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Guest: CEO Coaching International’s David Sobel. His 20-year career as an entrepreneur and executive coach is full of highlights, but one of the brightest was his 13 years at Home Warranty of America. David built a replicable and scalable sales model for HWA that culminated in the company selling for $50 million. Now he helps CEOs and entrepreneurs learn how to Win the Day by breaking down BIG goals into measurable daily actions. 

Episode in a Tweet: Find your formula to Win the Day and move your company closer to its BIG goals.  

Quick Background: When you wake up in the morning, what do you want to accomplish? What are the tasks you want to complete? What are the goals you’re moving towards? How are you going to Win the Day?

I’ve found that successful CEOs and entrepreneurs can answer these questions easily. They all have a clear vision for their companies, and they have the actionable, measurable steps in place to make that vision a reality.

Business leaders who are struggling, struggle to answer these same questions. They don’t have that clarity of vision. They don’t have steps in place. They don’t know how to Win the Day, and worse, they don’t even know what Win the Day means for them.

On this episode, David explains how to break down your long-term goals into a simple daily routine that can improve your personal business performance and your whole company, one win at a time.

Transcript: Download the full transcript here.

Key Insights on How to Win the Day

David Sobel: Too many struggling CEOs and entrepreneurs don’t know what Win the Day means for them, or their companies

1. Aim BIG.

Small goals lead to small results; BIG goals can lead to exponential improvement. Set a big goal that would take your business to another level, and commit to it. If your goal is so big it scares you, and maybe even seems a little crazy, good. Start thinking big and you’ll start acting big, and suddenly, instead of feeling intimidated by your targets, you’ll be hitting them.

Do you want to grow your business quickly, cash out, and retire early? Do you want to provide for your kids’ college education? Do you want to buy that dream vacation house? Do you want to become an industry leader, dominate, and maybe transform your business space? Knowing what motivates you will help focus your goals, and keep you on track to hit them.

3. Break it down.

Say your big goal is to increase annual revenue by $50 million. What would your company have to achieve every quarter to make that happen? Every month? Every week? OK, now what are the daily activities necessary to hit that weekly goal? Figure out those daily tasks that keep moving your company towards the big goal, and you’ve figured out how to Win the Day. Now go win.

4. Track it.

Once you figure out what Win the Day means for you, and for each of your employees, the best way to make sure winning keeps happening is to track it. Wall calendars, spreadsheets, a big whiteboard in the middle of the office — the more visible the better. Winning is contagious, and so is accountability. The superstars on your team will fill up their calendars with checkmarks, indicating tasks done and days won. Anyone lagging behind will see the gaps in their own progress and try harder to win more.

5. Motivate to win.

What if your office scoreboard isn’t lighting up with wins?

First, check your activities. What are we doing? How are we doing it? How are we measuring it? Are we hitting targets? If not, why? Keep asking questions until you get to the root cause of lost days.

Second, double-check your accountability systems. Make sure your employees are all tracking their activities, and that the team leader is communicating the big picture results so that everyone knows if the office is on schedule, ahead of schedule, or falling behind.

Third, how are you motivating your employees? Are they well-compensated? Have you incentivized outstanding work? Creating a little competition, even for something as small as a gift card, can create strong Whys that push employees towards more wins.

What if all the systems you have in place are solid, but you’re still not hitting your targets? Then check your people. Top companies hire top talent. If you think you can’t afford the best performers in your industry, you’re probably wrong.

Top Takeaways

1. Set the right goal. If you don’t know where you want to go and why you want to go there, no one else in your company will either.

2. Track the right activities. Once you know what you want to achieve big picture, break it down into daily activities. Complete those activities to Win the Day, and mark those wins down.

3. Hire the right people. If you have the best systems and motivators in place but your company is still losing more days than it’s winning, you don’t have the best people working for you. If you want to win more, hire more winners.  

Transcript: Download the full transcript here.