I start every morning with some reading time, whether it be Energy Storage market news, current affairs, or wider business and finance insights. Today, this Forbes article stuck with me. Mark Nevins covers the concept of  “Big Rocks” and how vital this approach can be in achieving your fundamental business goals. 

The quote below captures it well - your “Big Rocks” are your mission-critical objectives. They should be the headlines of your activity, keeping you on the right path for achieving success. 

This struck a chord with me because over the last 12 months, me and the Hyperion team have been using our own Rocks system (albeit on a quarterly basis) adopted from the fantastic EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) framework (more here).

Each quarter, everyone of us sets our individual Rocks - usually between 2-4 each. These are our “Must Dos" for the quarter ahead and once set, we each share them to the rest of the team at our Quarterly offsites. We commit to each other that we'll do all we can to achieve them! 

What is important to note is that these Rocks must be a daily consideration, not some lines we give at the start of a Quarter and then push to one side!

It is also vitally important that there is no ambiguity. Rocks must be clear and objective, so at the end of the Quarter you can say “Yes, I achieved them” or “No, I didn't". 

Since we introduced this system, we've seen clear improvements in our team's focus and bias to action. Everyone is clear on what is needed and as a result, motivation is there for us all. It has also enhanced our culture of accountability - we're all responsible for achieving our Rocks and if someone is falling short on theirs, the rest of us aren't afraid to call it out but more importantly, offer support to that person to get them back on track.

On a personal level, I've just had strongest billing year in my executive search career, and I certainly put some of this down to our Rocks system. 

What about your business? Are you using Rocks to focus your team members and improve accountability? If not, I highly recommend you introducing this process and if you want to some guidance on this, then always open for a call. 

Hyperion Executive Search helps cleantech start-ups and scale-ups to grow their teams and enhance their culture as the business grows. If you're going through rapid growth and would benefit from a valued executive search partner, then please visit www.hyperionsearch.com