The Power of Consistency

One of my favorite stories to share when training people in telesales and telemarketing is about an insurance sales rep. This rep took to heart the message that if he made 20 connect calls a day he would be successful. The rep went and bought himself a magnetic tree and would not go home any day until he had put his 20 paperclips on it - each one representing a connect call. in the week he found that he typically made one day’s more calls than his coworkers. In a month he totaled up a whole week's more calling and in a quarter he was a month ahead.

Consistency is one of the least heralded qualities of successful people because it represents the drudgery of ploughing through the quagmire of comfort - day in, day out. People tend to give lip service to “Practice Makes Perfect “, without realising the hours which that represents. (Incidentally - one of the best tips I was ever given is that it is that perfect practice that makes perfect - doing something just to say you've done it will not lead to you getting better. Doing something to the best of your ability, learning from it and then applying that new learning to the next attempt and repeating that cycle is what makes top performers).

This is well known in sport. They even have terms for it like muscle memory - the need to make a thousand hits of a tennis ball every day, or drive a thousand golf balls, or throw a thousand baskets - sits behind the names of athletes like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Andre Agassi.

What do you need to focus on doing well, repeatedly? It is the key element of your success. Often called a key performance activity, these repetitive actions - done with commitment and a desire to do them well - will lead to success. I recommend meeting with your team and working with them to identify the core activities that contribute most significantly to the overall business goal. This then ensures that you elevate it to the right level of importance and affords the opportunity to see if any training or system improvement is needed to increase the effectiveness of this key contributing activity. 

Here’s to your success!