Strategy is a decision around what market you will pursue and with what product and service mix and more importantly - how you will employ your resources to serve that market properly, so your company becomes profitable. Companies don’t have unlimited resources, so they must make very deliberate, data-driven, and leader-guided decisions to make those difficult choices. This is where you, a finance leader, comes in.
Please connect with me on:
1. Instagram: stephen.mclain
2. Twitter: smclainiii
3. Facebook: stephenmclainconsultant
4. LinkedIn: stephenjmclainiii
For more resources, please visit Finance Leader Academy: financeleaderacademy.com.
Strategy is a decision around what market you will pursue and with what product and service mix and more importantly - how you will employ your resources to serve that market properly, so your company becomes profitable. Companies don’t have unlimited resources, so they must make very deliberate, data-driven, and leader-guided decisions to make those difficult choices. This is where you, a finance leader, comes in.
Please connect with me on:
1. Instagram: stephen.mclain
2. Twitter: smclainiii
3. Facebook: stephenmclainconsultant
4. LinkedIn: stephenjmclainiii
For more resources, please visit Finance Leader Academy: financeleaderacademy.com.
Hi, this is Steven McLean of the finance leader podcast. This is bonus episode number 58. Welcome. How are you all doing? For me, it's another great day to exercise my leadership abilities to make my teammates better and my organization better. I love talking about finance leadership. Because we have an incredible opportunity to help deliver the strategy, we often have to be the responsible person in the room to ensure we all are being great stewards of the company's resources, and to be the person who can check results against what the agreed strategy is. The strategy is a decision around what market you will pursue and with what product and service mix, and more importantly, how will you will employ your resources to serve that market properly. So your company becomes profitable. Companies don't have unlimited resources, so they must make very deliberate data driven and leader guided decisions to make those difficult choices. This is where you a finance leader comes in. A finance leader helps address the right KPIs to use and then develops what data sets can support those KPIs further, we should be looking for insights that can help senior leaders to make better decisions. Yes, we must continually become an expert on the technical side. But we need to learn leadership. So we can help influence proper decisions, data driven decisions within an acceptable risk model. And it takes practice to do this and it takes confidence. Be confident in your technical ability, grow your communication skills, and then develop your skills to find special insights to positively influence senior leaders to make better decisions. It's tough sometimes because you will be dealing with people who have high expectations and are high achievers, you have to be confident in your findings in your recommendations. Because if you lack confidence at any step in that interaction, it will most likely not go well. And any effort to shape a decision or influence an action will be lost. Be confident in everything you do in every set of data and any insights that you present, own that data set and focus on persuading a better decision. believe that what you have done will make a difference and they will listen to you much more. Again, I am encouraging you to become a finance leader, so you can have a say in how the strategy is developed and how it is executed. If you lead a team teach your team to embrace finance leadership, definitely grow those technical skills and technical knowledge, but also grow your leadership skills to make a difference. As you develop and work on your goals for this year. Make sure you add leadership skills in your development plan. Ensure you use the SMART Goal Setting technique to help you plan your goals. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound. Using the SMART framework can help ensure that goals are clear, actionable and achievable. This week, I want to share an encore episode with you episode 102. Use the SMART goal setting method for better goal planning. When we set our goals let's use the SMART Goal Setting methodology. So we set realistic goals that we can achieve because we have properly thought through the best way to plan them and achieve them. Please enjoy this encore Episode Episode one how to use the smart goal setting method for better goal planning. Season 14 will debut next week. Thank you. Last episode I talked about goal setting for 2023. And that I want you to be bold this year. That's bold. B believe Oh overcome l leadership and D decisive. When we set our goals, let's use the SMART Goal Setting methodology. So we set realistic goals that we can achieve, because we have properly thought through the best way to plan them and achieve them. You know how I feel about New Year's resolutions? Because at this point, most people have given up on them since they had no solid foundation in being achieved. Let's plan out our goals that makes sense for us. Please enjoy the episode. Welcome to the finance leader podcast where leadership is bigger than the numbers. I am your host Stephen McLean. This is the podcast for developing leaders in finance and accounting. Please consider following me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. My usernames and the links are in this episode's show notes. This is episode number 102. And now we'll be talking about the SMART Goal Setting technique. And I will highlight the following topics. Number one be focused. Number two the SMART Goal Setting technique and three ensure you are being bold this year. Legendary flip All coach Lou Holtz said, if you're bored with life, you don't get up every morning with a burning desire to do things, you don't have enough goals. And this episode I want to briefly talk about the SMART Goal Setting technique. I am sure you have heard about it previously and even used it. It's a great technique to ensure you properly plan out your goals. SMART Goal setting is a framework for setting and achieving Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and time bound goals. It is a widely used method for setting and achieving goals in both personal and professional settings. The acronym stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound. Using the SMART framework can help ensure that goals are clear, actionable and achievable. Now I love goals and goal setting and I love achievement even more the focus and the effort to achieve something you want. That is what goal setting and achievement is all about. We talked extensively last episode about goal setting. Have you written out your goals for this year? If yes, that's great. If not, you're not late at all. It may take a few weeks to uncover and decide what you want to achieve for this year. And that's okay, if you have them. Let's use the SMART Goal Setting methodology to plan out our goals correctly. What is your long term goal? Now this can change over time. But what do you want to achieve in your professional life and sure you plan backwards from that goal so that you know what steps you need to achieve it. Do you know your long term goal is it to be CFO or even CEO, maybe a CPA and a firm a business owner or something else. There are so many possibilities. The last episode I also talked about being bold this year. Now that's B believe overcome. L is in leadership and D decisive bold is a growth mindset technique. To unlock your potential, I want you to be decisive about your goals, decide what you want to accomplish and then commit action to that plan. Now the productivity tip I want to share with you this week is to ensure that your goals are broken down into smaller and actionable chunks. When you break down your goals into smaller and smaller pieces, you are more likely to achieve your bigger goal. So break down your goal into smaller and smaller parts as small as you can. And then you will find yourself accomplishing more. One more thing, having a written plan will set you up for success. And sure you're updating that plan as you make progress. And as you make decisions about your goals, updating your plan monthly is ideal. They'll put time on your calendar to ensure you get it done broken down goals and a written plan. Now let's talk about more about goal setting and smart goal setting. Number one, be focused. To be successful, you must be committed to excellence be committed to achieving your goals, you have to focus, you have to eliminate the distractions and become hyperfocused which means your routines have to change and your approach has to change. Now some of you won't believe this, but multitasking is really a myth. And the thought of it is ruining your ability to achieve the hard task. Those of you who swear by multitasking believe you're getting more done. And you believe you truly are working on more than one task or problem at a time. And the thought of it is ruining your ability to achieve the hard task which is your long term goal. But what it is, is slowing you down. And what really happens is that both tasks you are working on becomes less than excellent, you're actually achieving less and you are not really achieving your potential. And since you are not focused on one particular task, both tasks are suffering. By focusing on one task objective or goal at a time, you can hyper focus on that one area so you achieve it with excellence. One area so you can focus focus is key. Number two, the SMART Goal Setting technique. SMART Goal setting is a method of setting goals that is widely used in business and organizations. The acronym SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and time bound. These five criteria are used to ensure that goals are well defined and achievable. specific a specific goal has a clear target or outcome that is well defined it should answer the questions of what why and how. Now measurable, a measurable goal can be quantified or tracked in some way. This allows for progress to be monitored and the goals achievement to be evaluated. achievable. The goal should be realistic and attainable. It should be something that can be achieved with the resources and capabilities that are available relevant. A relevant goal is one that aligns with the overall objectives and mission of the organization or individual time bound. A goal should have a specific have a deadline for completion. This creates a sense of urgency and helps to focus efforts towards achieving the goal. Using the smart criteria when setting goals can help to ensure that they are clear, achievable and aligned with the overall objectives of the organization or individual. It can also help to increase motivation and focus, making it more likely that the goal will be achieved. Number three, I want you to be bold and 2023. I talked about this in the last episode, I want you to apply bold this year in everything you do. Bold, which is believe overcome leadership, and decisive belief is knowing that you can achieve the goals you're setting for yourself, it's important to believe that you can get it done. Now being bold is about ensuring you go after and achieve your long term goal. Now go get it for action today. First, I want you to validate your long term goal. Do you have that written down and planned out and sure you know your long term goal, it can change, so it's good to review and update it so you know what you're committing yourself to. Next, I want you to format your goals using the smart technique I talked about today. Look over your goals. And sure you have addressed the acronym SMART, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and time bound. Review your goals and your individual development plans. And one more thing, do your daily routines and habits support your goal achievement process. Now if you have not already, I want to invite you to download a leadership guide for finance and accounting leaders, you can go to Finance leader academy.com and select Free leadership guide on the main menu. It's free, and it may give you a few ideas for your own leadership development. Today I talked about the SMART Goal Setting technique and I highlighted the following points number one, be focused. Number two, the SMART Goal Setting technique, and three ensure you are being bold this year. Goal setting is important because it provides direction and focus and helps individuals and organizations to achieve their desired outcomes. By setting clear, measurable and achievable goals individuals and organizations can track progress and measure success. I love goal setting and achievement. And I hope you do too high performing professionals want to be around other high performers who are focused and ready to achieve. Now next episode I'll be talking about preparing yourself for improvement and achievement. We are going to address our mindset which is a topic close to my heart, just like leadership and goal setting. I hope you enjoyed the finance leader podcast I am dedicated to helping you grow your leadership skills, to change your mindset and to clarify your goals. So you advance your career. You can find this episode wherever you listen to podcasts. If this episode helped you today, please share and leave a quick review so that others may find the podcast. Until next time, you can check out more resources at finance leader academy.com and sign up for my weekly updates so you don't miss an episode of the podcast. And now go lead your team and I'll see you next time. Thank you