We are midway through 2007, making this a great
time to conduct a midyear review of your business.
Some questions you want to consider:
- Are you poised to achieve the goals your
organization set for this year? Next year? To see your
strategy translate to reality?
- Does your plan need some adjustments?
- Most importantly, have your people embraced your
strategy and do they understand their unique role in
helping your organization achieve its goals?
The best midyear reviews are designed to position
organizations for a successful second half of the year
while setting the stage for success further down the
road, i.e. the next 12-18 months, the next 3-5 years.
They allow time to identify and address potential
challenges and opportunities. They help organizations
understand the past, so they can focus successfully
on the future.
As you plan to conduct a midyear review with your
leadership team, make sure that you have all the
information you need to do it well. This means
engaging your employees and customers in the
process before you sit down for your meeting. Use
these two audiences as the incredible business
resources they can be by sharing with them and
asking them for their feedback and ideas.
This month we offer four tips for helping you
assess
whether you are maximizing your people power
successfully.
Tip #1: Ensure your employees are engaged in
the big picture.
To execute a strategy successfully, an organization
must ensure that its systems and processes support
it. You also must ensure that your employees, who are
working day-to-day on and in those systems and
processes, are fully engaged and supportive of the
effort.
For example, you may have identified "delivering
exceptional customer service at every interaction" as a
goal within your strategy of becoming the largest
player in your industry. Your second step may have
been to define some specific customer service
processes that your people are expected to follow.
But almost halfway through the year, you're
noticing
that the positive results you were anticipating have not
panned out. A lack of understanding or support from
the individuals carrying out the processes may be to
blame. While your employees may be doing the work
involved in the new system, they may not understand
why the changes were made or how they fit into the
company's overall vision.
If you learn that this is the case, it's not too late to
take
a step back and get them on board.
Tip #2: Find out if your customers know - or care -
about your strategic direction.
Your customers care where you are going as an
organization only as it relates to them. They care very
much about how your strategic direction will impact
them, what their opportunities may be in the scope of
your plan and how you can help them seize those
opportunities. Strong organizations strategically share
their vision with customers in a way that pulls them in
as key stakeholders.
Checking in with customers during a midyear
business review is always a great idea. This does not
mean a passing question during a meeting or phone
call but rather a focused conversation where you ask
them for an honest answer about how you are doing
for them. This conversation provides an excellent
opportunity to ask customers about their own
business strategies, vision and goals and to begin or
continue a dialogue about how you may help them
achieve their objectives.
For customers of any type of business in any type
of industry, a great question to ask is, "Are we an easy
company to do business with?"
Your customers can be a wealth of information
and ideas if you just ask them. This exercise will
strengthen your relationship with them.
Tip #3: Make Sure that Teams & Projects Are
Assigned in a Way that Makes Sense.
A midyear review presents an opportunity to review
performance, reallocate resources and replan if
necessary. By continually analyzing results in a way
that engages employees in the process and making
strategic adjustments, your organization becomes
better positioned for success.
When creating projects, it's critical to make sure
they support your organizational strategy. It's also
critical to revisit and review ongoing projects on a
regular basis to make sure that they still make sense.
A midyear review is a great time to do this.
Find out if projects are on track or not. Ensure that
all risks have been identified and contingency plans
have been established. Look at project teams to make
sure they are functioning well and producing good
work. Are you using your talent in the most optimum
way?
In May, Fortune magazine published an
article entitled "Attracting the twentysomething worker."
Writer Nadira Hira, later interviewed on NPR's On
Point, discussed how today's Gen Yers come to the
workplace with completely different expectations than
their older coworkers.
While they are ready to work hard and want to be
part of something big like an organization's success,
they are quick to ask "Why are we doing this this way?"
or "Maybe we should try this?" Their older colleagues
are more apt to follow direction that comes from the
top without question, though they often do wonder why
managers are making certain changes.
Companies that recognize diversity in their
workforce and use it to their advantage - getting great
ideas from those in the trenches, gathering input
about whether certain goals are realistic, sharing the
big picture with employees so they feel engaged - will
have greater success executing their visions.
Tip #4: Communicate Consistently Across Your
Organization
One sure way to alienate employees and other key
stakeholders is to fail at communications. When
companies don't communicate consistently, they run
the risk of walls and barriers being built between
management and employees, between different
departments, or between the company and its
customers.
During a midyear review, evaluate all your
company communications, including the way you
share company goals and results and the way you
recognize challenges and employee results. See
where you may be falling short and where you are
doing well.
When you're done with your midyear review, take
the time to celebrate the successes you've enjoyed in
the short term while keeping your company focused
on the long term achievement of your goals.
Your people will thank you.
