This post builds upon my posts over the last two months. I wrote <a href="http://leadchangegroup.com/reflection-and-planning/">Reflection</a> in December with the focus of wrapping up your year and setting up a plan to get to a good start as you enter the New Year. I followed that with <a href="http://leadchangegroup.com/getting-a-good-start/">Getting A Good Start</a> aimed to help the reader focus on a strong start and get things going.

There is a saying that if you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it. As you start the year, you need to monitor and track your progress. Take notes and identify what is working and what is not working. In case things are moving in the wrong direction, identify lessons learned and room for improvements.  Use the <a href="http://leadchangegroup.com/lets-get-smarter-about-goal-setting/" target="_blank">SMART</a> principle to come up with a plan to ensure that it is realistic and time bound. If things are moving in the right direction, collect information on how to continue to refine the process and improve your overall effectiveness. While things are moving along, you can continue to improve and make it better.  At times, you need to tweak things instead of making major changes. Those tweaks can help you achieve another level of results that can help your company achieve its goal.

In my opinion, success is done best through differentiation. To differentiate yourself, you need to continue to outperform your competitors. To do that you need to do one of two things. First, make fewer mistakes than your competitors. Second continue to improve over time to either catch up with your competitors or outdistance them. Regarding your mistakes, you can focus on learning the lessons and avoiding the same mistakes.

Communicating your goals with your team is essential to ensure everyone understands the vision and works toward the achievement of your goals.  When the team works as a unit, you can achieve greater things. Communicate often and let everyone know where you stand. Keep the score and track your progress. Good luck and stay focused.