<h2><strong>Are you an emerging leader or newly promoted leader looking for a goal-setting strategy to make lasting, positive changes in soft skills? </strong></h2>
<h3><strong>Step #2 of </strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">The 3 Step Triple Threat… Ask, Announce, Act (Repeat)</span></h3>
<em><strong>(Part 3 of 4)</strong></em>

<strong>Step #2: <span style="text-decoration: underline;">A</span>NNOUNCE </strong>

How many times have you promised yourself you’ll exercise <em>today</em>, start your diet <em>tomorrow</em>, finish writing that marketing plan by <em>Friday</em> (okay, that’s mine), only to “run out of time” and fail to keep your promise to yourself?

Now, how often do you make a business appointment with a client and fail to show up? Why is it we are willing to fail to follow through with commitments we make to ourselves, yet never in a million years would we “no show” for an appointment with a client or friend?  For two reasons:  we are accountable to someone else and we want to avoid feeling embarrassed (or some other negative emotion).  Accountability means we have some skin in the game ... which can come in several different forms.

If money matters you will further increase the likelihood you will set and achieve your goals when you have a financial skin in the game.    I have a business-coaching client who was required to improve his mental capacity, problem solving ability and focus to succeed in his next stage of business growth. However, he failed to follow through with an action step for three consecutive weeks.  So we got creative and leveraged what was important to him … cold hard cash.  Because of his financial and relational sense of responsibility, he never missed a coaching appointment with me, so he wrote me a check for his regular coaching session fee of $500.00.  He said, “If I do this by next Tuesday, you give me back my check at our next session.  If I don’t, no matter what the excuse, you cash the check and donate it to a local charity of your choice.”  Another quality of his was he was very honest, however I could also verify whether he followed through or not.

What do you think happened?  Right.  He attended his class for several weeks in a row and now is in the routine.  He also asked if I would keep the check in my file so he could keep it as a motivator to get other “someday goals” started.

Step #2:  Announce publicly what you are working on and your specific plans to improve.  In the next post, you’ll discover the secret of why this is <strong><em>the most important step.</em></strong>

If you aren’t yet ready to pick up the megaphone and make the public announcement, find a mentor, good friend or executive coach you can trust who will be honest with you yet who does not have anything to gain or lose by your action (or inaction).

Who will you ask to hold your feet to the fire?  What will it look like when you have skin in the game?

<em>Stay tuned for the “how to” for Step #3:  ACT</em>

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