New Year, New You?

Mind Tools Newsletter 38 - 28 December 2005 This newsletter is published by Mind Tools Ltd, of 2nd Floor, 145-157 St John Street, London, EC1V 4PY, United Kingdom. To contact us, please email us from this page. You have received this newsletter because you have subscribed to our double opt-in newsletter. To unsubscribe, just click the link at the bottom of the email se sent you. If you are not already a member and you would like to subscribe, please visit http://mindtools.com/subscribe.htm.

Contents: What's New? Tools for a Successful 2006 Mind Tools Store A Final Note

By the time you receive this edition of the Mind Tools newsletter, much of the holiday celebrating will be behind you.

If you're like most people, you are looking ahead into 2006 with excitement, anticipation and lots of expectations.

This is why it's worth reviewing your motivation skills from time to time. However well you're doing, you'll often find ways to get even better. You and your team will enjoy the difference that makes!

With this in mind, we asked Mind Tools team member Rachel Thompson to share with us information on goal setting, just in time to help us all with even our loftiest New Year's resolutions. For, as Rachel says, "if a goal is worth setting, set it well."

So, in this second of her three-article series, Rachel talks with goal-setting expert Rod Moore in an article entitled “New Year, New You?”. Together, they “unravel” the mystery of setting goals and, what’s more, achieving them, in this informative and insightful article that we can all learn from.

Also in this issue, we have an article by James on Core Competences called "Get Ahead. Stay Ahead". This is a strong piece that has just been posted on the What’s New? section of the Mind Tools website. Remember, we add new tools or articles to this area of the website every week, so check back there often.

We sincerely hope you and your family have enjoyed the holiday season thus far. All of us on the Mind Tools team look forward to providing you with new and exciting tools throughout 2006 and beyond, helping you to achieve the success and happiness you desire and deserve.

Happy New Year. With a bit of hard work, it'll be a good one!

James & Kellie

To find out about new tools on the Mind Tools site the moment they’re uploaded, click here to subscribe to the Mind Tools RSS feed (you'll need an RSS newsreader installed), or here to find out more about RSS.

New tools on the Mind Tools site

• 23rd Dec - The Product Diffusion Curve - Finding the right audience for your product or service.
• 20th Dec - Core Competence Analysis - Get ahead. Stay ahead.

Find out about new tools on the Mind Tools site the moment they’re uploaded! Click here to subscribe to the Mind Tools RSS feed (you'll need an RSS newsreader installed), or here to find out more about RSS.

Tools for a Successful 2006:
New Year, New You?

Will you keep your New Year resolutions for 2006?
(Or will it be the same old story?)

How many New Year resolutions have you ever set for yourself… and how many have you actually achieved? Be honest!

Many people set New Years resolutions each year, only to fail within a few weeks or even just a few hours. Among the reasons why many people fail to achieve their resolutions are that they set themselves up for failure or they are not truly committed to achieving them.

New Year Resolutions: Excellent... Up to a Point!
Some people even set the same resolutions each year and never achieve them. If you gave yourself permission to fail once, you will probably do so again…

New Year resolutions are a form of goal setting. And if a goal is worth setting, I say it’s worth setting well! So I enlisted the wisdom of goal-setting expert Rod Moore to further unravel the mystery of failed New Year resolutions and offer his tips on how to achieve resolution success this year:

“At the beginning of every year, many people look to make some decisions about what they want the New Year to bring them. This is excellent … up to a point! New Year resolutions can in fact contribute to a mindset of failure if you are not careful. So beware!

Five Keys For Success
“Here are my five keys to help you avoid the pitfalls and make this year’s New Year resolutions a success:

(1) Only set goals and resolutions for the coming year that you are totally committed to achieving.

(2) Set yourself up for success. If you want to lose 30 pounds then give yourself the year to do it rather than expect to do it by March. And set yourself some interim milestones. Much more achievable and believable! The more you set yourself up for success the more you will develop the mindset for success.

(3) Model the success of others. Who is your role model for achieving your goal? There is no better way to achieve your New Year resolution than to learn from their success. Identify their strategy and follow it.

(4) Get support of others. Enlist other people into helping you achieve your goal. If you have a weight-loss goal, find a buddy who is equally committed and equally positive in their expectations. Keep each other accountable. The more you can get other people on your team helping you, the greater your own chance of success.

(5) Have an action plan… and act on it. Break your New Year resolutions down into detailed actions. Make sure there are small steps you can start work on immediately. The more action you take, the more you will develop forward momentum in the direction of your goals.”

Armed with Rod’s tips, I decided I’d better take a long, hard look at my own New Year resolution habits. Oh dear, I hate to admit that I too have been guilty of a perpetual resolution – each year I re-set one particular resolution and never actually achieve it. Quite a boring one actually – to stop the personal administrative duties from piling up. And, as these dreaded personal administrative duties inevitably do pile up, I tell myself “Never mind, next year will be different”.

Setting Truly Compelling Goals...
he good news is that this year IS different. And, that’s not just New Year optimism! Whilst editing Mind Tools “Design Your Life” (authored by Rod Moore) and now using Rod’s goal setting system for my own life goals, I have learned something very important – how to set truly compelling goals.

So instead of setting “same old” New Year’s resolutions, this year I am going to set compelling New Year resolutions, incorporating them into my overall goal plan.

So back to my personal administrative duties … I have proven time and again that I am not committed to this daunting resolution. As Rod advises, that means it’s not a good goal for me! I do know, however, that life would be better without the admin pile-ups. I resent spending time on it, and I especially resent it impinging on the time I want to spend with my family. As for many people, quality time with my family is one of my major life goals.

Now by thinking about how my resolution links to this higher goal, I am already starting to think it’s more worthwhile.

One of the reasons I have never stuck to the resolution is that the pile of administrative tasks is large and seems to grow with each passing day. I make my resolution on 1st January and when I come back to my desk on 2nd January, guess what? The same old pile of personal administrative tasks await me … and they seem to have multiplied!

If I am to succeed, I need to give myself a realistic target to clear the backlog. As Rod says, I need to set myself up for success. Perhaps I can get on top of this by the end of January…

Mmm – it’s starting to look both worthwhile and achievable…

So now I’m going to use Rod’s technique for writing compelling goals. Here goes:

"It’s now 31 January 2006. My home office is orderly and my administrative work is under control. I save almost an hour a week, which means more leisure time with my family. Each day, I enjoy arriving at my desk, now free from clutter. I feel totally in control, I have more space to be creative and when I leave the office at the planned time each day, I am proud that I have actually worked to improved my quality time with my family."

How much more powerful and compelling is that than my resolution to “stop the administrative pile-up”?

Among the secrets of making a goal or New Year resolution compelling are to:

• Make it personal and linked to what you value most
• Make it positive – what will you do rather than stop doing…?
• Write in the present tense as if you have already achieved it
• Use your senses, how will things look, feel and sound when you have achieved your goal?

Try it for yourself and make 2006 the year for successful New Year resolutions!

For more about the techniques in this article and how to design your compelling future, read about the Mind Tools “Design Your Life” system from Rod Moore and Rachel Thompson at http://www.mindtools.com/cgi-bin/sgx2/shop.cgi?page=DesignYourLife.htm.

Rachel Thompson is an experienced management consultant with 17 years experience in corporate consultancy and management development, serving clients including Diageo, SBC Warburg and DHL. She is passionate about helping people build their career skills in new and innovative ways. Rachel joined Mind Tools in 2004 and has led a number of projects, including commissioning and editing Mind Tools’ “Design Your Life” program, the 2nd edition of which was published earlier this month.

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The Mind Tools Store:

• Design Your Life 2nd Edition Launched This Month! Design the life you want to live. Set the clear, vivid, powerful goals you need to live it to the full. More >>
  
  
• How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You: Learn the 48 simple but essential skills you need to become a top leader in your industry. More >>
  
  
• Make Time for Success: Learn 39 essential personal effectiveness techniques that help you bring your workload under control and maximize your productivity, so that you can make the most of the opportunities open to you. More >>
  
  
• Personal Coaching from Career Excellence Professionals: Find career and life direction, bring your job under control, build self-confidence and put yourself on the path to long term success with a Mind Tools coach. Our coaches give you the focused personal coaching you need to make the very most of your career and life. More >>
  
  
• The Mind Tools E-book:All of the tools on the Mind Tools website in one convenient, easily-downloadable, easily-printable PDF file. We have excluded advertising to enhance clarity and have formatted sections to be easy to read, print and use. More >>

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Tools Reviewed :
Core Competence Analysis: Get Ahead. Stay Ahead.

The idea of “core competences” is one of the most important business ideas currently shaping our world. This is one of the key ideas that lies behind the current wave of outsourcing, as businesses concentrate their efforts on things they do well and outsource as much as they can of everything else.

In this article we explain the idea and help you use it, on both corporate and personal levels. And by doing so, we show you how you can get ahead of your competition - and stay ahead.

By using the idea, you'll make the very most of the opportunities open to you:

• You'll focus your efforts so that you develop a unique level of expertise in areas that really matter to your customers. Because of this, you’ll command the rewards that come with this expertise; and
  
  
• You'll learn to develop your own skills in a way that complements your company’s core competences. By building the skills and abilities that your company most values, you’ll win the respect and career advancement you want.

Explaining Core Competences: The Value of Uniqueness
The starting point for understanding core competences is understanding that, if they’re to make good profits, businesses need to have something that customers uniquely value.

“Me too” businesses (with nothing unique to distinguish them from their competition) are doomed to compete on price: The only thing they can do to make themselves the customer’s top choice is drop price. And as other “me too” businesses do the same, profit margins become thinner and thinner.

This is why there’s such an emphasis on building and selling USPs (Unique Selling Points) in business. If you’re able to offer something uniquely good, customers will want to choose your products and will be willing to pay more for them.

The question, though, is where this uniqueness comes from, and how it can be sustained.

In their key 1990 paper “The Core Competence of the Corporation” (Harvard Business Review), C.K.Prahalad and Gary Hamel argue that "Core Competences" are some of the most important sources of uniqueness: These are the things that a company can do uniquely well, and that no-one else can copy quickly enough to affect competition. (OK, so it's a 1990 paper, however it's still as influential as ever.)

Prahalad and Hamel used examples of slow-growing and now-forgotten mega corporations that failed to recognize and capitalize on their strengths. They compared them with star performers of the 1980s (such as NEC, Canon and Honda), which had a very clear idea of what they were good at, and which grew very fast.

Because these companies were focused on their core competences, and continually worked to build and reinforce them, their products were more advanced than those of their competitors, and customers were prepared to pay more for them. And as they switched effort away from areas where they were weak, and further focused on areas of strength, their products built up more and more of a market lead.

Now you'll probably find this an attractive idea, and it’s often easy to think about a whole range of things that a company does that it can do well. However, Hamel and Prahalad give three tests to see whether they are true core competences:

1. Relevance: Firstly, the competence must give your customer something that strongly influences him or her to choose your product or service. If it does not, then it has no effect on your competitive position and is not a core competence;
   
   
2. Difficulty of Imitation: Secondly, the core competence should be difficult to imitate. This allows you to provide products that are better than those of your competition. And because you're continually working to improve these skills, this means that you can sustain your competitive position; and
   
   
3. Breadth of Application: Thirdly, it should be something that opens up a good number of potential markets. If it only opens up a few small, niche markets, then success in these markets will not be enough to sustain significant growth.

An example: You might consider strong industry knowledge and expertise to be a core competence in serving your industry. However, if your competitors have equivalent expertise, then this is not a core competence. All it does is make it more difficult for new competitors to enter the market. More than this, it’s unlikely to help you much in moving into new markets, which will have established experts already. (Test 1: Yes. Test 2: No. Test 3: Probably not.)

Using This In Your Business and Career:
To identify your core competences, use the following steps:

1. Brainstorm the factors that are important to your clients.
   
   If you’re doing this on behalf of your company, identify the factors that influence people’s purchase decisions when they’re buying products or services like yours (make sure that you move beyond just product or service features and include all decision-making points.)
   
   If you’re doing this for yourself, brainstorm the factors (for example) that people use in assessing you for annual performance reviews or promotion, or for new roles you want.
   
   Then dig into these factors, and identify the competences that lie behind them. As a corporate example, if customers value small products (e.g. cell phones), then the competence they value may be “component integration and miniaturization”.
   
   
2. Brainstorm your existing competences and the things you do well.
   
   
3. For the list of your own competences, screen them against the tests of Relevance, Difficulty of Imitation and Breadth of Application, and see if any of the competences you’ve listed are core competences.
   
   
4. For the list of factors that are important to clients, screen them using these tests to see if you could develop these as core competences.
   
   
5. Review the two screened lists, and think about them:
   • If you’ve identified core competences that you already have, then great! Work on them and make sure that you build them as far as sensibly possible;
   • If you have no core competences, then look at ones that you could develop, and work to build them; or
   • If you have no core competences and it doesn’t look as if you can build any that customers would value, then either there’s something else that you can use to create uniqueness in the market (see our USP Analysis article), or think about finding a new environment that suits your competences.
     
     
6. Think of the most time-consuming and costly things that you do either as an individual or a company.
   
   If any of these things do not contribute to a core competence, ask yourself if you can outsource them effectively, clearing down time so that you can focus on core competences.
   
   For example, as an individual, are you still doing your own cleaning, ironing and decorating? As a small business, are you doing you own accounts, HR and payroll? As a bigger business, are you manufacturing non-core product components, or performing non-core activities?

Tip 1: As with all brainstorming, you’ll get better results if you involve other (carefully-chosen) people. Tip 2: On a personal basis and in the short term, it might be difficult to come up with truly unique core competences. However, keep this idea in mind and work to develop unique core competences. Tip 3: You may find it quite difficult to find any true core competences in your business. If you’ve got a successful business that’s sustainably outperforming rivals, then maybe something else is fuelling your success (our article on USP Analysis may help you spot this). However, if you're working very hard, and you’re still finding it difficult to make a profit, then you need to think carefully about crafting a unique competitive position. This may involve developing core competences that are relevant, real and sustainable. Tip 4: As ever, if your going to put more effort into some areas, you’re going to have to put less effort into others. You only have a finite amount of time, and if you try to do too much, you’ll do little really well.

Moving On…
This is just one of Mind Tools’ articles on personal and business strategy. For more on:

• Strategy and leadership: See "How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You," Mind Tools’ leadership development system;
• Your own life strategy: See our "Design Your Life" course;
• Finding our how you're unique: See our USP Analysis article;
• Understanding your market: See our Porter’s Five Forces article; and
• Understanding “big picture” forces of change: See our PEST Analysis article.

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A Final Note From James

In closing, I would like to once again extend a very heart-felt happy holidays wish to each of you, our valued readers, in every corner of the world. I would also like to personally thank you for making 2005 a year of growth and success for Mind Tools and for every member of our team.

I know I speak for us all when I say that we are eager to provide you with even more new tools and techniques and cutting-edge products and services in 2006. There are, quite literally, hundreds of life- and career-changing tools still to come!

As always, we want your input here, so please continue to let us know how we are doing, what tools and news you want to see in your newsletter and on the Mind Tools site, and how you think we can help you and your colleagues achieve career success. Many of the additions to the site, articles in the newsletter and tools that we provide, stem from recommendations from you, so keep them coming - we’re listening and acting accordingly.

As always, thanks for reading. Best wishes, and until 2006…

James & Kellie

James Manktelow & Kellie Fowler

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