By Hal Matthews
Recently we broadcast a piece on the Sandler Success Triangle of Behaviors, Attitude, and Techniques or BAT and how to raise your BAT-ing average. I mentioned that the Behaviors point of this “equilateral triangle” is the energizing point or point of inertia…the fuel, the driver. It is the “Behaviors” that energize our success, feed our attitude and make possible our technique deployment.
A number of people contacted me since that broadcast and asked if I would explain this critical point of the Success Triangle further. And by the way it is easy to look at the triangle as an open circle of success as well, and in circular reference, the Behaviors point would be called the “inflexion point”. So what do we mean by behaviors? Are these habits, activities, processes? Well, the answer is yes, but the word behaviors connotes a more profound meaning…it adds a sense of responsibility beyond “activities”. Behaviors are activities to which we are willing to be held accountable!
So what do we do first as a success driving behavior! We must have a vision, we must visualize, see in our mind where we want to be in a number of years. Many of us take the visual to a constant reminder by creating “vision boards” that include photos of how we see ourselves, our lives, our families, our businesses in the future. It is an incredible tool to remind us of who we want to become or even refine our selves going forward.
From there we must create goals that parallel the vision, we must write down in specific, measurable practical yet stretching terms, adding clarity to our vision.. They must be your goals, possibly shared with and agreed to with a spouse or partner or someone else with a vested interest in our commitment to those goals…this may be one of our critical accountability partners.
From here we have to create plans to reach those goals, strategic and tactical plans. Only less than 4% of Americans have definitive goals and fewer yet have them written down. Interestingly but not necessarily corollary that is about the same percentage of wealthiest Americans. And I would hasten to say that your vision and goals to do not at all have to be monetized, but it so often helps. For example, Bill Gates, long term vision and goal was to be a very meaningful philanthropist. You might say, that the strategic plan he executed with specific behaviors to get there became a corporation called Microsoft.
Finally, it is critical that we denominate our plan into specific charted and calendared events, to which we are willing to be held accountable. These are daily, weekly, monthly events that are action steps toward our goals and vision. These are the dials, the networking meetings the face to face-referral sessions, the talks that we set up and deliver on our area of expertise. These are the quantified and qualified appointments that we have that lead to revenue generation. These are our processes, they are on our calendar, that are specific and they are immutable! These are behaviors that we have asked someone to review with us at important periodic intervals. These behaviors insure our vision; execution of these behaviors may well cause us to raise the bar on our goals!
So, fuel your triangle, by setting goals, creating behavior programs and be held accountable to them; and remember acquire the Knowledge, Execute the Behaviors and Elevate your game!!
