It’s Better Than Zero

The small habit behind Beat Your Best

At Verizon Wireless, a monthly goal gave our teams a number to aim for. A daily look at the board gave them a place to start.

By Cameron DeJong Field Notes

When people on our sales and customer service teams came in at Verizon Wireless, they’d look at the board. They could see their numbers, see how the month was going, and set a goal for the day. Of all the things I’ve learned in sales and leadership, that little routine is one I keep coming back to.

How Beat Your Best worked

Around 2007, I was looking online for ways to help my teams improve, and I came across the idea that became Beat Your Best for us. Credit for the original coaching program goes to Mark Landiak and Corporate Dynamics. Read about their Beat Your Best program.

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I put the idea into practice at Verizon Wireless by giving everyone their own number to beat from the previous month. That could be your Net Promoter Score (NPS), sales of a particular product, or another measure that mattered to your work.

We used the same approach in busy months and slow ones. The work could look different from one month to the next, and you still had a clear number to work toward. It became a huge driver for us and spread to several other Verizon locations while I was there.

What the board made easier

It’s easy to say you want a better month. The board gave people a reason to ask what they could do on that shift. If I were using it to work on sales today, I might pick one customer to follow up with as soon as I open my work queue. I can do that before I know how the month will turn out.

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Looking back, I see two ideas from my reading list in that routine. BJ Fogg pairs a small action with something you already do. For our teams, walking in for work was the cue to check the board. James Clear writes about making a habit obvious by changing what’s around you. Our numbers were right where people could see them. Tiny Habits · Atomic Habits

Robin Sharma writes about being deliberate with the first part of the day. I think about that when I remember our teams walking in. Looking at the board gave them a moment to decide what they wanted to do with the shift ahead. The 5 AM Club

Try it with one number

  1. Pick a number you care about. It could be customer follow-ups, pages read, or minutes of meditation.
  2. Write down where you ended last month. Put it somewhere you’ll see it when you’re ready to act.
  3. Pick one thing you can do today. Send one follow-up, read one page, or sit for one minute.

If last month was zero, today’s minute gives you a number to build on.

Try the Beat Your Best board Make a small plan See the books I recommend