2017 is coming to a close, did you accomplish your goals for the year? If you didn’t, have you pivoted or identified what caused you to miss attaining your goals?
It is never too late to begin planning for your future. Take Snowflake CEO Bob Muglia as an example. After several ‘failures’ or setbacks, he used his lessons learned to better serve his clients.
The result?
Hired as CEO, Muglia was the 34th hire at Snowflake. In 3 years the company has now employs 300 people, has over 900 customers using or testing the product, with “hundreds” using it to run their business.
We all have situations where we are not successful, but it’s how we handle it
Source: How Snowflake CEO Bob Muglia triumphed over his career crashes – Business Insider
Whether you’re a high level executive or running a very small business, Muglia’s lessons learned can help you overcome setbacks and reach your goals.
First Lesson: Positive Mental Attitude
Instead of leaving the company, Muglia “called every colleague I had worked with in a material way at Microsoft, and I told them the story of what was happening,” he said.
That story was that while, yes, it was a smaller role at the company, he was excited to build the new team. Nobody bought it.
Maintaining a positive mental attitude during tough times will enable you to tackle the new challenges enthusiastically. A positive mental attitude allows you to discard concerns you have no power against. Borrow from Stephen Covey’s Circle of Influence.
Do not worry about things you have no control over. Focus your energy in items you can control.
Second Lesson: Get to the Micro Level
Deeply understand your challenges by asking deep diving questions. Who, what, when, where, how, why? Why? Why? Peeling layers back will help you better understand the root of the challenge, and possibly identify ways to overcome it.
It is my experience leaders fail to drive their team to success because they underestimate the effort required to accomplish a task. Subsequently, they overestimate how soon they can accomplish their goal.
Failing to understand each technical challenge in itself is not a failure. But setting goals without understanding what it takes to reach those goals, THAT is foolish.
Muglia was taught “to always challenge and ask really deep questions,” and “not operate at 100,000 feet.”
These lessons are part of the reason Snowflake was named one of Business Insider’s 51 enterprise startups to bet your career on in 2018.
Comment below, what are some of your goals for 2018? How do plan to achieve them?
Click here for the 6 steps to set business goals for the new year.