Improving the Odds of Success

Depending on the day or circumstance, success can feel like something completely out of our hands, can’t it?! Like a roll of the dice (once we let go of them). So let’s spend a few minutes on how to increase the probability of success – YOUR success – by improving the odds, as it were.

Grand Plan, Supportive Strategies, and Specific Methods

Let’s start by defining some terms:

• Grand Plan – A focused intention to achieve something of particular significance
• Supportive Strategies – An array of plans enacted, en masse, to accomplish a Grand Plan
• Specific Methods – A series of steps required by a Supportive Strategy

That said, we can meaningfully improve our odds by, literally, working with the odds – the odd numbers 1, 3 and 5, that is – in the following manner:

• 1 – Choose ONE Grand Plan – the point of the exercise
• 3 – Select THREE Supportive Strategies – to focus our energies and attention as we work to achieve our Grand Plan
• 5 – Identify FIVE Specific Methods – for each Supportive Strategy

Then, we just implement our Grand Plan from the bottom up.

“I Deserve a Promotion”

Let’s work an actual example – one that worked quite well for me, back in the day, and for many of my coaching clients, since:

• 1 – Choose ONE Grand Plan
  1. Get an “In-Place” Promotion – Receive an increase in title, pay, and responsibility as recognition for the work you’ve already been doing
• 3 – Select THREE Supportive Strategies
  1. Articulate Your Readiness to be Promoted – Help your boss realize/confirm that, yes, it IS time and, yes, you ARE ready
  2. Justify Your Promotion in Business Terms – You can’t just walk in and scream, BIWI (pronounced “bee-wee,” as in, Because I Want It”).
  3. Identify and Engage Well-Positioned Advocates – Ultimately, you’re going to need one or more opinion-leaders outside of your vertical to stand up and say your name.
• 5 – Identify FIVE Specific Methods – for each Supportive Strategy, per the chart below:

How Difficult is This, Really?

So let’s level-set. How much work does this approach take? For me, my rough draft took about 10 minutes to build. And then I revisited it a few times over the course of a few days to fine-tune it.

But the bigger point is this: Consider the power of having 15 Specific Methods in support of 3 Supportive Strategies in service of  your Grand Plan – especially, as compared to just showing up in your boss’s office, one day, with not much more than a BIWI.

Does doing this guarantee success? Obviously, no. And might your Grand Plan, Supportive Strategies, and Specific Methods differ from the one’s I’ve used? Quite possibly.

(While I used a career acceleration example to illustrate the approach, this same process can just as easily be used to create a wide variety of Grand Plans and their cascading Supportive Strategies and Specific Methods.)

So remember: To improve your odds, work with the odds – 1, 3, and 5, GO!

Post Script

I hope this post has helped you learn something about yourself. If so, please make a point to share your insight with others as a way to "lock in" your learning.

While you're at it, I'd also appreciate you telling them about LeadershipTraction and the resources available, here, on-line, at www.leadershiptraction.com including:

     • my other blog posts
     • my leadership tutorial downloads
     • my newsletter archives
     • the curated content on my LeadershipTraction Facebook page
     • and, of course, my book, Leadership Haiku

Thanks.

- bz

P.P.S. If you have a question or comment about this post, just let me know. I'll do my best to get back to you, straightaway.