It’s been said that success is a journey, not a destination. Improving the 7 C’s listed below will help you on your journey to personal and business success.
- Communication. Our ability to communicate can make or break relationships and our relationships can make or break our performance and results. Relationships are built on trust and trust is developed over time.
Whenever two or more people make contact, communication occurs. It can occur in person, by phone, email, voice mail, video conference, at meetings or conferences, or at speeches or workshops. Communication is the exchange of thoughts, messages, feelings, goals, or information. The key word is exchange. Unless an exchange takes place, communication hasn’t occurred. The corollary to ”If the learner didn’t learn, the teacher didn’t teach” is “If the receiver didn’t fully receive, the sender didn’t send effectively.” Whether you are the sender or receiver in a communication, being an intentional communicator will pay big dividends. - Clarity. Performance is determined by behavior and behavior is determined by thoughts. The clearer the thoughts the higher the likelihood of better performance and results. Fuzzy thoughts produce fuzzy results, at best. Usually fuzzy thoughts produce NO or POOR results. The clearer we are with our goals, objectives, and expectations, the better the performance and results.
- Continuous Improvement. There will be no improvement without change. For performance and results to improve, people have to improve, i.e. change. It is common for people to want results to improve without having to change. Doing the same things and expecting different results has been described as the definition of insanity.
- Commitment. Without commitment there is hesitancy, procrastination, inaction, and low or no results. With commitment goals can be achieved and expectations met.
- Cooperation. Very few goals can be accomplished without cooperation or teamwork. Getting people to cooperate and work as a team is critical to achievement and success.
- Consistency. Successful, productive people form the habit of being consistent on the basics, i.e. those activities and behaviors that produce the desired results. Set up systems and scorecards to reinforce and enable consistent performance.
- Coaching. Most people cannot improve significantly without the help of a coach who gives encouragement, feedback, training, and support. Be that kind of coach, be clear with your goals and expectations, encourage continuous improvement, get commitments and manage to them, create an environment where cooperation is the norm, be consistent in all you do, and you will enjoy outstanding performance and results.