As a leader, you are responsible for the vision, direction and goals of the company. Don’t wait to see what challenges the economy brings to your business in 2010 before you react. Get started now on a plan to stimulate your business next year. Have your plan in place before the end of this year so you have the full year to implement it. Every day of delay in launching your plan in 2010 will have to be made up on the back end.
How do you create a simple businessplan? A straightforward approach is to gather your team and agree upon and set goals. How do you achieve results? On a monthly basis, bring your team back together and hold them accountable to the agreed upon results. The implementation process is key, so insist on execution and results.
If you don’t have a vision for your business, you’ll want to develop one before you set your goals. A powerful vision creates a direction and destiny that excites your team to pursue. Your vision and your company are nothing without emotionally engaged and committed followers. People change when their feelings change, not just when their thoughts change so aim for the heart.
How do you create a vision? Here are some questions to get you started. Why does our business exist? How can we make our company great, meaningful and different? What could we do better than anyone else? How can we improve the lives of customers?
If your vision is several years from fruition, step back and create a one year vision to drive your goals for next year. Once you have your one year vision finalized, you can set goals to reach it. At a minimum, goals should be set in these seven critical success areas:
- Leadership (direction, strategy, goals, accountability)
- Management (systems, documentation, process improvement)
- Marketing (educating others, generating leads)
- Selling (closing leads)
- Operations/Customer Fulfillment (delivering on our promises)
- Customer Service (need identification and relationship management)
- Back-office (accounting, finance, HR, infrastructure, etc.)
Establish a vital few, monster-size goals in each of the seven key areas and drive to completion with a monthly accountability process. Be innovative and think big vs. the “we have always done it this way” mentality. In setting these goals, make sure your team of managers and key employees agree with the current assessment and performance goals in these seven key areas. For improvement and innovations to be implemented, your team must have input and buy-in.
Once you have your annual goals established, assign a person to champion each cause. Give each person the authority, time, and tools to make it happen. Every month, hold each person accountable for his or her goal(s). Goals should be SMART (Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Really Desired, and Timed). Encourage your employees to stretch their goals. Remember, what gets measured gets done. And just as important, what gets rewarded gets repeated. As a leader, you have to insist upon aggressive implementation as achievement is where success is found.
Make sure you communicate the vision, direction, and goals of the organization to all your employees. They want to know their roles, responsibilities and what is expected of them. Employees also want to be coached, challenged and held accountable. They also want to be involved in setting the direction and goals of the company. Be sure to develop a process to enable all employees to provide input into the planning process.
If you want to be in control of the destiny of your business next year, then make it a priority to pull your key employees together and hammer out a stimulus plan before the end of this year. Set a date for you planning session now and make sure it happens.
