Executive Summary: Start with the end in mind. An effective professional, whether of small business or a major corporation, has the ability to reflect on what business actions matter for the future as benchmarked off of the past for continued success and profitability.

Imagine starting your next business cycle or reporting period with aligned energies of all participants to a given endeavor, all going in a direction that matters. Image that what you were committed to actually mattered, and that every action gained profitability for your organization.

Here is a “simple” yet quantifiable way to measure your performance goals, versus performance commitments, as a means of determining what you should consider as actions and commitments for your future.

1. Start by assigning to a pie-chart, vie pie-wedge percentages each major project (product or service) that you started two years ago to accomplish as a goal for that year. As an example, if one were in sales, then you would identify each product you committed to two years ago to sell for that year. If there was a sells goal for each product or service note that for each pie-wedge reflective of each product or service. Then, looking backward at that year from the conclusion, assign a dollar amount to what each project, product, or service actually generated. This reflects what your actual performance commitment was/is versus what your initiated performance goal was.

1. Do the same drill for the immediate past year and the most recent year or recording period you have just concluded.

1. Now reflecting on the past three year window you can benchmark objectively via after action analysis to recognize what you started each year for the past threes to commit to and accomplish as a performance goal. At the conclusion of each recognize the reality of what was produced.

1. Now as you develop your pie-chart of what projects, products, or services that you want to consider for this next period, consider what you should actually be committing to versus what your ego has in years past attempted to accomplish.

From this analysis you can now gauge your efforts more thoroughly and you can do a much better job determining what you should actually consider to commit to for your next business cycle. Many times what causes managers to implode and why leaders excel is how they learn from this data, and then determine what really matters.

The actions of a Quiet Leader™ speak volumes. You need to determine what your activity output needs to be as dictated by the actual market you worked within from the past three years post analysis, and thus what your financial goals are over-all, and then assign that to the over-all pie-chart. From this macro financial break-down now assign according percentages for each project, product, or service that you would hope each to generate for this next recording period goal (whether that be for the upcoming month, Quarter, or Year). What gets most individuals and organizations into trouble is their arrogance or personal stake in continuing with an endeavor when there is no chance of success.

Lead by example, let go of those actions that don’t contribute to the bottom line. Let go of those past actions that have proven to be inconsequential in setting your future commitments into action.