What if you could could start over on Monday morning? What if you just clear off your desk, delete all your emails, crumple up ALL of your to-do lists and just start over? What if you could pick one goal to focus on 80% of the time that you are at work? What goal would be of real value to your company, would get you charged up every day, would let you do the things that you are best at and would require you to learn some things that you always wanted to learn? What goal would you pick? What goal would make senior management sit up and take notice? What goal would be a joy to hear yourself talk about with your colleagues, friends, and family?

I challenge you to come up with that goal. If every manager structured his or her time and energy and resources around achieving one exciting, valuable, differentiating goal at a time, work would be a lot better place to be and productivity would soar. I believe that you can find ways to make your company want you to achieve those goals. I believe your company would rather have you creating change that leads to profitability and competitive advantage than going to meetings, double-checking and second guessing other people’s work, explaining why things didn’t get done, aren’t going to get done, will cost more than expected or just plain broke down, again.

My blogs going forward will focus on helping you pick a great goal and on helping you achieve it. I look forward to hearing which goals you are considering and why, what has stopped you from pursuing them until now, which one you have chosen to focus on, what is worrying you about it, what is going well with it, what is not going that well, and what you need help with. In return I will share with you questions, ideas, resources and a supportive ear.

I believe that it is possible for every manager to make a real difference every day.