Dreaming through T.A.S.K.S. Based Goal Setting

This has been a fast and furious (no pun) year; lot's of movement and changes that I never would have expected. But....that's why I should continually re-cast goals.

Note 1. this is an updated repost from 2/2/2011

Note 2. I've added comments about "dreams" in August, 2013

Note 3. Personally, I don't do goals well in the typical "goal-setting" sense. My goals are very short-term (rarely do I set a goal past this Friday). What I do though, and I'm very driven, is DREAM.

One generation ago, we were a society that feared and resisted change. Now many accept change as unavoidable and do little to prepare for the consequences. Instead, most people I know flow with the times, struggling to make the necessary adjustments life throws at them.

How about you….how do you engage in the changes in your business, your life? Do you plan, set goals and prepare for changes? Or, are you in the more common camp of “go-with-the-flow.” How about dreams? Do you still have dreams? A few people seem to do well in spite of themselves with this “ready-shoot-aim” method. But that doesn’t work for most of us.

To be effective, we know we need goals and a plan of action, but we’ve set and missed so many goals that it’s gotten us down and we’re scared to set them again. In default we’ve taken to the go-with-the-flow or ready-shoot-aim method and we’ve failed.

So, how does one properly set and stay engaged in achieving goals? And what do dreams have to do with anything?

First, there needs to be a dream. You might call it a passion, desire or purpose. I call it a dream and define a dream as something I want real bad and when things get tough and rough, I can think about my dreams (a dream) and it will get me through the moment, the day...the event.

Whether your role is as a leader, manager, follower, single-contributor or combination thereof, you'll get better results from your goal setting by having a dream and practicing and staying engaged in T.A.S.K.S. - Based Goal Setting.

• Time
• Attitude
• Skill
• Knowledge and
• Style

In order to achieve a goal you must align the goal with your capabilities. If you don’t have the Time, Attitude, Skill, Knowledge and/or Style needed to accomplish that goal, then you’ll need to gain those particular capabilities.

This is the true essence of having long and short-term goals and the time in which you set to achieve them. Achieving good-meaningful-goals is a daily practice that with a few modifications to traditional goal setting rules you will achieve results.

Here is how to practice TASKS - Based Goal Setting:

1. Dream big, dream small, but dream and Put Your Dream To the Test (check out John Maxwell's book: click here)

2. Start growing by associating with what it's going to take to move towards your dream. Zig Ziglar said "you'll be the same 5 years from today as your are today except for what you listen to, who you associated with and what your read." Make the decision to grow.

3. Set short-term goals that drive you to grow towards your dreams

4. Evaluate and correct (learn) the Time, Attitude, Skill, Knowledge and Style you’ll need to accomplish each of your dream, your growth and your goals.

5. Increase your capabilities one-day-at-a-time.

6. Evaluate and correct your growth and goals on a continuous basis. Goals should be “living documents.” Things (life, lack of capabilities, etc) will get in the way that will cause you to not achieve many of them. But, you must be in a constant practice of evaluating, correcting and re-implementing the goal setting process. When it seems too tough, too rough, pause and reflect..think about your dreams. Let your dreams replenish your energy.

Brad McCoy, football coach and Dad to pro-football quarterback Colt McCoy, explains how he coaches football and takes on life; “prepare the player for the path, not the path for the player.”

So, with that in mind, continuously prepare yourself and you’ll do much better on the path you find yourself on. Don’t let your tolerance for change cause you to give up on something prematurely – focus on the dream and depend on the growth to help accomplish the minor goals that require minor changes that lead to big results.

To that end…..live purposefully.

Margins....must have margins, more margins. And clarity.

My daughter, Sunne, texted me one Sunday morning in 2009 that "you have to listen to Tim's sermon series" about margins." I did, and re-listened this past March.

Since that text I've also read the book Tim Hawks recommended "In Search of Balance: Keys to a Stable Life." Those lessons have been instrumental in practicing and living out God's plan these past 2 1/2 years.

In essence....like water in a glass, if I'm too full, I'll overflow when as the day and week builds. Eventually, something's going to get wet and it's rarely a good thing. I need margins.

Michael Hyatt wrote a piece yesterday about margins and mentioned "clarity." Clarity's another big thing for me (one of those trust behaviors)...being clear about my purpose. That purpose isn't just a big holy audacious goal purpose, but today's purpose, this morning's purpose. The type of purpose I need when one-day-at-a-time is too long and I need to just be purposeful about putting one-foot-in-front-of-another type purpose (and being purposeful about where I'm stepping purpose).

Margins are a big deal. Clarity gives what fills my glass focus.

To that end.....

Godin, Trust ....and not being lazy!

As do a few hundred thousand others, I enjoy reading Seth Godon's Blog, and today he hit home with a very short post titled Where does trust come from?

Godin nailed it right up front with a hint.....it never comes from the good times and from the easy projects.

This week I've had the pleasure of working through some good times, projects, files, conflict. In some of it I was a sounding board, some good, some not-so-good, but all of it included people and/or processes.

And through it all, I came out with a bit of knowledge of who and what I can trust, and at what level I need to be checking on what I'm expecting. I know if I get lazy about trusting, I'll get burned...that's just the way it is. BUT, as Godin eludes...it's those engaged well in the battles we stand with.

To that end....tell the truth in ways in can be verified!


How about you....what causes you to trust?

With Baited Breath

Returning a colleague's call today, I left a message and laughingly said I was "waiting with baited breath" to hear back what he was calling about. Hanging up, I thought about how often I'm "waiting with baited breath!"

Being a mortgage loan officer and processor, one tends to always be

• waiting for something to happen
• in a stage of restrained anticipation
• waiting anxiously, or excitedly, or great suspense!

Or, as one dictionary defined it...."having subdued breathing due to high emotions."


To that end...

It's a great Day!

oh...I and like the baited versus bated.

Communicate Well by Deluting the Junk!

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to

entertain a thought without accepting it.

- Aristotle

I'm a bit hung-up on the talking-to-yourself lately and don't apologize. How I communicate with myself is important to having a propensity to trust myself and others. And it's important to have that propensity to trust (trust well, but trust!...I'm reminded of Ronald Reagan's trust but verify).

Almost a year ago I wrote a post about strategic thinking leadership and this post connects in many ways with that...

Notice that Aristotle (above) did not say an "educated person" but rather a trained or educated mind. Hence, a disciplined way of thinking,

As we think, we're talking to ourselves - as we're talking to ourselves, we're thinking about how good or bad we....(you get the picture). We have to pay attention to the noice, the talk, going on in our heads.

Hint....it's many times better to have some "easy listening" music going just to drown out the thoughts going on it our heads. Can't sleep at night? Plug in a good sermon and let your pastor put you to sleep.

Heck, I can't wait to get to heaven for a number of reasons. And when I do, I look forward to eventually running into some pastors (McArthur, Piper, Keller, Hawks, Chan, Carter....) and let them know how much I enjoyed their teachings and how they even helped me sleep.

To that end.......discipline yourself by deluting the junk!

Great Loan Officers as are Great Team Builders

The best leaders are those most interested in surrounding themselves with team members smarter than they are. They are frank in admitting this and are willing to pay for such talents.

Amos Parrish

(This is an update of a post from 2011)


Great Loan Officers and Great Team Building

Great Loan Officers -

• know that Great Loan Officers have Great Teams
• are Level 5 Team Builders and work for companies that appreaciate and support Level 5 Team Builders
• believe that the key Sales and Marketing Person is the one delivering the product or service at any given moment
• know that good customer service is the sign of a good hire and bad customer service is the sign of a bad hire
• practice, practice, practice at being a Great Loan Officer and a Great Team Builder
• work hard at all Top 10 Characteristics of a Great Team Builder
• are passionate about being a Great Team Builder

Please don't confuse this list with a complete list of characteristics of a Great Loan Officer; this is just about Great Loan Officers building Great Teams.

Supporting the loan officers that want to build and do their part in building great teams is an incredible purpose to have. This isn't easy and support goes both ways; it isn't just about the LO, nor is it just about "support staff." It is about the TEAM, about the "I" in wInning.


To that end....

Where Rubber-Meets-the-Road: Living Out the "Levels of Leadership"

I had the privilege of speaking to three different groups this week about some of my favorite topics: Trust, Asking Good Question, Levels of Leadership and Talking to Yourself.

Practicing the disciplines of these topics myself and watching how they naturally play out in life is another privilege. One of those "played-out" settings I've pondered has to do with a non-profit. The leader of this very important organization, Larry, is the epitome of living WELL Maxwell's "five levels of leadership." 

While those on Larry's board are all following him at levels 2, 3, 4 or even 5, there are undoubtedly those he is attempting to gain favor and assistance from who are at a distant 1, if at all. 

When we're not leading someone, they're not following and we could actually be chasing them. Being led in this way is not always an enjoyable form of  following. But many times extremely necessary.

As I thought through and prayed for Larry's struggles (struggles are part of doing something well), I was reminded how important it is to lead "ourselves" well as we chase our passion, wants and dreams. My thoughts further carried me to:

• How important it is to talk-smart to ourselves. 
• How talking-smart means, in part, to have a "propensity to trust" ourselves and others.
• Trusting-well means I must practice a good balance of evaluation and correction.
• Trusting-well and talking-smart means always asking-smart-questions.

And.....I must always remember I'm leading at all 5 levels at all times.

To that end....talk-smart to yourself FIRST!

Danny

Talking To Yourself

I had the privilege of speaking to a group this week about "how" we talk to ourselves and "what" that talk can do. Getting ready for that talk I re-read much of Shad Helmstetter's book "What To Say When You Talk To Your Self." ( This is the first book my wife saw me purchase back in 1986).

My talk focused on Trust. In particular, how we trust ourselves (or not), and the impact the words that come out of our mouths have on our trust. How much we trust our self, and others.
Three other books were used to illustrate factors in that 45 minute presentation - John G. Miller's "QBQ," Stephen M. R. Covey's "The Speed of Trust," and God's "Bible." The Bible references came from John Maxwell's "Leadership Bible."

The application I left everyone with was pure QBQ (the question behind the question) -

1. Don't ask questions that start with When, When or Where and/or contain Who or They.

2. Ask questions that start with HOW or WHAT, contain I and focuses on ACTION.

To that end.....become a become a better leader through talking smarter by asking better questions (it's not just others that hear you...you hear yourself)

Danny

512-773-6528

Danny@DannyLSmith.com

Who do you trust with your mortgage referrals? I use my 28 years of experience to lead you through the home loan minefield: www.ImpactMortgageGroup.com

Notes from the book "The Talent Masters"

Notes from Conaty and Charan's book "The Talent Masters" -

1. An enlightened leadership team, starting with the CEO. We find that such leaders invest at least a quarter of their time in spotting and developing other leaders; sat companies such as GE and P&G, it's closer to 40%.

2. Meritocracy through differentiation. Warning....differentiation breeds meritocracy; sameness breeds meritocracy. Talent masters dig into the causes underlying performance so that they can recognize and reward leaders according to their talents, behaviors, and values.

3. Working values. By whatever name the values are called, masters repeat and repeat and repeat their values, and reinforce them by linking recognition and rewards with them.

4. A culture of trust and candor. A company can develop its people only if it has accurate information about their strengths and development needs.

5. Rigorous talent assessment. Talent masters have the same goal and results orientation in their people processes as they do in their financial systems.

6. A business partnership with human resources. Talent masters use human resource leaders as active and effective business partners.

7. Continuous learning and improvement. Talent masters recognize that a fast-changing business environment requires constant change and updating of both their leaders' skills and their own leadership criteria.

A couple of my thoughts - Conaty and Charan's background lends their writings to experience, not opinions (this is good). As I read this book, I'm taking notes and underlining (as I do in most books), but I'm finding that I'm tending to correlate much of what they have to say with others.

This is also good and gives credibility. I'll bring those out in coming posts.

Good stuff!!!

To that end.....

The Power of Habits, by Guest Blogger Blair Ball

thanks to Guest Blogger Blair Ball

www.prepare1.com for incredible

social media workshops

Do you ever wonder why you do what you do? Why others do what they do? HABITS 95% of everything that you think, feel, do and achieve is the result of habits.   Are you wanting better health?  Are you wanting to be more successful?  Are you wanting to have better relationships? The good news, if you change and replace your bad habit's with good habit's good things will happen in your life!  Habits as we know them can be either good or bad. Habits can be ignored. Habits can be changed. Habits can be replaced.   This process within our brains is a three-step loop.   1. The Cue - A trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use. 2. The Routine - Which can be either physical, mental, or emotional. 3. The Reward - Which helps your brain figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future.

Experts say 60% of Our Marketing Efforts Should Be...

Experts say we should spend 60% of our marketing efforts and dollars with current and former clients.

Yet, how much should you market to current and former clients?

In reference to the circles above, how do you draw people from the "everyone else" to Permission Prospects?

First....be sure you're marketing to present and former clients. Most do not. Never, never and never.

Second...use spaced repetition to market to everyone. You can word search this blog to find other postings on spaced repetition. You can also buy the book "KNOW CAN DO" by Ken Blanchard.

Third..to reach the rest of the universe, meet/great/smile/dial/advertise....and use social media, or hire someone that does social media well. Done correctly, social media will soften your market and add credibility just through name recognition. I've met people at business function, and I've called to introduce myself, and people have said "your name is familiar, where have we met?'

Forth...and this is really the foundation; have a real live living maturing Marketing Plan. Experts say that writing this down, even in the simplest of manners, will put you head-and-shoulders in front of your competition.

To that end....Market Smart, Not Hard

Danny L. Smith
Sr. Loan Officer
Executive Coach
512-773-6528
Danny@DannyLSmith.com

Developing a Niche to Differentiate Yourself

Dan Klopp, owner of Sign Satisfaction, was interviewed recently by Dag Nybo at Austin Business Journal. Here's a quick summary of the 4 ways Dan says to develop a niche and differentiate yourself from your competition:

1. study your competitors, figure out what they do well and where there's room for improvement,

2. focus promotional efforts (I assume the article is referring to all marketing), and stick to that message, and

3. resist the temptation to lower ethical professional standards

You can read the entire article at http://tinyurl.com/7dgrghm

Question...do you know someone who doesn't believe they can refinance their house because they owe too much?

Many people have interest rates over 6% and owe more than the appraised value of their home.

Yet, many can still refinance their home.....even if they owe more than their house is worth.

Have your friends contact me for a free qualification and loan decision (no credit or appraisal costs).

Danny L. Smith
Phone: 512-773-6528
Fax: 512-551-0006

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On Leadership: The Five Dimensions of a Couregeous Follower

Undoubtedly, if we've communicated much at all, you've heard me talk, or write, about following well. Much of what I teach on this subject, besides my own personal experiences, comes from Ira Chaleff's book, Courageous Follower.

This subject, following well, is one of the most important conversations in leadership training. To help us understand the dynamics, here's Chaleff's YouTube video (4 minutes) on the Five Dimensions of Courageous Follower.

http://youtu.be/K1dkfN1XBuE

Related articles can be found by inputing "follow" in the upper left search box.

Make it a great week, be purposeful.

Danny L. Smith

512-773-6528

Danny@DannyLSmith.com

Covey's Speed of Trust: the 2nd Wave - Relationship Trust

Relationship trust is all about behavior..consistent behavior.

It's about learning how to interact with others in ways that increase

trust and avoid interacting in ways that destroy it.

- Stephen M. R. Covey

Pace is "Roots-Up" by guest blogger Steve Heston

“We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.”

-  Max Depree, American author / businessman

“Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Becoming what we need to be happens in a moment.

The concept today is along the lines of Abraham Lincoln being an overnight success.  He lost election after election.  He lost all his money.  He lost friends along the way.  Then, all of a sudden, he was president, and a danged fine one at that.

We have to be true to ourselves – anything else will contribute to our failure – and we also need to be constantly evolving.  It’s true in nature, and it’s true in us, as well.

What’s the connection to “pace?”

Well, we need to evolve faster than ever before.  We need to pick up the pace.

This is one of two times of year that I desperately miss the farm.  Planting and harvesting are the frenetic times in a farmers life, and they’re also a great corollary to the idea that pace and patience are closely linked.

All through the winter, the soil is changing.  The seeds are getting ready to be placed in the soil.  And, while patience is required, we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that billions of microscopic changes are taking place every hour of that waiting time.  Weeks or months later, we see the plants break through the soil, which appears to take place in a moment, when it’s actually been evolving out of sight for those weeks or months prior.

When it comes to changing our pace, perhaps one of the best things we can do is manage our prep time – our patience period – so that by it we are gathering momentum and accelerating our evolution.

What do we read?  What do we spend time on that detracts, rather than contributes to the outcomes we seek?  Who do we hang with?  What “seeds” do we plant in our minds?

If we want to accelerate our pace of evolution, the key to the acceleration is in the quiet times that lead up to the seeds breaking the surface of the soil.

Pace is a “roots up” consideration.

Make something incredible happen today.

STEVEN T HESTON

Staying on Purpose!

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.
- Alexander Graham Bell

 Note...this is a re-write of a former post (way too fitting!).

Looking over my shoulder and reviewing yesterday's events, I see I accomplished some of what I'd intended, but not near everything. Part of the start to my day is reviewing my marketing plan, evaluating and making any changes and focusing on the main event. Ha! Quite a few shots across the bow yesterday.

But, I think I did a pretty good job staying on purpose. Or at least I came back to it, a few times.

My personality is high D/I (from the DISC assessment) which means I have great intentions and will set out to accomplish something, even if it's wrong (D), but I can sure get distracted (I) by texts, people calling, a new idea (brainstorm), shiny objects....(oh look at that kitty). It really is amazing that I get anything done while at the same time I continue to be dumbfounded by the fact it happened AGAIN!

Habits and Clutter

Yesterday I began the day thinking a lot about leading myself, and rambled a bit in this blog and otherwise. I had started off with planned meetings: a standing 8:30-11am appointment I have every Monday, a prequal loan application at 2pm and a 1:1 with Ken Fudik/TeamLogicIT.

A lunch appointment with Gilbert Sausedo @thecolorfactory and Larry Megason/www.restoreavoice.org was added (incredible ministry...more on that in another post). A couple of phone calls are possible leads to loan applicationsI messed up the time on the meeting with Ken and was 30 minutes late, and failed to register for an event I really wanted to attend.

Overall good day of meetings and getting to know people and about their businesses, needs and how/if I can help.

But I missed something important along the way...the timely response to a rate and fee request. As a mortgage loan officer, I make money when I fund a loan. To fund a loan, I have to take a loan application. To take a loan application, I generally have to compete with a rate and fee quote. To compete, I need to be timely.

Sometimes the trust in the relationship is already there and the prospect will go directly to applying for the loan, but not always.

While I was timely in getting the original information to the prospect (30 minutes), a follow-up request didn't happen until hours later.

What caused the delay? I had other appointments, lost track of priorities and let clutter get in the way. This wasn't just missing an opportunity for a loan, it was putting income in jeopardy, loosing focus on my purpose, and clutter.

What caused the delay? Lost focus on priorities.

What caused the delay? Bad habits.

To that end...

Leading Myself, and Rambling

Starting another week and I'd sure like better results from last one. Yet, what do I mean by "better results?" My mission statement says "...make a difference and a reasonable profit." (Hmmm...it should say "positive" difference). I believe I made a positive difference last week, so what has me all spun-up about making this week beeper than last week?

Did I make a difference last week? Yes, seemed to, in reflection just now.

Did I make a reasonable profit? Hmmm, not really. Not last week.

So, my attitude has to do with my feelings of week's "results." The differences I made are overshadowed by numbers?! Not the first time for that.

Ok....T.A.S.K.S. Check-up: Time (check), Attitude (obviously not-so-good, Dreams not clear either), Skill (ok, though working on better habits, need better habits), Knowledge (good, improving), Style (hmmm...still developing style).

I'm now thinking about my "Ponderings on Why Work?" post....why do people put so much time into a hobby that has no hope of any financial gain? Serve money vs serve the work for the Glory of God.

Went I sat to write this post, my thoughts were on "leadership" and not necessarily about leading myself. Then the rambling took hold! (changed post title!).

To that end.....

BHAGs: Put Your Dreams to the Test

Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, 
but happy is he who keeps the law.

- Proverbs 29:18 (NASB)

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by 
moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees 
the dawn before the rest of the world.

- Oscar Wilde

I recently heard Brawn Lide, of BrawnCoaching.com, speak on John Maxwell's book Put Your Dream to the Test. Brawn went into fairly good detail on the 10 questions Maxwell challenges you to ask yourself....and I'm challenged.

Here are the 3 "Questions" I'm focusing on this next week and will be challenging myself and others:

#2. Do I clearly see my dream?

#9. Does working towards my dream bring satisfaction?

#10. Does my dream benefit others?

This year is almost 7/52's over and many of us have already forgotten the goals (errr..resolutions) we started 2012 out proclaiming.

That's probably because our dreams aren't big enough. How big are your dreams? What is God's will in your life? Are you considering the two?

It's ok to dream, it's good to have goals and it's ok to dream big and have big goals!

To that end....

Make 2012 the "year of achieving big Holy audacious goals and dreams!"

Danny

Related Posts

Be Smart About Finishing the Year

Setting Goals Worth Achieving

TASKS Based Goal Setting

Performing Daily Acts of Trivia