You already know how important it is to set goals for your yourself and your team, and find ways to hold everyone accountable. However, we run the risk of setting too many goals, or setting goals that aren’t important.
Luckily, we have some methods to help you narrow down what you and your team are working towards and ensure you make it to the finish line. Our favorite and fail-proof method is the 4DX method from the book The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling.
This method starts by determining your wildly important goals, acting on the lead measures, keeping a compelling scoreboard, and creating a cadence of accountability. If this is the first time you’ve heard about this method, then you might be wondering: What is a wildly important goal? Keep reading for an in-depth understanding of WIGs and how to reach them.
WHAT ARE WILDLY IMPORTANT GOALS?
There will always be an endless list of things you want to do — it comes with the territory of professional development. However, you can’t do everything, especially if you’re expected to maintain a certain level of productivity on your day-to-day tasks. While these tasks in the whirlwind of your day job may be crucial for your business to survive, they shouldn’t take up more than 80% of your time. You also need to focus some time on goals that will move the needle of your business and not just keep it where it is.
That remaining 20% of your time should be spent on Wildly Important Goals, or WIGs. WIGs are goals that are so significant that they cannot be accomplished without your finest effort and extreme focus. Now that we’ve established what WIGs are, let’s move on to how to establish them.
DISCIPLINE 1: FOCUS ON THE WILDLY IMPORTANT
As Sean Covey says, “Focusing on the wildly important requires you to go against your basic wiring as a leader to do more, and instead, focus on less so that your team can achieve more.” This means narrowing your focus onto a specific goal that is extremely important — rather than multiple goals, which might spread yourself too thin, decreasing the chance that you will achieve any of your goals at all.
Here are a few helpful guidelines to help you establish your WIG:
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You can only have 1 WIG
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The WIG can represent only one aspect of your work
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The chosen WIG must represent a critical gap in your business
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You must know the starting line, finish line, and “when” of this WIG
Your WIG should be highly specific, and start with an action verb. For example, Increase the number of my retainer clients from 6 to 10 before December 31, 2022.
DISCIPLINE 2: ACT ON LEAD MEASURES
Once you have identified your WIG, it’s time to establish establish your lead measures. Lead measures tell you if you’re likely to achieve your goal (as opposed to a lag measure, which tells you if you’ve achieved the goal). Lag measures track the success of your WIG, while lead measures track the critical activities that drive you to the lag measure. For example, a lag measure is weight loss. The lead measures are diet and exercise — they are what influence whether or not you reach your lag measure (goal).
Lead measures must be two things:
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Predictive of achieving your goal
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Influenceable by you.
Don’t make the mistake of fixating on a metric that you cannot control. Lead measures should be specific metrics that you can keep track of daily or weekly, and of course directly related to your WIG.
DISCIPLINE 3: KEEP A COMPELLING SCOREBOARD
We already know that people perform better when they are keeping score. It keeps people emotionally engaged when they can see progress in real time. A compelling scoreboard should be extremely clear and easy to read — it should tell the viewer whether someone is winning or losing in just a few seconds.
In our Level Up Mastermind, we measure progress in two key ways: a person’s weekly commitments towards their lead measures, and their attendance, because 80% of success is just showing up.
DISCIPLINE 4: CREATE A CADENCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY
As Will Craig once said, “Accountability is the glue that binds commitment to results.” Therefore, it’s important to set up a regular meeting where your team and you can keep yourself accountable to your WIG. The purpose of this meeting is simple — to hold one another accountable for their scores and ensure everyone is committed to moving forward towards their goals.
The cadence of these meetings is important — they should be frequent, typically weekly or even daily. They are short (no more than 20 minutes) and each member checks in with each other about their lead measures and their score.
Looking for an accountability group? Now that you know what WIG are, how you can set them up, work towards them, and ensure you’re always on track, you’re all set to reach new heights! If you’re looking for an accountability group, check out our Mastermind. Click here to learn more + apply.