Strategic Discipline Blog

My first job in radio taught me valuable lessons about character.  As an introvert, being a radio salesperson wasn’t easy for me.  It was difficult to call on business people who didn’t believe in radio advertising, let alone our small FM radio station, and get rejected repeatedly ten to fifteen times a day! It was hard on my self-esteem.

Fortunately, I had a great sales manager, Paul Chasteen, an excellent mentor, teacher, and motivator.  By teaching me to present ideas, business people would turn my idea down, not me.  This removed the sting of taking the rejection personally.

As important as Paul was to my development, an album by Cavett Robert, one of the first professional sales trainers and public speakers, taught me an important lesson in success and leadership.

Paul played this training record several times in our Saturday sales meetings.  It was loaded with humor, ideas on goal setting and achievement, how to prepare, and act to succeed. The most valuable wisdom came for his quote:

“Character is the willingness to carry out a good resolution long after the mood in which it was made has left you.”  ~ Cavett Robert

We may listen to a speaker, get a spark to achieve some wild dream or goal, and yet the very next morning when the alarm goes off, we struggle to get out of bed.

We may plan to make 10 calls during the day, finish a project we planned on, yet when we get discouraged as the day drags on we find something else to do.  The project we intended to complete doesn’t look as appetizing as the meal we’re hungry for or the invitation to be with friends after work.

Whenever I would get to that point in my day, especially when I was in sales, I would remind myself of what character is.

“Character is the willingness to carry out a good resolution long after the mood in which it was made has left you.”  ~ Cavett Robert

What does character mean to you?   How do you define character?  Is it still an important element in your business? 

The best way to develop character is to develop good habits.  Habits prevent your exhausted willpower from depleting or reducing our energy to get things done.

You Build a Winning Habit.

In Strategic Discipline, and our Scale Up Execution Decision, we coach our leadership teams to develop the Meeting Rhythm habit.

1. Priorities: Determine your #1 Priority. Achieve measurable progress in 90 days.
2. Metrics: Develop measurable Key Performance Indicators. 
3. Meetings: Establish effective meeting rhythms. (Cadence of Accountability) Compound the value of your priority and metrics. 

We’re so confident you will achieve the success you desire our BRAND PROMISE GUARANTEES IT: We will refund all compensation if our disciplined coaching and proprietary tools fail to meet your expectations.

For more insights on the how to build habits visit:

Priorities Are Disciplined Choices

Does Routine Really Set You Free?

Why Is Your Business The Way It Is? The Power of Habit

WHY YOU’RE STUCK – THE POWER OF HABIT

People: Teaching Willpower Spurs Starbucks’ Business Growth

Finding the Willpower for Better Execution

Willpower Rules Your Performance

BIG LIE #3 – Myth of Self Discipline

LIE #4 – Willpower is Always on Will-Call

Developing The Success Habit – Your One Thing

The Ultimate Success Habit: Good Question = Good Answers

How to Build A Habit

The Truth About Discipline, Habit, and Willpower

How Long To Create a Habit?

Call 319-393-2565 or email me at dwick@postioningsystems.com to start building your winning habit for your business.

Growth demands Strategic Discipline.

How can you build an enduring great organization? 

You need disciplined people, engaged in disciplined thought, to take disciplined action, to produce superior results, to make a distinctive impact in the world.

Discipline sustains momentum, over a long period of time, to lay the foundations for lasting endurance.

It’s the framework for Good to Great:

• Stage 1: Disciplined People
• Stage 2: Disciplined Thought
• Stage 3: Disciplined Action
• Stage 4: Build Greatness

A winning habit starts with 3 Strategic Disciplines: Priority, Metrics and Meeting Rhythms.   Forecasting, accountability, individual, and team performance improve dramatically.

Meeting Rhythms achieve a disciplined focus on performance metrics to drive growth.

Positioning Systems helps your business achieve these outcomes on the Four most Important Decisions your business faces:

Positioning Systems helps mid-sized ($5M - $250M) business Scale-UP. We align your business to focus on Your One Thing!  Contact dwick@positioningsystems.com to Scale Up your business! Take our Four Decisions Needs Assessment to discover how your business measures against other Scaled Up companies. We’ll contact you.

Next Blog – Leadership Responsibility

My frustration with my Toastmaster role this past week revealed a deeper issue. When we’re frustrated with a them or others, you need to first inspect yourself.  Are you not getting results you expect?  Discover what you’re doing wrong.  That’s next blog.