Q: My employees, managers and I get bogged down with day-to-day issues. I know that as owner I should be planning and directing where the business is going. What advice do you have to help me stay on top of priorities?
Thoughts of the day: Identify the top objectives for the company and continuously review where you are versus those objectives. Set up systems for people to meet and share information. Celebrate progress. Organize teams to work on persistent problems.
What”™s the sightline on the horizon that everyone in your company is focused on moving toward? Get clear on that and it”™s easier to figure out if everything you”™re doing is heading the company in the right direction. Without major goals it”™s easy to drift off in the wrong direction.
Write down what you want the company to accomplish in the next five years. Consider the following:
- double revenue, triple profit;
- add one new employee for every $150k of gross profit;
- operate within budget;
- reduce operating costs by 1 percent to 3 percent a year;
- add enough clients each year to allow the company to dump the bottom 5 percent ”“ the least profitable and most troublesome;
- sell new products; and
- expand marketing reach annually while reducing the ratio of marketing spend/revenue.
Set up a meeting schedule to review progress, discuss obstacles and agree on the next actions to be taken.
Meetings can be great. Improperly managed, meetings can also suck the energy out of any group. Limit meetings to an hour; max two hours. Break up long days of conferences into a series of one to two-hour activities.
Work with intention. Make sure enough of the right people are involved. In my experience, it is more likely that too few people will be invited to meet, than too many. Don”™t be afraid to ask people to give up “work time” to attend meetings. People need to share information in order to function well.
Use meetings to inform, brainstorm, analyze and problem solve. Different purposes require different formats. Information-sharing meetings do best if data are presented in report handouts or overheads with handouts. Brainstorming meetings need a facilitator who can document what”™s being said. Analysis and problem-solving meetings need to be focused toward a desired outcome: to reach a conclusion, solve a problem, etc.
It helps to understand that we remember only 15 percent of what we hear, 50 percent of what we write down and 85 percent of what we hear, write down and play back. Take notes in every meeting. Start meetings with a review of the previous meetings”™ notes. Know whose job it is to take and disseminate notes. Get notes out within one to two days of the meeting”™s conclusion.
Build a culture of success by taking time to acknowledge and celebrate progress toward goals. Use checklists of to-do”™s to stay on track. Recognize groups of people who are getting their tasks done according to the commitments they”™ve made.
Every organization runs into problems from internal and external sources. Teach employees to be comfortable bringing up issues in meetings. Take time to brainstorm the source of problems. Assign task groups to work on rooting out the causes.
Build a culture of taking action. Reward people who fix problems before they escalate into something worse. Emphasize the value of always looking to make things better.
Everyone needs space and time to think, reflect and plan. Schedule it into your day. Lead by example. Show your employees that you have the discipline and skill needed to lead the business. Make it your No.1 priority to set a schedule, meet regularly, encourage information sharing and take action to work the company”™s plan.
Unclear about your company”™s goals and check-in structure? Give us a call.
Looking for a good book? Â Try “The One Hour Plan for Growth: How a Single Sheet of Paper Can Take Your Business to the Next Level” by Joe Calhoon.
Andi Gray is president of Strategy Leaders Inc., strategyleaders.com, a business-consulting firm that specializes in helping entrepreneurial firms grow. She can be reached by phone at (877) 238-3535. Do you have a question for Andi?  Please send it to her via email at AskAndi@StrategyLeaders.com  or by mail to Andi Gray, Strategy Leaders Inc., 5 Crossways, Chappaqua, NY 10514. Visit AskAndi.com for an entire library of articles.
