Three words to guide 2013 strategy & execution

I love the trend that Chris Brogan started a couple years ago, and it’s been fun reading how others have boiled their focus areas for 2013 down to just three words.

I’ve spent considerable time already building personal & professional goals for the year, but here’s how I’d boil them down:

Systems
We do a lot of things well, but we need systems to scale, ensure consistency of execution and quality, plus help us expand the impact of our work without commensurately increasing the work required to do it. Systems include how we manage the business, how we manage our sales pipeline, as well as how we execute things on a daily basis – big and small – to deliver results for our clients and growth for ourselves.

Focus
There’s always too much to do, too many things pulling at us for attention. Focus relates to doing what’s most important, most impactful, for ourselves and our clients. It also means doing the right things, working smarter, and putting balance between work, family, and downtime. With focus, we exceed objectives & expectations with less overall effort. The path to finding that balance point and end-result isn’t always clean, but it’s worth pursuing.

Serendipity
If you spend too much time following the plan, you’ll miss the opportunities around you. And if you’re not careful, serendipity can directly impede your ability to focus as well. But to be effective, to be successful this year, I need to find balance between focus and serendipity. Whether it’s related to finding new clients, new employees, taking advantage of spontaneous time with family and friends, or other unexpected opportunities, serendipity has enormous value if you let it.

Those are mine. What are yours?