the monthly accountability meetings are certainly helpful in this regard, they will not meet all of your needs here.

What is necessary is a more frequent review of your goals, the corresponding motivation factors, and your timelines. This review is best done on a weekly basis. It will likely require you to set aside an hour or so of your time, but it is worth it. In fact, this is probably my most valuable time every week!

In this review time, you simply read through every goal, your reasons for setting the goal, and your next steps on your timeline for each. You then plan out your next week and assign appointments for completing each step. You map out your next week in advance!

Summary

I sincerely hope you see value in this process as I have outlined it. If you already have a year-end process for laying out your goals and plans for the upcoming year AND you are seeing tremendous results as you execute this process, then by all means, continue your process! Don’t change a thing!

If, on the other hand, you look back over the past few years and see missed opportunities, abandoned goals, and regret, then please do something for me. Draw a line in the sand and say, “No more!” Determine right now that you are going to make a change this year. Start with Step #1 and don’t stop until you have completed all 7 steps I described. When you do, send me a note and let me know about your decision. I would love to hear your results!

photo by Paige Foster

Best Year Ever

If the idea of having your best year ever interests you, then I have good news for you.

No, I cannot guarantee your best year ever this year. I don’t think there is one perfect plan that works for everyone.

At the same time, I can give you the steps I used for this past year. I am confident that with these steps and your full commitment, you can have similar results. I am so confident in this, I am using these same steps again for this upcoming year!

Why Is This Important?

Before I give you the steps, I want you to know why I believe this is so important to us as Christian business owners and leaders. We are first of all commanded to live a life that is salt and light to this world (Matthew 5:13-16). We are also going to be held accountable for our results based on the resources we have been given to steward (Matthew 25:14-30). Finally, we are to be an example to others (1 Corinthians 11:1; 2 Timothy 2:2).

For these reasons, I believe it is our responsibility to take the time to plan out our efforts every year. We should be looking at the past year and assessing our strengths and weaknesses, disappointments and victories. We should then learn from this review and adapt with necessary changes for the upcoming year. Once we have our plan determined, we need to stick to it. This means regular reviews with accountability.

My Planning Process

If you agree with all of this, then I think you will love these steps. Feel free to tweak them to fit your needs. As I said before, there is not one perfect plan. Hopefully these steps will work for you or trigger ideas for others that will. Let’s dive in!

Step #1 – Prayer

No plans should begin without prayer. We should be trying to determine where to direct our efforts and how to allocate our God-given resources in the coming year. Our desire should be to maximize the impact of these resources for God’s purposes. Before we even start planning our best year ever, we should seek His wisdom and guidance in the planning.

Step #2 – What Is Your “Why?”

This may seem overly simple, but before you can start building something, you need to know WHY you are building it. The same goes for determining your plans and goals for the upcoming year. You must know your core reasons for doing what you do. Why do you get up in the morning? What motivates you to work hard and make progress? Are these reasons aligned with Scripture?

In this step, I answer 6 basic questions relating to my reasons for doing what I do. Even though I have done it each year, I never skip this step. It is a critical reminder for me. You can get a copy of the six-question worksheet I use *HERE* in my Resource Library.

Step #3 – What Are Your Roles?

Another key question you must answer before laying out your plans for the year is this – What are your roles? Stephen Covey described this process in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Basically, you need to define each of your roles in life (disciple of Jesus, spouse, parent, employer, etc.). You can download the worksheet I use *HERE* in my Resource Library.

Imagine your own funeral and what people are saying about you there. What would you want them saying about you in each role? Start with these comments as your goal for each role and define them that way. Here is an example [with Scripture references] from how I define my role as a “Faithful Steward of God’s Business”:

As a Faithful Steward of God’s Business, I first recognize that he indeed owns it ^{[1a, 1b]} and has entrusted it to me for a time and a purpose ^{[2a, 2b]}. I lead this business based on an eternal perspective ^[3], seeking to add team, economic, and spiritual value every day ^[4]. I recognize and embrace the responsibility I have for impacting the lives of our employees and their families, our customers, and our community with the love of Christ ^[5]. Above all, I seek to please God ^[6], not men ^[7]. One day I will hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. ^[8]”

More To Come…

I hope these first three steps give you a good idea of how to get started with your plans for your best year ever! I encourage you to go ahead and start with these steps. I will post the remaining four steps next. Until then, get to work!

^[1] Deuteronomy 10:14; Psalm 24:1
^[2] Ecclesiastes 5:19; Luke 12:42-48
^[3] 1 Corinthians 3:10-15
^[4] Matthew 25:20
^[5] John 13:34-35
^[6] Matthew 6:33
^[7] John 12:43
^[8] Matthew 25:23

Photo: Dafne Cholet

No Easy Search

Unfortunately, I did not find a website that listed a bunch of resources. Instead, I had to stumble across each of these resources one at a time. In some cases, one resource led me to another. Over the years, I have put together quite a reading and listening library of Christian leadership material.

In an effort to make it a little easier on you, I have put together my top 11 resource sites. I have tried to mix it up a little between blogs, podcasts, videos, and whitepapers. This list is most certainly not exhaustive, but it is some of the best you will find.

11 Killer Resources for Free Christian Leadership Material

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Key Christian leadership bloggers

1. Randy Gravitt
2. Michael Hyatt
3. Michael Nichols
4. Ron Edmondson

Podcast and video sources

5. Andy Stanley Leadership podcasts
6. Dave Ramsey EntreLeadership podcasts
7. Catalyst podcasts
8. John Maxwell’s “A Minute with Maxwell”

White papers, articles, etc.

9. The Ken Blanchard Companies
10. Christianity 9 to 5
11. Best Christian Workplaces Institute

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Christian Leadership Is Not Automatic

It really does not matter if you are at the top of your company or just getting started in your career. If you want to grow in Christian leadership, then you must take action on your own. Very rarely is anyone going to do it for you, and even then it will not work. You have to want it on your own!

You need to commit to digging into just a couple of these Christian leadership material resources listed above. Don’t bite off more than you can chew, but commit to reading or listening to something from one of these sites on a daily basis. Even if you only carve out 15 minutes a day, you will still see a difference.

Others Will Notice

Not only will you see a difference, those around you will see a difference. I am not an expert in Christian leadership – not by a long shot. However, when former employees make it a point to tell me that I do not appear to be the same guy they worked for several years ago, I know something is working.

I know to give God the credit. But I also know that He is not going to increase my Christian leadership ability without my participation. I must want it and I must be willing to do something about it! If I do my part, He will honor my efforts.

Act Now!

Do me a favor and check out these sites. Spend some time and invest in your own Christian leadership so that you are ready when God calls your number to make the big play! You will not regret it!

Which of these are new to you?

Do you have a site that should be added to the list?

What is your commitment to grow?

Employee Engagement

As I said in my last couple of posts, I have seen a lot of material on employee engagement lately. The more I have seen on this topic, the more I have realized how much our organization needs to improve. I assume many of you have the same needs.

I have taken the various sources of the material I have seen or heard and I have condensed into a fairly simple action plan that I am going to follow over the next several months. I am going to explain my action plan in this series and then I am going to implement it, keeping you informed of my progress as I go.

You will hear about the wins and losses, the good, the bad, and the ugly! Hopefully, this process will help you implement similar employee engagement efforts in your own business.

Great Material

The ideas for this step came from a conversation with Michael Hyatt and several other commenters on his blog. You can read the two posts (and the comments on each) Here and Here.

Keep in mind, as I described earlier, I have not yet executed the following steps in my employee engagement plan. I am telling you about them before I implement them, but they have been used successfully by others I trust and respect. I will follow up with the results in a future post.

Hosting Employee Focus Groups

Here are the eight steps:

1. Make the setting an informal one. Make sure you have food and hold the gathering in a comfortable environment. If possible, meet somewhere other than where other meetings take place. If that is not possible, find other ways to soften the environment.

2. Make the employees feel safe. Managers should not be present. Depending on your structure, you may want to add a meeting or two of only managers. Regardless, the employees in each meeting need to feel safe, free from repercussions from their comments. They need to know they will not be shot for telling the truth.

3. Keep it simple. Don’t go in with pages of questions! Michael Hyatt recommended using the four questions below.

• What does your ideal Saturday (day off) look like?
• What do you like about our company that you hope never changes?
• Where could we improve?
• If you were the CEO for a day, what is one of the first things you would change?

4. Take notes. Everyone knows you cannot possibly remember all of their suggestions. Take pen and paper and show them you are sincere about getting every last suggestion or idea down on paper. Ask clarifying questions as you do so.

5. Review your notes with them. At the end of the meeting, hit the highlights of what you have written down. Show them that you have truly been listening. Make sure you correctly interpreted their comments. Add any necessary clarifications at this time.

6. Quickly implement as many ideas as you can. There is nothing you can say that will prove your sincerity better than implementing ideas you were given in this meeting. Show them that you are genuinely interested in their needs and you will earn their hearts!

7. Communicate the implemented ideas across the company. Even if you don’t implement something from everyone, when someone in another department hears about something you implemented from another department, they will still feel like they were heard.

8. Make this an ongoing process, not a one-time thing! Everyone needs to know this is not just a one-time idea you had. They need to know this is part of how you do business from now on. Don’t allow these meetings to get stale over time. Freshen them up by mixing up how you execute it each time, but just make sure you continue to get in front of them and listen!

Have you had any experience with employee focus groups?

Do you see how this process could help with employee engagement in your company?

What are you going to do next?

Employee Engagement vs. Apathy

An “engaged employee” is one who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about their work, and thus will act in a way that furthers their organization’s interests (Wikipedia). An extremely negative, disengaged employee likely will not make it very long in their job, but an apathetic employee usually stays around longer and therefore is a drag on productivity, morale, and profitability. As a result, apathetic (disengaged) employees serve to more severely reduce the impact we strive for as a Christian business.

How Do You Get Them Engaged?

If we can all agree that the best employee is an engaged employee, then the next logical step is to figure out how to get all of them engaged. If we could solve the puzzle of employee engagement, then I think we could go far in creating exponential growth in our impact on eternity.

Recent Influences

Recently, this topic has been in the front of my mind for several reasons. I have had several different sources influence me toward a focus on employee engagement. First, as I mentioned in my latest series, I had a great conversation with Jim Reese, CEO of Atlanta Mission. In addition to the advice I shared in that series of posts, Mr. Reese also brought up employee engagement as a critical component of success.

Next, I read a recent post by Michael Hyatt in which he talked about changing organizational culture. Through a series of comments on that post, I learned a couple of tips about achieving employee engagement that I will share with you.

After that, I was listening to an older podcast by Andy Stanley on the way to the airport last week. In this podcast, Andy talked about how his church maintains such an engaged staff. I will share some of his methods as well.

My Focus On Employee Engagement

As a result of all of these inputs, it is obvious to me that I need to be concentrating on employee engagement in our organization, right? So this is what I am going to do. I am NOT going to wait to post about all of this until I have implemented all of these tips and methods, measured the results, and declared victory.

My Plan

Instead, I am going to give it all to you up front over the next several posts. I am also going to start implementing these ideas in our business, keeping you aware of the progress as I go. These progress reports will include the successes and failures, the pretty and the ugly! I will do my best to relay information to you that I believe will best help you do it better than we do.

Then, after all of it is implemented, I will also give you regular status reports as to the measured progress in our actual employee engagement scores going forward. I am not yet sure what this will look like, but we will find out together!

How engaged do you think your employees are right now?

What do you do to keep them engaged?

What opportunities do you have to improve?