Do You Practice Continuous Improvement?

Do you practice continuous improvement? If you are Peak Performer, you do! Peak Performers know that part of being on top of their game is working on always getting better. In fact, anyone who is a Peak Performer in their profession, sales or something else, knows that working to improve your knowledge or skills is the key to "continued" success.

Only the fool thinks that what worked yesterday will surely work today. The entire knowledge of the world doubles every two to three years. If you aren't continually taking in new information or learning new skills, you aren't staying in one place; you are falling behind! In order to get better, you first need to know what you must work on. Self-assessments are a great way to find out your opportunity areas of improvement and I encourage you to do one.

Once you have done your self-assessment, you will know those areas that are opportunities for improvement. Don’t worry what they are! Everyone has weaknesses. It is important that once you identify them, you work on developing those areas. Sales professionals realize that understanding their weaknesses is really strength and they devise a game plan to develop their skills.

Every sales professional that is at the top of their game practices continuous improvement. Continuous improvement means that you are making a constant effort positively change your opportunity areas. Sales professionals are never satisfied with the status quo nor do they ever think that their skills are “good enough.” Having the mindset of continuous improvement means that you are always looking for methods to get better that will help to sharpen your competitive edge.

In many industries and some segments of business, there is a methodology of continuous improvement called Lean or Six Sigma. The very first aspect of using either of these process improvement areas is to do some 80/20 calculations. These calculations help to identify the 80% of the errors that fall within 20% of the processes.

A sales professional will use their self-assessment to identify and focus on those 20% areas. These are the areas that will give them the greatest returns for self-development. Once they have accomplished improvement in those areas, they move on to other areas that fall outside that 20% range.

Continuous improvement is easier than you might think. If you work towards incremental change, the process of continuous improvement won’t seem so daunting. It doesn't matter if you think you need a lot of work or just a little. The process is the same. Remember the saying “Inch by inch it’s a cinch. Yard by yard it’s really hard.” Take things by the inch and make it a cinch!

Listed below are four things that will help you get started in you continuous improvement program. If you master these areas, continuous improvement will become part of your life, and you will have added another valuable skill of top sales professionals.

1. Master yourself: The important part of mastering yourself is accepting who you are. This means that you accept all the things that you like about yourself as well as all of the things you don’t like about yourself. This doesn't mean you accept those negative aspects and don’t do anything about them! It means that you identify them as opportunity areas you will develop.

2. Face your fears: It’s all too easy to procrastinate or ignore the things we are afraid to do. Peak performers know that they need to push aside the thought of things that are unpleasant and just get to it! The one truth about fear is that it is self-created. Whatever it is you fear, take a deep breath and face it head on. You’ll find that once you face whatever it is you fear, it will become significantly less scary. It takes bravery. Go ahead and take that step. The rewards will be great!

3. Don't Procrastinate: Procrastination will cripple your chances for every becoming a peak performer. Procrastination is a self-defense mechanism for fear. It also is used during times of high stress or mental overload to give the mind a break. There can be acceptable but once employed it should be used short term only. The problem with using procrastination as a tool is that most people don't know when to turn it off. This results in paralyzing them from moving forward in life. It’s best to avoid procrastination and find other coping mechanisms that have a healthier outcome.

4. There is no final destination: Peak performers know that there is no end to continuous improvement. This is about a jou
ey that will never end. Perfection in one's skills does not exist, but your ability to strive towards becoming better will lead to perfection in your spirit.

Make continuous improvement part of your everyday life and see your success explode!

Focus For Success!

Rich Greene