Visualization Techniques at the Macro Level
Visualization is a powerful technique used by high performers in a variety of fields. One of the most apparent is athletics. The great skier, Lindsey Vaughn, stands outside the start house at the top of the course, bobbing and weaving as she imagines the run down the mountain. All pro quarterback, Russell Wilson, takes the field alone early on game day without even a ball. He runs through the first 20 plays, imagining the defense, handing off, dropping back to pass and visualizing how the game will unfold.
These same techniques are applicable to success in business as well. Want to excel in the upcoming year? Try this simple but powerful visualization exercise I call the “Monday After Thanksgiving” to set goals, identify crucial tasks for the upcoming year and to address challenges that might stand in your way.
It’s starts with this simple statement; “I had a great year!”
But first, some background.
In most of the positions I held, bonuses were paid at the end of the year. In many cases, annual reviews were already underway by the end of November. One year, on the Monday after Thanksgiving, I was having coffee with my two team members. It was a relaxed version of our weekly meeting as we all decompressed from the long weekend. At this point of the year, with most of our transactional business concluded and reviews being completed, we had a clear picture of how the team had performed. At some point, I reflected that we had enjoyed a great year and reviewed some of the achievements. It had been the best year of my business career and the same could be said for the team. It was a wonderful feeling to look back with satisfaction on the awesome year my employer, Bridgewater Associates, enjoyed and our part in it.
That afternoon, rather than reflecting back on the year, I began to visualize having the same conversation twelve months later on the Monday after Thanksgiving. I imagined once again sitting with the team, having coffee and being able to say “we had a great year”. And a simple question popped into my mind; what did we have to accomplish to have that same great feeling, to have another killer year? I called the team together, we grabbed a conference room and we went to work sketching out the upcoming year. Within two hours we had identified the crucial goals we would need to achieve, the enormous number of tasks necessary to achieve those goals and the challenges we might encounter with strategies to deal with them. We knew how many meetings we had to arrange, the rough number of road trips we would take, the resource demands we would put on the firm and a variety of other requirements. We agreed on how we would delegate tasks and the process we would use for setting priorities. We all felt amazingly good about having a road map for success. And while there would be a need to adjust on the fly as the year progressed, we knew if we adhered to what we outlined, success was very achievable.
So now I ask you to imagine, it is just about one year from now. You are having a preliminary year end review with your supervisor. They say to you “congratulations, you had a great year” and then tells you about a fantastic bonus, a promotion, a stock grant, or a plum assignment that is in the works. Do you have a clear picture of what you have to do to have that conversation 12 months from now! If you don’t, then you are putting yourself at a disadvantage. It doesn’t mean you won’t achieve success. But maybe, just maybe, it will not be the success you are capable of.
By the way, if at this point in the year you are uncertain about how your current year review will go this is a good indication that a lot more work needs to be done communicating with your supervisor about goal setting and establishing performance expectations for the next year.
Goals
The first question to answer is what are your goals for the year? From the CEO down, the ability to articulate your goals and to determine how your performance will be measured are crucial elements of visualizing success. In some cases the goals will be straight forward and measurable, for instance, corporate earnings or revenue generated. Some are more nebulous like improving your interactions with colleagues. Unless you are in a new position or at a new firm, you should have a good handle on key goals already. And certainly your boss should be providing direct input. Ambiguity around defining success can be an issue in many reviews and the more definitive you can make these measurements the better. Remember, you want to be able to say “I had a great year”. Keep asking "what will make it great"?
In addition to communicating with your supervisor about goals and performance metrics, for clues on goal setting and what defines success, take a look around your department or company. Who are the most successful professionals. What did they accomplish this past year? How were they rewarded? Do they offer a road map for you? This was a very important source of information for me when I joined Bridgewater Associates, a place loaded with talented professionals. Relative to my prior firm, I had to ratchet up my goals significantly if I wanted to enjoy success because success is relative in any organization. Remember, if you are at a new firm or have a new position, success is relative. Look around very carefully at the people most highly regarded.
Tasks
Can you identify the tasks necessary to achieve your goals? It is easy to confuse goals and tasks. Having an introductory meeting with the chief investment officer of a major prospect is a task. The goal is forming a relationship with that organization and the meeting is one of many tasks necessary to achieve that goal. Your supervisor wants to see that you understand the difference.
Challenges
There will be a variety of challenges you encounter. Some you are probably dealing with now. Can you spot or sense others that might develop? While every single one will not be apparent, for the most part they can be identified now. This is another topic to address with your boss when setting expectations for the year. How have they dealt with different types of challenges as they advanced in their career. If there is something you see as an obstacle but your supervisor minimizes it, then you have identified something to revisit throughout the course of the year. By the way, finding clever solutions to apparent challenges is a great way to exceed expectations.
Now, there will be situations when the challenges are so substantial that you just have to go back to the drawing board. Mergers, executive departures, PR nightmares, etc. can derail the best plans. Having a clear idea of current challenges and plans in place to address them provide capacity for dealing with surprise issues. Often times in these situations its time to reestablish the goals. But you can follow the same process. Visualize how you will get through the crisis, work with your boss to set new goals and identify and get on the crucial tasks.
Conclusion
As the owner of my own firm, I’m the boss. But I still want 2019 to be one of the best years ever. So I just conducted this exercise with a good friend, on the Monday after Thanksgiving, running through what will allow me to say 2019 was a great year. There are a lot more personal goals at this phase of my life, and perhaps they are the most important ones. This week I have been working on the tasks I need to accomplish and thinking of clever ways to deal with some of the challenges that I know exist.
So to emulate high performers in many fields, take some time as the year comes to a close and imagine one year from now getting an outstanding review or telling your team “we had an amazing year” or just feeling wonderful about how your life is going! If today, you can visualize the road map for success, what you imagine could easily become reality!
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