Have you ever thought about the importance of intrinsic resources in helping you hit your goals? They may carry more weight than you think.
Achieving an organization’s goals comes down to a lot more than just a company’s resources. In fact, there are four intrinsic resources organizations should learn to manage to execute their personal or business goals.
From both an individual and organizational standpoint, intrinsic resources fuel progress towards your goals. But neglecting these resources can lead to missed goals, burnout, and overall dissatisfaction in any work environment.
Understanding and managing the four intrinsic resources of your organization can drastically increase the progress you make towards your goals.
Understanding the Execution Process
In the Arootah Success Formula, we use the Execution Process to put plans into place and make progress towards goals.
Although the most progress is made in the Execution stage, that part of the plan doesn’t begin until step six. In steps one through five, we work to ensure the Execution Process is as effective as possible. This helps us align the Execution with the Mission while making the best use of time and resources.
The Execution Process is not the time to go on autopilot. It’s important to carefully consider all of the resources at your disposal to make sure you’re using them effectively.
For this reason, you should make sure to focus on managing intrinsic resources. Intrinsic resources are essential for achieving any mission — but they are limited.
4 Intrinsic Resources
1. Time
Just as a company tracks and analyzes its finances, it should do the same with its time. Time is the most precious resource any individual or organization has. Unlike money, once you lose time, it’s gone forever.
Unfortunately, most people don’t manage their time well, and many aren’t measuring and managing their employees’. But failing to measure time is akin to turning a blind eye to the compensation expense line item in your budget.
To manage time effectively, companies develop the right mindset on how to prioritize and leverage it.
Establishing a tracking process can ensure you spend your time wisely — on your top priorities and the actions needed to execute plans and achieve your goals.
2. Energy
When you fail to manage your energy, quality execution isn’t possible. Energy is often synonymous with health.
There’s a reason our brains are wired to conserve our energy at all costs and only use it to serve our biological needs. Unfortunately, executing on goals that support mental fulfillment isn’t necessary for our survival.
So, you’ll need to push hard to re-wire your internal programming to utilize this energy for your mental fulfillment — not just your survival needs.
Leaders must take time to ensure that they and their team members have adequate energy to execute their goals. The following health factors are critical when it comes to preserving energy:
- Quality sleep
- Proper nutrition
- Adequate exercise
- Mindfulness, meditation, and mental health support
Many people recognize the importance of meditation to their overall well-being. Leaders must invest in energy maintenance not only for themselves, but for their teams. The returns are enormously beneficial.
After all, a tired, low energy, sick employee will likely “return” far less quality work than a thriving, healthy, well-rested, energized one. Leaders are starting to recognize the importance of employee health and wellbeing even more by investing in corporate wellness programs.
3. Discipline
Discipline is also a limited resource. Otherwise, known as willpower, discipline comes from the workings of your brain’s prefrontal cortex.
Individuals must use discipline to instill proper habits and eradicate those that don’t serve their goals in all domains of their lives. Discipline is the act of doing what you need to do to make progress on your goals, whether you want to do it or not.
While many believe that they can summon discipline at any time, discipline has its limits, just like any other intrinsic resource.
An employer may occasionally ask employees to work late to meet a deadline, but this work schedule will be ineffective if it’s repeated every day. Either the employees will lose their willpower to keep working, or they’ll experience workplace burnout.
In your organization, it’s important to use the bandwidth of discipline wherever it can make the highest impact, without over-extending your people.
4. Focus
Today, we’re surrounded by technology, and it’s no coincidence we have the least amount of focus. Why? Distractions are everywhere.
People and companies vie for your attention at every turn. They want you to focus on what they want you to do, not what will serve your or your organization’s long-term interests.
Companies want your money, and to get that, they need your attention. Therefore, you need to make a consistent effort to stay focused on what’s most important.
Like discipline, focus is a limited resource. It’s impossible to ask someone to focus on a task for longer than they’re able to do so. Moreover, people become less effective at a given task when they’re focused on other tasks.
This is why some people find methods like The Pomodoro Technique effective in helping them refine their focus. In the Pomodoro Technique, people confine their focus to 25 to 30-minute increments, with short breaks in between. This technique helps individuals sharpen their focus to produce quick and effective results in their work.
By implementing methods like these in your organization, you can make the best use of this finite resource.
The Bottom Line
Understanding and managing the intrinsic resources of your organization can drastically increase the progress you make towards your goals.
It takes many resources to make a business effective, but impactful leader learn to prioritize effectively managing these four intrinsic resources. Managing them leads to more productive, happier, healthier employees and brings the whole organization together to strive towards a goal in a healthy way.
If this is the type of content you enjoy and find helpful, download our ebook, The 10 Step Arootah Success Formula. It can help you and your team be more effective in the pursuit of goals.
What intrinsic resource are you going to focus on managing well? Let us know in the comments!
Sources:
https://www.forecast.app/blog/why-time-tracking-is-important-for-you-and-your-organization
https://www.intheblack.com/articles/2017/09/01/7-work-energy-tips
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryancollinseurope/2020/03/03/the-pomodoro-technique/?sh=7d5bfd6d3985