“Are we there yet?”
The most repetitive (and annoying) four words. A flashback to childhood road trips.
At least we knew where we were going - the beach, to see our grandparents, Uluru, the bunyip...
A family road trip involves some crucial steps:
The parents find a reason to take a road trip.
They set the destination.
They plot their route & plan their timing.
They follow a map until they reach the destination.
Oh, and the kids? They undertake the most important step - they follow-up, follow-up, follow-up - all the way there.
Let's convert these steps to business terms.
Reason: Your Why or Passion/Mission
Destination: Goal or Vision
Route & Timing: Strategy
Map: Plan
Are we there yet?: Followup & Execution
Huh, suddenly childhood road trips were teaching us a lot more life skills than we ever knew!
Are you following a plan? This is crucial for everyone in business - whether you are working in, owning or coaching an organisation - a Road Map is key!
If you’re in business, are you making the journey with the necessary planning? Or are you heading for an unknown destination? Can you answer these questions about your company?
Why are you doing what you're doing?
Where you are going?
How are you going to get there? What resources do you need to reach your destination?
And do you have a solid executable plan with regular follow-up and review measures in place?
Answered ‘no’ to more than 2 points above? You’re likely at a standstill.
And in today's business world, if you're not moving forward, you are moving backwards.
Growing your business should be top of mind every day, but you cannot achieve without a goal. If you don’t have a strategy and plan, you’ll be easily side-tracked and confused - losing sight of your goal.
Let’s break these down.
Why/Mission: Take it back to the roots. Why are you even in business? Why did you start? Was it to bring in cake and lemonade for your family? Or was it to address a world changing issue? Whatever it is, there is a reason you decided to open shop.
Find this Why, and keep it front of mind. This will ultimately drive your business in the direction you want it to go.
Goal/Vision: Following close behind your why, needs to be a goal. When you achieve your big WHY, what does success look like? Perhaps it’s 15 bottles of lemonade and 10 cakes per day, or perhaps it’s feeding 1000 starving children per week.
Your goal could be as simple as an annual Turnover or Net Profit goal (although a Vision is far more meaningful). Whatever it is, it's crucial to your success.
Plan: Would you hit the road without any idea of how you are going to reach your destination? Well maybe. But probably not with a bunch of toddlers on board. #waytoonoisy. You need a roadmap. A plan. A step-by-step instruction guide that clearly maps the road to success. It needs to be dated, achievable, and the simpler the better.
Follow-up: Sounds simple...but it’s actually revolutionary! Gazillions of amazing plans and goals are set every year, but how many of those end up at the bottom of the filing cabinet or tacked to a wall that becomes part of the furniture? The only way to actually execute on your goals is to keep them front of mind. The best (and perhaps only) way to do this is with non-negotiable follow-up - hold regular goal focused team meetings, require weekly reporting on tasks completed, leverage technology to track goal progress, and even have a dedicated follow-up manager whose job is to make all this happen!.
So it's actually pretty easy. Piece of cake (with lemonade).
2020 will be taking off in 3 short months...are you ready to hit the road? What about your 2020 Strategy - are you there yet?
If you'd like some simple but effective goal setting templates & methods, drop us a line - we'd love to assist.
