It’s always later than we think

Hard to believe, but the business world is already deep into the 4th Quarter.  If you’re like a lot of Leaders I know, you’re working hard to deliver on this year’s commitments. 

If you’re like a lot of smart Leaders I work with, you’re also spending time looking down the field, already thinking about the places you want to take your team next year, the mountains you want to climb together. 

And you know success is not accidental.  Performing well next year requires preparation right now.  You need a vision and a plan to realize it.   

To create and articulate such a vision and plan, consider a “reverse imaging” exercise.  Imagine you are writing up your team’s annual accomplishments come December next year.  

What have you done by then as a team to improve your organization and performance? Dimensions of focus might include:

• Achieving meaningful growth of your business
• Increasing customer satisfaction
• Outperforming competitors
• Delivering new products or services to your markets
• Raising the bar on team performance 
• Increasing the talent/capabilities of team members while dealing decisively with poor performers
• Increasing efficiency/reducing operating costs in a material way
• Driving cultural/organizational change to meet the demands of a changing marketplace

With these dimensions in mind, where are you today and where do you want to be in 12 months time?  What do you believe are the interim steps required to realize your vision?  Write these down and note the dependencies among them.  

Well done: you’ve begun the work of creating your vision and the steps required to realize it.

IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER: your job as a Leader is to get meaningful work done through others.  Great visions and plans are not created in a vacuum and successful execution will require your entire team to be committed alongside you.

To involve others, consider workshopping a draft of your vision with team members and stakeholders, allowing them to challenge your ideas and come to a shared landing spot.  

You could also ask a group of them to create their own view of the world by the end of next year, asking them how they see their own roles and contributions towards that journey.  You then step in as a challenger, engaging them where they are, building ideas with them.

The point is, involving others will sharpen your thinking and increase commitment of the team to action, key ingredients to drive next year’s success. 

I often work with Leaders and their teams to set winning visions and the plans to realize them.  If you need help thinking through where you want to Lead your team and how you want to get there, please click on the link below to set up a complimentary, no-obligation Exploration Session with me.