Follow Dallas Linkedin
Email Dallas Email
Business Growth
Feb 17, 2022

Why Specific Goals Should Also Be Fuzzy

Sponsored Content provided by Dallas Romanowski - Managing Partner, Cornerstone Business Advisors

A longstanding credo for successful business planning is make specific goals. However, there is such a thing as being overly specific in your goals to the detriment of other things that matter to you. Let’s look at how adding fuzziness to specific goals can make your business planning strategies more fulfilling.

Analytics vs. Eye Test
In the world of sports, there’s often great debate between the value of analytics versus the eye test. Analytics often provide hard, quantitative evidence of performance, while the eye test relies on intuitive, qualitative evidence about performance.

Business planning is similar. For example, the analytics might tell you to send your top salesperson to close an important deal because she has good closing numbers. But the eye test—your raw observations and intuition—might tell you to send a junior salesperson because she has demonstrated a special rapport with the customer’s decision makers.

Focusing solely on either analytics or the eye test can lead to unintended consequences. 

Consequences of Being Too Specific or Fuzzy
Say you have specific goals that include selling your business to a third party within five years for $50 million. You do everything you can to achieve it, only to find that you had to lay off most of your workforce, including your business-active children. Doing something like this could damage your legacy or worse, leave you very wealthy but very lonely.

Similarly, if you only focus on the eye test, you may create goals that are too fuzzy to achieve. For example, you may personally like and have faith in an executive you hired soon after starting your business because she has great raw talent. But as years pass, that executive doesn’t develop that talent into a systematic and repeatable method for success. Having blind faith that that executive will improve can make it much more difficult to achieve your specific goals. 

In short, focusing only on one kind of goal over another can lead to dissatisfaction, disappointment, and a business plan that doesn’t do what you want it to. 

Resolving the Differences 
The key is to marry your specific goals with an element of fuzziness. For example, it’s wise to have a specific timeline for achieving goals to avoid 11th-hour rushes. But equally important is considering how you achieve those goals with the people and processes that make your business run.

One way to begin this process is to ask two important questions.

  1. What do I need to achieve success?
  2. What do I need to feel like a success?
In business planning, financial independence is a measure of achieving success. However, the second question is a continuance of that idea that asks, “At what cost?” 

Trying to combine the quantitative measurements of success with the qualitative measure of what makes you feel like a success might create conflicting goals. That’s OK.

It’s OK because it’s up to your and your most trusted advisors to determine the best way to resolve any conflicting goals. This is why it’s important to not be afraid to have goals that don’t seem to line up.

Perhaps an effective way to develop and implement a strong plan for a successful future of your business (and your ownership of it) might be:
  1. Write your goals down, especially if you have conflicting goals
  2. Share your goals with your trusted advisors to keep them top of mind
  3. In every planning meeting, ask your advisors, “What do you think is the best way for me to achieve these conflicting goals?
Planning isn’t about having all the answers—it’s about finding the answers to provide you with the most fulfilling future for yourself, both personally and professionally. Thinking through both specific and fuzzy issues can help provide you with context and texture in your plan, making it more dimensional, and improving the chances that you’ll be happy with your outcomes.

We strive to help business owners identify and prioritize their objectives with respect to their business, their employees, and their family. If you are ready to talk about your goals for the future and get insights into how you might achieve those goals, we’d be happy to sit down and talk with you. Please feel free to contact us at your convenience.
 
Welcome to Cornerstone's Exit Planning newsletter. We'll provide you with practical tips on planning your business exit twice a month. Contact us with any questions or to help get you started with the planning process. Enjoy!
Chip Mayo and Dallas Romanowski

© Copyright 2022 Business Enterprise Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved

As a member of the Business Enterprise Institute (BEI), Cornerstone Business Advisors is an authorized distributor of BEI’s content and Exit Planning Tools.
The Cornerstone team includes former C-Level executives, successful entrepreneurs and advisers who offer unmatched experience in delivering advanced, custom-tailored, results-oriented solutions for business leaders. As a member of the Business Enterprise Institute (BEI), Cornerstone is an authorized distributor of BEI’s content and Exit Planning Tools. We developed the Performance Culture System™ to help clients implement best practices and drive high performance throughout their organization. For more information, visit www.launchgrowexit.com, call (910) 681-1420 or email [email protected]
 
 
 

Other Posts from Dallas Romanowski

Bizjournalblockad
Ico insights

INSIGHTS

SPONSORS' CONTENT
Untitleddesign4 212391244

Firing With Compassion

Andy Almeter - Leath HR Group, LLC
Chris coudriet

Housing Initiatives Creating Meaningful Impact in New Hanover County

Chris Coudriet - New Hanover County Government
Bovio ernie ceo 240207 head 712412398

One to Grow On – A Look at My First Year at the Coast

Ernie Bovio - New Hanover Regional Medical Center Novant Health

Trending News

Tech Wilmington: Upcoming Events Calendar

Staff Reports - Feb 12, 2025

Pet Pampering Options Grow

Samantha Kupiainen - Feb 12, 2025

Small Business Spotlight: Bookstore Fans Romantasy Flame

Staff Reports - Feb 12, 2025

Publix Confirms Upcoming Leland Store

Staff Reports - Feb 12, 2025

OPINION: Seeing Green: A Case For Community Collaboration On Parks And Green Space

Luke Waddell - Feb 12, 2025

In The Current Issue

Pirate-inspired Bar Perseveres

Early on, thirsty welders, pipefitters and sailors from the nearby North Carolina Shipbuilding Company found cold beer – and wartime solace....


Homebuilder Finds Room To Grow Here

“It’s not a huge market, but it’s not a small market either. There’s enough room for us to have a presence.”...


Officials Count Film Dollars, Challenges

The growth of Wilmington’s film industry since the 1980s, when Dino De Laurentiis built his studio here, has not been steady or even predict...

Book On Business

The 2024 WilmingtonBiz: Book on Business is an annual publication showcasing the Wilmington region as a center of business.

Order Your Copy Today!


Galleries

Videos

2024 Power Breakfast: The Next Season