Yep, it’s that time of year.
Let’s assume that you take your business seriously. That means that you plan well, and thoroughly, for the coming year. Your planning is a serious effort. You develop a “strategic plan” and then spend the coming months executing your plan.
So, if that’s the case, you need two meetings pretty soon. These are not ten-minute meetings. These are “get away in a retreat-like ‘leave-us-alone-while-we-work’ setting, and tackle these issues pretty seriously” meetings.
I have a two-part agenda to recommend.
Part One: Conduct a thorough “after-action review” of the year coming to a close.
Part Two: Create a thorough strategic plan and execution plan for the coming year.
For part one, ask yourself and the team :
- What did we plan to do?
- What did we actually do? (Are we good at execution?)
- What went well and why? (So, was this a good plan? And then, assuming we carried out the plan…)
- What can be improved and how? (So, what do we need to correct, tweak, change, add?)
After an honest after-action review of the year coming to an end, then you tackle the planning part of the meeting.
For part two, I strongly recommend that you consider the excellent approach recommended by Verne Harnish, author of Mastering the Rockefeller Habits. He provides plenty of resources, including his one-page strategic plan.
His plan revolves around the “four decisions”:
- People: Does your organization have the right people to meet its goals?
- Strategy: Do you have a real plan – or is your team just reacting to the marketplace?
- Execution: Are you achieving your project milestones and strategic goals?
- Cash: Has your payroll increased beyond your planned budget?
This I know… the very act of planning well will help you have a much more productive and profitable year. It really is leadership negligence to skip this step, or to do it poorly. Do it well. It will pay rich dividends.
Contributed by:
Randy Mayeux
Professional Speaker & Writer
Co-founder, First Friday Book Synopsis
The 16% 