Get your year off to a great start with these 10 tips for creating the clarity that can speed and improve results in 2011:

1. If you want different results in the new year, you, and those with whom you work, must behave differently. Business as usual won’t magically produce increased revenue, greater profits, better products, fewer problems, less confusion, more productive employees, and happier customers. Get clear about what you and others will do differently to make this new year different.
2. Make your top priorities clear. It is better to catapult 3 – 5 priorities into the next county than to slog up the mountain inch by inch with dozens.
3. Decide what to stop doing. If you have too many priorities, you have no priorities. Make a clear decision to abandon, postpone, outsource, or cut corners. Don’t leave such decisions to chance. 
4. Be clear about the assumptions that provide the foundation for your strategy and plans. If those assumptions prove false, you are riding on luck alone.
5. Every initiative has at least one concrete next step. Find it and take action or schedule action today. An amorphous blob with no clear next step will slide into the future without progress.
6. Clarify expectations and responsibilities. In an emergency, you will be helped faster by pointing to an individual and saying, “You! Call 911!” Achieve that level of clarity and motivation daily, though try to do it without alarm and finger pointing!
7. At the end of each day, spend 5 minutes thinking about how you spent your time and distinguishing between those activities that produce value for which customers are willing to pay and those that don’t. Establish a time for reviewing this growing list and seeking opportunities to reduce or eliminate the unproductive activities.
8. Maintain a clear distinction between ends and means. Keep your focus on results and encourage creativity as to how those results are achieved.
9. Distinguish between cause and effect. Too many problems induce action to address the effects of the problem and nothing to eliminate the cause. For example, putting out the fire but not preventing the next one by eliminating the cause.
10. Think big. But not in a nebulous, grandiose manner. Be specific. What would you like to achieve?