When I was a young manager I had a conversation with my boss about some of the revenue challenges we were having and the actions I was going to take.  When I told him my plan he looked right at me and said, “That’s like changing the tires when the oil light comes on.”

His point was that my actions weren’t going to impact the real cause of the problem. It’s not an uncommon situation.

Here’s a simple process to ensure you’re focusing on the right actions to maximize your opportunities and/or solve any challenges. You can do this as a group activity or alone.

First, ask yourself, what’s the number one thing I need to have happen to grow my business or solve a problem?

After you answer that, ask yourself what one or two actions you need to take to make that happen?

After you answer that, ask yourself again what one or two actions you need to take to make that happen?

Then, yes, ask yourself one more time, what one or two actions you need to take to make that happen?

Here’s an example.

To grow your business you need more referrals.

To make that happen you need to expand your personal network and get more former clients to refer you business.

To make that happen you need to spend substantially more time and effort in reaching out to those people.

And the last one is where the real action to create success happens.  In our hypothetical case, you may need to schedule specific times to do outbound calls and emails.  (Those who have been through the Success Academy productivity program have learned that blocking out short periods of time specifically for this purpose can have a huge impact on your results.)

Try it out. You’ll be surprised how easy it can be to grow your business or solve an issue.