increase performance | David M Masters

Let’s talk about efficiency. In my work, I’ve had the honor of serving business owners and organizations ranging from a handful of employees to companies with several hundred on payroll. And no matter the size, one truth keeps surfacing: distraction is the enemy of profitability and longevity.

I see it in the form of “shiny objects.” It could be a new app, a side hustle, an impulsive project, or simply the temptation to do something outside the core vision. Business owners, executives, and staff alike can fall prey to it.

The higher up you go in an organization, the easier it is to keep the team focused. I can usually rein in the owner or executive team with clear accountability. But when it comes to lower-level management and line staff? That’s where things get trickier. And yet, inefficiency at any level of your business, top or bottom, can erode profitability and compromise your vision.

This is why leadership by example is non-negotiable. If you are not modeling focus, clarity, and disciplined energy management, don’t expect your people to. It starts with you.

When I’m on the clock, I treat each tick as a checkpoint, not just for time spent, but for meaning made. I pause to review my own progress, asking myself:

- Did I contribute something of substance?
- Did I initiate or progress something that, though incomplete, accrues value over time and contributes to future outcomes?
- Was my effort aligned with my deeper goals, or merely reactive?

Goals to Put in Place for Yourself

1. Clarify your vision. Know exactly what success looks like for you and your organization, and say “no” to everything that doesn’t align with it.
2. Commit to a daily discipline. Time-block your day. Prioritize the needle-moving activities, and guard your schedule against distractions and interruptions.
3. Practice extreme accountability. Track your time, your decisions, and your progress. Share your goals with a mentor, board, or accountability partner.
4. Lead transparently. Let your team see your consistency in action. Demonstrate that efficiency isn’t just a slogan, it’s your lifestyle.
5. Audit your energy. Ask yourself often: “Is what I’m doing right now profitable? Is it moving us toward the goal?” If not, redirect.

Tips for Raising the Expectations of Your Staff

1. Set crystal-clear expectations. Ambiguity breeds inefficiency. Define roles, responsibilities, and success metrics for each position.
2. Track performance visibly. Use dashboards, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and scoreboards. What gets measured gets managed.
3. Encourage initiative within boundaries. Give staff the freedom to innovate, but tie their ideas back to the vision and profitability goals.
4. Model focus in meetings. Start on time, end on time, stay on point. Teach your staff how to honor efficiency by watching you.
5. Enforce consequences. Inefficiency costs money. Reward focus, redirect those who are drifting, and release those who resist growth.

Incentives and Alignment

Don’t underestimate the power of recognition and reward. Incentivize those who follow your lead and add measurable value. At the same time, watch for employees who may be misaligned. Some are simply in the wrong seat on the bus. Reassign them if possible. But if their inefficiency continues to drain resources? Let them go. You are not required to carry dead weight.

The Payoff

When everyone is aligned, distractions are minimized, and leadership by example is strong, your business transforms. Cash flow improves. Profits rise. Stress decreases. And most importantly, you create an organization that can stand the test of time, a well-oiled machine built not just to survive, but to thrive.

Now, let me add this: don’t look to government agencies for a model of efficiency. Municipal, state, and federal organizations often operate with little accountability. Your business cannot afford to follow their example. You are accountable to yourself, your staff, your customers, and your investors.

So celebrate efficiency. Celebrate profitability. And celebrate your leadership as the example that turns distraction into focus, and shiny objects into a disciplined pursuit of vision.

1. Why

Ask yourself why you want to increase your performance, whether it’s at home at the office, in your relationships, in your bank account, wherever you want to increase your performance, ask yourself why? Why do you want to have marked improvement in the area at hand (there may be many areas where you might desire to experience a marked improvement but focus on which area feels the most pressing, right now). Once you define your why (which may change along the way) you have the base of your motivation to change.

2. Visualize

You need to create an image of you achieving your highest and best in this area of your life. What does the endgame look like if you could have anything the way you want it to be, all you dreams realized, the absolute best result or outcome; what would that look like? In your mind create the absolute best result in full color, what would it look like, feel like, smell like. Notice key markers, find visual representations of these key markers and find images that represent them. Images you can cut out of magazines, or print out, and tape it somewhere you can see it. Put it on your bathroom mirror, your refrigerator, your workstation, etc… Nobody else needs to know that that image represents, it’s just for you to act as a reminder that you know what “better than this” would look like in your wildest dreams.

3. Play Hide and Seek

Start looking for opportunities that will move you closer to where you want to be (and alternatively further away from what you don’t want). An amazing thing happens, once you are aware of your “Why” (#1) and you’ve seen in your mind’s eye how much better it could be, if you start looking for opportunities to advance or change, suddenly you start to see them appear. It doesn’t take long, and you will notice these opportunities were always there, only you couldn’t see them because they were hidden from view. Not so much hidden, as your beliefs or a lack of self worthiness obscured them from your awareness. Something has been calling you to a higher state, a better life, a more fulfilling way of living with increased satisfaction and love, but because of your reticence, you were unable to see it or didn’t believe you were worthy of having it better. Keep seeking and you will find ways to close the gap from where you are and where you want to be.

4. Make a Plan

A plan is like a map that can get you from here to there. You need to know where you are and where you’re going. Just as a map has markers between here and there, like you know if you’re travelling from one city to another, there are going to be towns you will have to pass between here and there. Knowing you’ve passed on of those key checkpoints ensures you are making progress (you might even stop to have a coffee or piece of pie – like little rewards or celebrations – along the way, but don’t tarry, keep moving). Thinks of ways you can start to assure you’re moving and making measureable progress. Make a schedule, prioritize activities and constantly check in with your internal GPS to evaluate your progress. Above all, stay on course and keep moving in the direction of where you want to be.

5. Avoid Distraction

Invariably, when you start to make significant advancements in your life, you will face opposition, both from external sources, like other people (including people you love becoming more needy, requiring more or your attention) and circumstances that will appear as to be thwarting your efforts to push through to the nest level, as well as internal sources, like your lack of belief in yourself, or negative self talk, all designed to distract you and throw you off course. And if that wasn’t enough to distract you, you will notice the media, and your personal devices will increasingly be finding was to keep you from achieving your highest and best. Learn to say, “No,” to distractions and resume you’re looking for opportunities to move closer to what you want.

6. Educate and Correct

Read books, blogs, and when you are able, get an accountability partner or coach. When you start making the move from a comfortable (or tolerable) way of living to a completely new plateau, it’s good to have ideas on how to make the journey. You can get these ideas by reading about who others have made the transition. An accountability partner or coach is like having a co-pilot or being able to check in with the weather service and tower (as if you were flying a plane and wanted to know how the weather might affect your flight and making certain the flight path was clear). Having another set of eyes vested in seeing your dream come true can help immensely, when your vision is limited to the view from your cockpit, allowing you to make important corrections along the way.

7. Question and Listen

Being in a constant state of openness can be highly beneficial. Don’t excommunicate others who might have a valuable tidbit that might be helpful for your journey. Don’t eliminate the possibility of learning from someone else (what to do, or not to do) by immediately discarding someone else’s point of view. Ask questions along the way, and wait for the answers, always being open to hear the input of someone else. Realize that whoever is giving you advice may not have the best answer. Even though they are adamant and passionate, don’t judge them, if their advice does not resonate with you. Realize they are only doing the best they can with what they have. (That person, who may sound like a kook today, may be highly valuable to your journey in the future.)

8. Honor and Gratitude

Honor those who have supported and helped you along the way, with the highest respect and gratitude. For if it were not for them (whether their influence was good, or bad), you would not be on the path that you are on today, and you would not be making the progress you are making to achieve your highest and best. Be gracious, seeing the good in all things (even if they look bad at the time) because they are moving you closer and preparing you for what lies ahead. Give thanks in all things, because this is the journey that gives your life meaning and a reason to live a life better lived.

9. Maintain Your Resources

Keep an adequate awareness about your personal resources which you have for your journey, don’t lose them. You’re going to need them. This includes your own personal health and wellness. Take time out to enjoy the journey, to relax and refuel along the way, because the last thing you want to do is to run out of gas along the way. Do not neglect your body, the vehicle without which you would not have the ability to make the journey at all. Think about keeping it in tip top condition – at least the best condition possible – for your journey. Good health will make the journey so much more enjoyable and satisfying.

10. Give It All You’ve Got

Pursue your goals with passion and heart-felt admiration and love. The more you put in, the more rewarding the payoff, as well as all the milestones between here and there. The less you hold-back, the greater the gain. Be willing to push through when the getting gets rough (as you are likely to meet resistance along the way) and have an exciting story of perseverance when you have made it through.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to traverse this path, follow it through to its logical conclusion and to be a light to others in search of taking on the task of daring to live a better life.