I remember one day back in the 7th grade I was finishing up my after-school chores. The final task on my list was to water the garden. I remember it was exceedingly hot and humid, as are many days in Houston. So I spent roughly 30 seconds wetting our “domestic crops” and headed straight inside for the air conditioning.

My dad met me at the door. “Did you water the garden?” “Yes,” I replied, hoping he would notice the wetness of the garden through the window. “How long?” he asked. “A few minutes, I guess.” His next response was not only a terrific analogy, but also a life lesson I would never forget. He said, “You know, that’s like going up to a person who’s dying of thirst, and splashing water in his face.”

He was right. Those poor plants were suffering, after all. All they really needed was about 10 minutes of daily, consistent watering. Back then, my shortcoming was laziness. But now, much later in life, I realize that while some people have all the necessary desire and passion to achieve their goals, the discipline of consistency is often found wanting.

This concept, of course, translates into your business goals and aspirations.

Here’s a salty question for the business owner: What parts of your business are dying of thirst? Do you have cash-flow concerns? Marketing woes? Weak sales effort? Low team morale? Awful time management?  No matter your Achilles heel, consistency is the key to a healthy business, whether in addressing problem areas or proactively going to market with your product or service. The hard part is that consistency – as indicated above – is a discipline, so it’s not the easiest thing to master.

Before offering some helpful steps to bring you into a disciplined mindset, let’s define ‘consistency’ in this specific context. By ‘consistency’ we mean a sustained approach or strategy to manage all the parts of your business that must be managed. Being more consistent will save you time, energy, and drama in your worklife.

Pure consistency creates excellence in execution.

What To Do:
If there’s more chaos than order in your business, resist the urge for a massive overhaul of everything at once (If your business is generally healthy, you may still use these hints as a guideline to manage your success.) In either case, decide up front to address key areas strategically and systematically. By strategically and systematically we mean you should “build a system to approach the problems strategically”. Here’s how:

1. Identify the areas needing the most attention (pick only one or two at a time)

2. Estimate the amount of time it will take to either manage this problem or maintain this job function

3. Schedule time in your calendar to work in these areas on a recurring basis

4. Monitor your progress with a periodic review (preferably with someone you can be accountable to for results, such as a Board of Directors)

These steps may seem obvious. But when you consider all the job functions a business must manage – such as leadership, sales, marketing, customer service, maintaining market position, financials, administrative, filing, etc. – then the task list can become rather large, especially if only one or two people are executing the work!

Here’s one example of how “task bombardment” can keep you inconsistent: Suppose your sales have suffered during a recent period. In front of your Board of Directors you complain, “Second quarter sales were awful.” They may ask, “How much time did you spend on sales and marketing during the first quarter?” You reply, “I dunno! I was too busy putting out fires in customer service!” Hence the vicious cycle of being so bloodied by the busyness of the tactical work, that we fail to cover all our bases.

This is a simple picture of your “marketing plant” dying of thirst. Throwing water in its face – or ignoring it entirely – will eventually cause predictable problems. Long ago, the axiom was, “If you don’t work, you don’t eat!” As scary as this sounds, many businesses find themselves in need of ‘regenerative gardening’ before they know it, and it is only because there has been consistent negligence in tending to important areas.

Being the leader of your organization means you are responsible for doing the most important work – the strategic work. Of course, there is also the tactical work to be done – that is, the actual tasks of completing the job (plumbing, cleaning teeth, fixing cars, practicing law, whatever). Knowing this, you must be able to (a) see all of the work that must be done, (b) schedule the time to do it, and (c) honor the appointments. This is difficult, but you will never have any peace unless you can get this done. The truth is that unscheduled, unfinished work follows you home, to dinner, and right into bed. This is precisely why your strategy for how you accomplish your work is job one.

Another helpful exercise is to take a few hours to set up your strategic boundaries for consistency. For example, figure out how much marketing you should do for your business in the course of a month. Is it three hours? Four days? Two weeks? Whatever the time allotment, schedule these activities in sustainable increments, not in bulk.

Keep these leverage points in mind to help you to honor your appointments:

1. schedule the appointment with yourself in your scheduling ‘technology’
2. do it in sustainable time increments
3. consider parsing out some of the tactical work (if possible)
4. commit the task to someone you love

The last point may surprise some people, but don’t underestimate the leverage to be gained by leaning on your key relationships. The regularity with which you relate to your loved ones can provide consistent, critical insight into the way you do things.

In summary, think of a beautiful flower garden that you’ve seen. It is breath-taking, well organized, creative, colorful, and artistic. There is not only obvious design, but also evidence of consistent maintenance (pruning, trimming, pulling weeds, eliminating pests). The way you run your business should be no different. There’s design, creativity, beauty, growth, and – most of all – roses! But it all hinges on getting the right work done right. The above steps should be a great help in cultivating your green thumb for business – so good luck, and happy gardening.

Jeff Timpanaro is the president of Oberata Consulting, a 2007 Certified Total Integration firm, based in Kingwood, TX. Oberata is a consulting firm founded on the principles of strategy, process, and transformation, and utilizes the Total IntegrationTM system of business consulting. This system has helped business owners and professionals in the Fortune 100 with definitive, measurable operating strategies that produce unprecedented growth and profitability. For more information about Oberata Consulting call 281.570.4676.