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Curiosity: The Catalyst for Success in Strategic Portfolio Management

Curiosity: The Catalyst for Success in Strategic Portfolio Management

by | Feb 28, 2025 | My Work

Curiosity: The Catalyst for Success in Strategic Portfolio Management

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”- Albert Einstein

Curiosity: The Catalyst for Success in Strategic Portfolio Management

Curiosity isn’t just a trait of the intellectually gifted, it’s a critical enabler for organisations navigating the complexities of Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM). In a world where businesses must continuously prioritise, govern, execute and measure their initiatives and product development, curiosity serves as the engine that fuels better decision-making, innovation and value delivery.

When executives and practitioners apply curiosity to the four core threads of demand, governance, delivery and outcomes, they unlock new perspectives, uncover risks earlier, and drive sustainable value.

How Curiosity Elevates Strategic Portfolio Management

  1. Demand: Identifying and Prioritising the Right Opportunities
    • A curious mindset challenges assumptions about what should be prioritised versus what truly drives value.
    • Leaders who ask, “Why is this a priority?” and “What’s missing from our pipeline?” ensure alignment between business needs and portfolio investments.
    • Applying flow engineering interlaced to value streams and customer journey analysis helps surface hidden pain points and emerging market trends that might otherwise be overlooked.
  2. Governance: Enhancing Decision-Making and Risk Management
    • A rigid governance structure stifles adaptability. Curious governance leaders continuously question: “Are our policies enabling or hindering agility?”
    • They explore ways to simplify approvals, clarify accountabilities, and balance oversight with speed.
    • Curiosity fosters a proactive risk mindset, ensuring organisations anticipate regulatory shifts, financial risks, and strategic roadblocks before they escalate.
  3. Delivery: Driving Execution Excellence
    • Successful delivery isn’t just about following a plan—it’s about adapting to change while staying aligned with strategic intent.
    • Teams that cultivate curiosity continuously explore better ways to execute, leveraging methodologies like Agile, Lean and Systems Thinking to optimise performance.
    • Asking, “What’s slowing us down?” or “How can we remove friction?” fuels process improvements that enhance speed-to-value.
    • This reflection should also be asked of your strategic portfolio management function and practices .. Are you a value office focused on collective outcomes or a project office focused on individual outputs!
  4. Outcome Management: Measuring and Maximising Impact while managing the impacts of what will be different
    • Curiosity ensures organisations don’t just track output (projects completed) but focus on outcomes (business value realised).
    • Instead of assuming success based on milestones, curious leaders dig deeper, asking: “What do our customers and stakeholders truly need?, What areas of our flow will this have the greatest impact to and lets develop the story focused on the value vs individual steps achieved to make ourselves feel good”
    • They embrace continuous feedback loops, using insights from data, employees, and customers to iterate and drive measurable business impact.

Fostering Curiosity in the SPM Community

For curiosity to thrive in Strategic Portfolio Management, organisations must embed it into their culture and ways of working:

  • Encourage Strategic Questions: Shift from “reporting on the past” to exploring future possibilities. Ask “What patterns are emerging?” and “Where are the gaps?”
  • Empower Experimentation: Support teams in testing new approaches, whether through small pilots, scenario planning or what impacts can occur to customer journey insights by dialling up or down value steps.
  • Make Data-Driven Curiosity a Habit: Leverage PPM tools to track insights, spot trends, and make informed prioritisation decisions.  Are you using AI insights with your PPM tool?
  • Challenge Assumptions Regularly: Facilitate governance discussions where stakeholders challenge long-held assumptions about budgets, resource allocation and market positioning. Shake up the historical way of looking at Strategic Portfolio Management.
  • Create a Safe Space for Inquiry: Leaders should model curiosity by asking, listening, and exploring solutions collaboratively rather than enforcing rigid mandates

The Competitive Edge of Curiosity in SPM

Curiosity is a muscle that needs regular exercise. When applied effectively, it transforms Strategic Portfolio Management from a reactive function into a proactive force helping organisations navigate uncertainty, optimise resources and deliver meaningful business outcomes.

By fostering a culture of curiosity across demand, governance, delivery and outcome management, executives and practitioners create a strategic advantage, ensuring that investments drive long-term value and measurable impact.

So, ask yourself:

How curious is your organisation about the way it prioritises, governs, delivers and measures success? 

Has it a chosen tool set to help accelerate the human elements of these practices?

What are you or your organisation doing to help the people who support and govern this function to think and do differently from yesterday to tomorrow?

The answer might just determine your future competitive edge.

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence.”- Albert Einstein

Ferne Eliz King

Love Life Love YOUR Life

About Ferne

Ferne is globally recognised and called upon for quickly accelerating complex change to achieve business strategies.  Translating strategies to actionable plans, prioritisation of those actions, engagement from the right people, bringing business architecture to life or your life plan if individual and in many cases driving the change as a program director.  The bottom line is Ferne accelerates businesses or individuals to achieve outcomes and enabling that is her passion.

What's the consequence if you take no action?

“If you do the same thing today as yesterday, your tomorrow will be the same as today”.  Ferne Eliz King

Book a Call

Want To Learn More?

Book a free 15 min call and see how Ferne can help you accelerate your aspirations for you or your business.

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Be Ready for Tough Conversations: A Skill That Builds Trust

Be Ready for Tough Conversations: A Skill That Builds Trust

by | Feb 27, 2025 | My Life, My Work

Be Ready for Tough Conversations: A Skill That Builds Trust

Would you prefer audio?  Or listen to the audio as a follow up to the blog below?  Click here for audiogram of this blog. 

One of the biggest gifts you can offer your leaders, colleagues, and those around you is consistency, consistency in how you deliver, receive and facilitate tough messages. When people know they can count on you to handle difficult conversations with clarity and composure, you naturally earn respect.

Let’s be honest, tough conversations are part of life. Whether at work or home, we all face moments where we need to navigate sensitive topics, conflicts or tough decisions. These discussions can feel uncomfortable, emotionally charged and at times, unpredictable. That’s why preparation matters.

Before stepping into a tough conversation, set yourself up for success. Take a deep breath. Go for a walk. Meditate. Hydrate. Whatever helps you get into the right mindset, do that first. Because when you show up grounded and composed, you’ll handle the conversation more effectively.

Even the most experienced leaders will tell you: the nerves never completely go away. No matter how many difficult conversations you’ve had, there’s always a level of uncertainty because you can’t predict how the other person will react. When emotions run high, messages can get lost, and if things aren’t managed well, you might end up further from a resolution than when you started.

In this article, we’ll explore practical strategies to help you approach tough conversations with confidence. Whether it’s a clarification of project or product scope, difficult performance review, a hard personal discussion, or addressing conflict head-on, you’ll learn how to prepare, stay present, and communicate in a way that leads to better outcomes.

The Guardrails for Tough Conversations

  1. Prepare and Plan

Know the issue, anticipate reactions, and have a clear message. A conversation is a two-way street—so while you plan what to say, also consider how the other person might respond. What questions might they ask? What emotions might arise? Do your research if needed. The more prepared you are, the more composed you’ll be. Keep your goal in mind, visualize the best outcome, and work backward from there. And most importantly—be yourself.

  1. How to Begin

Rip off the band-aid—prolonged small talk can make things more awkward. Get to the point, but with clarity and intent. Try something like:

“I’m not confident the scope of work aligns with the business case. Let’s go through the gaps, assess risks, and see if we need further information to close them.”

“Your targets haven’t been met for the last three months. I’d love to hear your thoughts on why and work together on a plan.”

Then, pause. Let them respond. Ask how they feel. Listen. Not everyone will agree with your perspective, and that’s okay—give them space to be heard.

  1. Active Listening & Empathy

Tough conversations aren’t just about what you say—they’re about how you listen.

  • Listen without interrupting – Let them fully express themselves.
  • Show empathy – Acknowledge their emotions and concerns.
  • Use reflective listening – Repeat or summarize what they’ve said to show you understand.
  1. Communicate Clearly & Respectfully

Clarity and respect are non-negotiable. Choose your words wisely—when emotions run high, things can easily be misinterpreted.

  • Be mindful of your language – People may deflect responsibility, so be clear and level-headed.
  • Empathize – Before jumping in, acknowledge their feelings. You’ve had time to process this conversation, but they haven’t. Let them absorb what’s being said.
  • Listen (really listen) – Don’t just think about your next response. Be present. Even if you don’t agree, respect their perspective.
  • Give them autonomy – Wherever possible, offer choices. A sense of control makes tough conversations more productive.
  • Take a break if needed – If things get too heated, pause. Step away for a few hours or days, but always commit to a follow-up time before leaving.
  1. Closing the Conversation

Summarize key points to ensure alignment. Restate their concerns to show you’ve understood. End on a note of appreciation:

  • “Thanks for having this discussion with me. I appreciate your honesty.”
  • “I know this wasn’t easy, and I value your perspective.”

People don’t need to agree 100%—they just need to feel heard.

  1. Providing Feedback

When giving feedback, especially critical feedback, keep it clear, constructive, and balanced.

  • Be specific – Stick to clear examples.
  • Offer solutions – Focus on improvement, not just the problem.
  • Keep it tight – If you have a long list of concerns, pick two or three max. More than that, and it’s overwhelming.
  1. Managing Change

Change conversations—whether about job roles, restructures, or job security—are particularly tough. Keep it simple:

  • Be transparent – Explain the reason for the change.
  • Provide support – Offer resources to help them navigate it.
  • Encourage feedback – Let them voice concerns

No one enjoys tough conversations, but avoiding them won’t solve the issue. Procrastination only makes things harder. So, give yourself credit—you’re taking action, and that’s a big deal. Every difficult conversation you navigate brings you one step closer to stronger relationships, better outcomes, and personal growth. Be authentic, stay consistent, and trust yourself. You’ve got this.

 

Love Life Love YOUR Life

Ferne Eliz King

About Ferne

Ferne is globally recognised and called upon for quickly accelerating complex change to achieve business strategies.  Translating strategies to actionable plans, prioritisation of those actions, engagement from the right people, bringing business architecture to life or your life plan if individual and in many cases driving the change as a program director.  The bottom line is Ferne accelerates businesses or individuals to achieve outcomes and enabling that is her passion.

What's the consequence if you take no action?

“If you do the same thing today as yesterday, your tomorrow will be the same as today”.  Ferne Eliz King

Book a Call

Want To Learn More?

Book a free 15 min call and see how Ferne can help you accelerate your aspirations for you or your business.

Book a Call
Organisational Transformation Success Stories

Organisational Transformation Success Stories

by | Jul 6, 2022 | My Work

Organisational Transformation Success Stories

Organisational transformation involves examining the future and the now of your entire business.  The advice I’d like to pass on is agree up front who your primary stakeholders will be, will you use and advisory team, agree what you will NOT do, agree a list of quality questions you wish to ask of yourselves, articulate in a story telling manner what your future looks and feels like.   Do not jump to ‘how’ you will transform.   By agreeing and signing off what you will not do and what quality questions you wish to ask will save significant time – I guarantee it ! It will also inspire those involved in designing the opportunities.

Here are a few of the don’ts I would put on a list and then below a few transformation stories.  If you wish to uncover some quality questions to ask of yourself – message me.   And these same guidelines work in your personal life as well as business !

Ferne’s list of DO NOT’s …  

  1. …start in the now; start with the future in mind and work backwards
  2. …build from bottom up; if you start with pixels you will end up with pixels
  3. …commence on a journey without a story to tell; you may not know the destination but the value proposition and the experience and feeling people will realise, customer and employee, is critical to articulate
  4. ...build an organisational design that cannot flex a % of its workforce and operating model to strategic priorities
  5. …start an organisational design change without agreeing a method; you do not need to reinvent the wheel, you will not be as unique as you think you are.
  6. …let change management be your achilleas heal !  Design the strategy, assess against your current values and culture, understand what are the big ticket items that need to change, execute change activities and as you develop your delivery roadmap map your projects or programs to one or more big ticket change themes.  Do not drive change at individual project or initiative level, drive it at the program or portfolio level and let the change needs dictate your priorities and scope.
  7. …don’t let others influence your culture to say agile and change are like water and oil!

Organisational changes can occur on a range of different scales from hiring new or training existing people to acquiring a bulk new customer set, to modifying processes, to shifting the way teams operate alongside one another, to large scale initiatives that involve changing the entire direction of the company.  But what to do first, second, in parallel, what is critical vs important.  That is the art of transformation vs the skill of it.  Alignment of your executive team is critical.

Although organisational transformation is driven by management, the employees are heavily involved in the design, it is critical to keep them engaged and informed and embrace the vision of the transformation and commit to the journey.  Organisational change is essential for business longevity. It enables your company to remain competitive, evolve with the times and survive.

Look up the % of businesses who DO NOT survive post year 10.  Look at the primary reasons why.

Below are some examples of companies who successfully implemented an organisational transformation, and will continue to evolve and test themselves.

Google

In 2015 the co-founder of Google, Larry Page made the decision to transform the entirety of the Google enterprise by launching a new company called Alphabet.

At the time Google was operating well, but Page believed that “in the technology industry, where revolutionary ideas drive the next big growth areas, you need to be a bit uncomfortable to stay relevant.” In fact, Google had become so large and diverse that it was becoming increasingly difficult to manage. In order to avoid future difficulties, Page made the decision to break down the entire company and branch each area into its own company under the parent company Alphabet (Google being the largest of those companies).

Page is now the CEO of Alphabet with Google co-founder Sergey Brin as president. Each company under Alphabet has its own CEO and goals unique to its vision. Other than Google, some of the companies under Alphabets umbrella focus on areas such as high speed technology solutions, healthcare and disease prevention research, investment options for start-ups, self-driving cars, global internet access, drone delivery services, self-driving cars, solar and turbine energy to name a few.

In page’s announcement of the new company launch he states “Fundamentally, we believe this allows us more management scale, as we can run things independently that aren’t very related. Alphabet is about businesses prospering through strong leaders and independence.”

Microsoft

While Google deconstructed and branched out, Microsoft banded together. With the rising success of Google and Apple, Microsoft was struggling to stay relevant. Additionally, Microsoft was experiencing a toxic culture. Partnering teams were operating as rivals, and there was an overall low morale throughout the corporation. Satya Nadella became CEO in 2014 and immediately began the transformation of Microsoft. In his own words he stated that “Innovation was being replaced by bureaucracy. Teamwork was being replaced by internal politics. We were falling behind… When I was named Microsoft’s third CEO in February 2014, I told employees that renewing our company’s culture would be my highest priority.”

He began by setting a handful of shared goals throughout all divisions of Microsoft to bring the company back to together to focus on a shared vision. 2 years later he combined all artificial intelligence sectors together to create a team of roughly 5000 engineers and computer scientists. This team had a shared mission to focus on innovation across Microsoft product lines.

Under Nadella’s guidance Microsoft acquired technology such as GitHub, LinkedIn and Azure and transformed the company from product to service base. Microsoft’s market value has increased from US300 million to US1 trillion. Nadella’s initiatives provide employees with a shared vision that created productive collaboration used to develop innovative technology to reconstruct Microsoft.

 

As depicted in the above examples, the needs of each business are diverse and thus each organisational transformation program are very unique. The first step for you is to establish where you wish to be in the future via what unique value proposition, where are you today in relation to that vision including values, experiences and feelings for customers and employees.  Agree your stakeholders and if necessary and advisory team, agree the dont’s.   Then ask yourself a range of quality questions that will inspire and innovate as to what changes do I need to make to get there?

Love Life  Love YOUR Life

Ferne Eliz King

About Ferne

Ferne is globally recognised and called upon for quickly accelerating complex change to achieve business strategies.  Translating strategies to actionable plans, prioritisation of those actions, engagement from the right people, bringing business architecture to life or your life plan if individual and in many cases driving the change as a program director.  The bottom line is Ferne accelerates businesses or individuals to achieve outcomes and enabling that is her passion.

What's the consequence if you take no action?

“If you do the same thing today as yesterday, your tomorrow will be the same as today”.  Ferne Eliz King

Book a Call

Want To Learn More?

Book a free 15 min call and see how Ferne can help you accelerate your aspirations for you or your business.

Book a Call
Establishing a trusting relationship with employees

Establishing a trusting relationship with employees

by | Jun 22, 2022 | My Work

Establishing a trusting relationship with employees.

‘Once bitten, twice shy’, the reason few will have complete trust in your management at the onset of their employment. Sadly, most people have encountered a negative experience with a manager or supervisor at some point in their career, so as a manager, do not assume trust, it is your job to gain the trust of each of your employees. We know about the amazing things that happen when employees trust their superiors. It creates a culture of satisfied and motivated employees which is important for productivity and revenue. Personally, I don’t believe trust is hard to earn if you work with integrity and compassion, and you will find the more trustworthy you are, the more you will in turn, trust your employees.

Regardless of your current situation with employees there are a range of strategies you can implement to your management strategies to gain, regain or renew a trusting relationship with your employees.

Characteristics of a trustworthy manager

  • Know your values, know the values of the individuals in your team, know the values of your company – articulate them, demonstrate them, celebrate them
  • Honest: Even when it involves delivering sensitive or difficult information. Be compassionate, but aware that in business, people want the truth even if it hurts. Stand in the shoes of the receiver.  NEVER DELIVER BAD NEWS ON A FRIDAY, in fact never deliver any news on a Friday. 
  • Integrity: Simply do what you say you will do.
  • Respectful: This involves some self-awareness as many people may not even realise that they are not demonstrating respect to others. Simple gestures such as stopping a task to provide your undivided attention to someone, making eye contact, acknowledging people as you pass them.  When there is a conversation in play – give it your all.
  • Approachable: If you aren’t liked, you aren’t trusted.
  • Compassionate: Always remember your employee’s are human beings with feelings, opinions, aspirations and, personal lives. Treat them in a way that you would expect a loved one of yours to be treated by their managers.
  • Supportive: Even during the difficult times or when mistakes have been made

Actions of a trustworthy manager

  • Be a person when you introduce yourself. Use your name, not your position
  • Acknowledge mistakes and failure happens (even by you): Create a secure environment in which employees are comfortable owning up to their mistakes to ensure they are rectified as a team promptly. Learning together and sharing failures will help your design thinking and innovative approaches to problem solving. 
  • Show respectful interest in your employees lives. Personal lives can affect work performance. During difficult times employees are more likely to open up to managers that have shown a genuine interest getting to know them. The compassion you have during the difficult times will not easily be forgotten in the good times.
  • Ask more than tell: What is the most effective way to build trust? Ask, Ask Ask! Simply asking your employees as individuals what would build their trust, how they prefer you to give recognition or feedback. It is a lot more effective than guessing.
  • Listen: We typically do not hear 60% of what has been said, listening, hearing and understanding are important skills to learn in management. Be quiet and allow time for the speaker to talk. Paraphrase what you have heard back to check understanding.
  • Model the behaviour you expect: There is no quicker way to lose the respect and trust of an employee than adopting the ‘do as I say, not as I do’ attitude.
  • No unpleasant surprises: No one likes to be surprised with a performance review, bad news, redundancy, or anything of that nature. Transparency and communication are crucial for building trust.
  • Praise your employees often. This small but incredible gesture is often forgotten, meaning most employees are only hearing from you if there is a concern. Being praised releases dopamine and oxytocin. Organisations with a culture of praise are 20% more productive and profitable.
  • Confidence: Treat them as though you trust them. Trust is a two-way street, if you want your employees to trust you, you must be willing to do the same for them. Give them the freedom to complete tasks without micromanaging them and allow them to develop their own ways to achieve.
  • Confidentiality: This is basic management, but especially important. Be mindful of what you say about one employee’s performance or personal circumstances to another. Office gossip spreads like wildfire, and one slip of the tongue could lose the trust you have built up within minutes.
  • Be silent: Give you employees the chance to think, problem solve and contribute their ideas. If you have all the answers, no one will grow.

Trust can be earnt be establishing a relationship and demonstrating strong communication and respect. Trust goes both ways; the more trustworthy you are, the more trustworthy your employees will be. The smallest of kind gestures, such as buying a round of coffee or shouting a lunch will go a long way.

Love Life  Love YOUR Life

Ferne Eliz King

About Ferne

Ferne is globally recognised and called upon for quickly accelerating complex change to achieve business strategies.  Translating strategies to actionable plans, prioritisation of those actions, engagement from the right people, bringing business architecture to life or your life plan if individual and in many cases driving the change as a program director.  The bottom line is Ferne accelerates businesses or individuals to achieve outcomes and enabling that is her passion.

What's the consequence if you take no action?

“If you do the same thing today as yesterday, your tomorrow will be the same as today”.  Ferne Eliz King

Book a Call

Want To Learn More?

Book a free 15 min call and see how Ferne can help you accelerate your aspirations for you or your business.

Book a Call
How many people are you helping this month?

How many people are you helping this month?

by | Jun 22, 2022 | My Life, My Work

Selling My Services!

What would happen if we begin to measure success by the number of people that we have helped instead of a dollar amount? I know money is important and ‘good feelings’ don’t pay the bills. But I have recently explored this concept and while it may not be for everyone, I thought I would share what I have discovered.

I have always loved what I do and I get a massive kick out of people doing something different tomorrow because of their engagement with me today.  I am finding myself more motivated than when my focus was meeting financial targets.

To state the obvious, by helping X number of clients, I am still going to be generating X amount of revenue, but this mindset shift has helped me with my Achilles’ heel, the one area of my job I have never felt comfortable: Selling My Service!

I know I am not alone. No matter the passion, or how amazing you are at what you do, the reality is: Selling makes a lot of people uncomfortable.

Entrepreneur and self-made millionaire, Dean Graziosi explains the secret to selling is to “change what selling means to you. Start thinking “I’m happy to sell them this because I know it can make a positive impact on their life” …I love what I do and the service that I offer. I know I’m making a difference for people, so much that I feel I’m doing a disservice if I don’t get them to take action.”

Let’s refresh the way we look at generating the revenue we need to live.

How will your product or service help your client? What would be the consequence to your client if they did NOT purchase your product or service? Keep reminding yourself of that consequence, you are HELPING your clients improve their quality of life. Your business goal is to offer an amazing product or service that will be of value to your clients.

So instead of thinking and experiencing “doing what you love and watching the money follow”, amend this to “do what you love and see the difference you make to peoples lives” – and be proud of that services and valued for the payment you receive for it.

How many clients do you want to help this month, what is the value of that service to them, be proud!

Ferne Eliz King

Love Life  Love YOUR Life

About Ferne

Ferne is globally recognised and called upon for quickly accelerating complex change to achieve business strategies.  Translating strategies to actionable plans, prioritisation of those actions, engagement from the right people, bringing business architecture to life or your life plan if individual and in many cases driving the change as a program director.  The bottom line is Ferne accelerates businesses or individuals to achieve outcomes and enabling that is her passion.

What's the consequence if you take no action?

“If you do the same thing today as yesterday, your tomorrow will be the same as today”.  Ferne Eliz King

Book a Call

Want To Learn More?

Book a free 15 min call and see how Ferne can help you accelerate your aspirations for you or your business.

Book a Call
Setting Achievable Goals in Business

Setting Achievable Goals in Business

by | Jun 22, 2022 | My Work

Setting Achievable Goals in Business

“People with goals succeed because they know where they are going…” – Earl Nightingale

There is an art to setting business goals. When a business fails to achieve a goal, fault is often put on the actions taken along the journey, when in fact the goal itself is frequently problematic. The goal you set is just as important as the actions you take to succeed… So take the time to carefully establish your goals before you begin to chase your dreams!

Before you set a Goal

Articulate the vision and the purpose.

Be very clear in one short paragraph or less of the vision and the purpose of the goal.  Describe the experience you and those affected, impacted, by the goal will experience.  What will be different for you and them when that goal is realised. 

Complete a SWOT analysis.

“Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.” Don’t skip this step! It will get you thinking about your challenges and how to best overcome them. 

Know your Industry.

What direction do you believe your industry is headed? What will the future look like in 2, 5 or 10 years? Make educated predictions about your industry and use this insight establish goals that will move you in the right direction.  What issues have occurred historically?  What has been solved for and succeeded and failed, use these insights to help form your opinions. 

Know your Competitors.

It is vital to understand your competitors. Use them as a benchmark to strengthen your point of difference and set goals to exceed and lead in your industry. What are their strengths, their weaknesses. 

What is your point of difference?

What makes you different, what do you do in your business that is different?  What is it that gives you a point of difference? 

What is your values you will live by and expect others to also do?

What are your values and what are the non negotiables.  The tighter you have this, the stronger your point of difference will become.  Hire to it, partner to it, collaborate to it, align customers via it.  Do not let this be your achilleas heal. 

Setting your Goals 

Objectives:

It needs to be clear with each goal, exactly what is the objective of EACH goal.  The goals you set should by challenging but realistic. Your team will not support and will not be motivated to work towards a goal that is too far out of reach. The goals you set should be achievable within 3 years and you must have the resources needed to succeed.

Measurable – Key Results:

How will you know when you have succeeded? Use figures to make your goals measurable. What percentage do you want to increase sales by? Without this detail a growth of 0.2% and 20% will both be considered an achievement. How will you know you have achieved the goal? 

Relevance and Priority:

Keep a visual reminder of your vision or mission to ensure the goals you set align with your corporation’s values and objectives.  Demonstrate the link between this goal and objective to the priorities of the vision and purpose of your business unit and anything that is bigger or broader than your division.  Connect the dots. Prioritisation is a critical element to gain stakeholder support.  

Timely:

What is the timeframe for this goal? When will you need to achieve this by?  What needs to come before it for success, what needs to come after it for continual improvement? 

Actions & Translate those action to Receiving and Embedding Change Safely and Sustainably .. the thing that will be different:

Actionable steps need to be planned to bridge the gap between now and success with ‘checkpoints’ along the way. If you want to gain more clients, by what percent? By when? What action will be taken? Setting goals is not a task that should be rushed, those involved in the goal setting process must be given ample time to reflect and respond.  Often the receiving and embedding doing the ‘thing’ that will be different is overlooked.  We all need to become masters of change in our current environments.  Dont fail in the last 10% when the receiving and embedding the change is the thing that will determine 100% of the success.

 

Ferne Eliz King

Love Life  Love YOUR Life

About Ferne

Ferne is globally recognised and called upon for quickly accelerating complex change to achieve business strategies.  Translating strategies to actionable plans, prioritisation of those actions, engagement from the right people, bringing business architecture to life or your life plan if individual and in many cases driving the change as a program director.  The bottom line is Ferne accelerates businesses or individuals to achieve outcomes and enabling that is her passion.

What's the consequence if you take no action?

“If you do the same thing today as yesterday, your tomorrow will be the same as today”.  Ferne Eliz King

Book a Call

Want To Learn More?

Book a free 15 min call and see how Ferne can help you accelerate your aspirations for you or your business.

Book a Call