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God is a meticulous planner and goal setter. When God decided to create the universe, he didn't rush to create everything all at once, nor did he procrastinate concerning the things that needed to get done, as we often do. As part of his mission to create humans and establish a relationship with us, he had an expressed goal for each of the seven days of creation, which he accomplished within a specific amount of time. God's project management system isn't a random big bang in which he stumbles around from task to task in a reactive mode as we have a tendency to do. No, God's ways are part of his intelligent design, as ours should be. Like God, we should run in such a way as not without aim, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9 26. He will sovereignly guide us, but he wants us to co-labor with him by developing and executing Christ-centered goals and plans. What kind of goals and plans shall we set? Noble goals. Isaiah said, But the noble person devises noble plans, and by noble plans he stands. Isaiah 32, verse 8. In this passage of Isaiah, noble refers to the idea of having a willing and generous heart. Such plans are focused on God and others rather than on oneself. What other centered goals have you set to move your company further toward your vision? These goals should flow directly from your corporate identity and in pursuit of your vision. Here's an example of a noble goal set by some Christ-centered companies, including my own. That's that every customer refers a new customer within one year. What makes this a noble goal? Well, first, a goal like this can make a direct positive impact on your customer service and operations. People will only refer people to you and your organization if they have a positive experience with you. Keeping your marketing focused on faithfully serving those God has already brought to you, not just focusing in on bringing in new customers. That's one way to set noble goals. Second, asking your customers for referrals is the most cost-effective way to get more customers to serve. This approach is better stewardship of your company's resources than spending a bunch of money on paid advertising. Paid advertising has its place, but it's no substitute for word-of-mouth referrals from credible people who are already happy with your product or service. Third, the focus on getting referrals from current customers will help you get more of the right kind of customers to serve. At the time of this writing, 49% of the books published by my company, Hybrid Books, were written by authors referred to us by other authors who had already published with us. We're looking for cris-centered thought leaders, so there's a strong probability that a prospect referred by one of our authors will also be a cris-centered thought leader. Not only should your organization's goals be noble, they ought to be measurable. What gets measured gets done. It will be easy to assess whether our example noble goal was accomplished. Either our new customer client referred someone within the first year, or he or she didn't. There will be no vague perception of progress with a measurable goal like this. If an objective isn't clear and measurable, it's not a goal. Have you ever tried to shoot a basketball into a goal you couldn't see? There may be excuses for why the goal wasn't achieved, but at least there won't be any uncertainty about what the goal was in the first place. A vague desire to, quote, grow the business or increase profit is no substitute for having clearly defined, measurable goals for your company. Whatever gets measured gets done. If it can't be measured, it's generally not getting done. How could you even know if it got done without having a way to measure the outcome? Focus on leading indicators, not lagging indicators. Financial goals are helpful, but they're usually lagging indicators of a company's performance rather than leading indicators. If you're having financial problems, those are usually just symptoms of disease within a company rather than the root cause of the disease. It's helpful to have financial goals as long as you and your team spend most of your energy on improving the leading indicators that drive those financial metrics. For example, a leading indicator for helping you ensure that every customer refers a new customer within one year might be to track how many times you've asked your current customers for a referral. Or you might track the average of your current customers' answers to this question over time. On a scale of one to 10, how likely are you to recommend this to a friend? This metric is known as a net promoter score or NPS. What are the leading indicators you need to be tracking to ensure you're making sufficient progress toward achieving your clear, measurable, and noble goals? As Zig Ziggler said, if you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time. As you go through the remainder of the Christ-centered company assessment, develop specific goals you and your team need to set to improve every aspect of your company. Act like your creator as you set and pursue goals that will move you closer toward realizing your corporate vision. Let us know your thoughts on this episode at theology of business.com and how you go about setting goals for your company. And you can also check out the Christ Center Company Assessment if you haven't already taken it at theologyofusiness.com. And be sure to take advantage of the 60-day free trial being offered by our sponsor, storage guardian.com.
SPEAKER_00We hope you've enjoyed this episode. You can share your feedback and get more information to help you partner with God in business and disciple your company, your industry, and your community at theologyofbusiness.com. The Theology of Business Podcast is sponsored by Hybridge Books and Media, a media agency specializing in publishing and promoting the world-changing ideas of inspiring thought leaders through book publishing, website development, publicity, email marketing, social media management, podcast management, and video based course publishing. Take the next step to share your message with the world by contacting us at hybridemedia.com. Thanks for listening and keep partnering with God in your business.