I spent this morning coaching clients and was reminded once again of the value of having someone to spin ideas off of, someone to support you in pursuing your goals. Someone to share with where you are, about progress or the lack of. The intention of coaching is to provide focus, encouragement, mirroring and tutoring. Coaching helps you see what you're doing and how well it's working. I had my own life/professional coach for three years. No doubt one of the best uses, ever, of my time and money.
In one of my sessions today a client explained she is creating a scorecard for her employees so that goals can be tracked this year. We reviewed the work she had done on this highly worthwhile endeavor. We discussed the options available manually and with automation. We also explored how to roll out the scorecard and the need for buy-in at every level. She needed a "third party" helping her think and encourage her creative genius.
In business, I have come to believe that if it REALLY matters it is tracked. Most of what isn't tracked isn't important or if you think it's important you can't prove it because without tracking you have no evidence. In a financial institution there are many key factors worth tracking including attendance, punctuality, accuracy, sales, referrals, training attended, past dues, balancing, mystery shopping, and the list goes on. There is always a lot of talk about customer service and leadership but most of the time what it takes to develop and deliver both simply aren't tracked.
I guess you could say the same thing about your personal life. Without a budget regarding your time and money you won't have any accountability. If you have nothing to do, nowhere to go and more money than Daddy Warbucks maybe you won't be in constant chaos without a discipline about your checkbook and datebook. If you don't track money you spend, you will find yourself overdrawn and if you don't maintain a system that includes a calendar and a things to do list, you will end up breaking a commitment. The consequences can be expensive, embarrassing and regrettable. Time and money squandered are impossible to get back.
Someone once told me if you want to see the values you live life by, look in your checkbook and your datebook. That was a stunning revelation. Where did your time and money go last year? Is Starbucks a value? What about Target and Amazon? Are the people you love in your datebook?
It's still January, get focused, get started, make some tracks, so that you create your plan to make the best use of your time and money in 2011.
Still learning,
Honey
