Take Control of Your Company’s Future with These 5 Steps – From the Desk of Dave Liddell

Business leaders are constantly being pulled in a hundred directions. Day-to-day activities, short-term crises, immediate deadlines, and a line out your door all can upend your big picture plans.

It’s obvious that when you’re constantly operating in a reactive mode, it’s difficult to stay focused on your company’s future, but it can be hard to stay above what is happening around you.

You know that it’s essential to actively look forward and prepare your company for the challenges that lie ahead. And that without a concise, time-bound plan, your business has a much greater risk of being upended by competition, falling behind in the market, or falling to adversity during times of economic correction. While nobody knows what the future holds, your company depends on you to identify a clear vision for the future and laying the groundwork for success.

“Be sure your team knows what success looks like and
don’t keep moving the goalposts. If your indicators aren’t attainable,
you’ll quickly lose their motivation and engagement.”

Taking control of your company’s future is complicated, but these five steps can help:

1. Envision Your Company’s Ideal Future

The first step towards taking control of your company’s future is envisioning and defining exactly what that future should be. Only then can you steer your organization in a clear direction. You should outline a best-case scenario for 3-5 years down the road by answering these questions… how should we define success and what needs to occur to achieve our goals? Here are a few high-level examples of key considerations that could be part of your company’s ideal future:

• Improving diversification of revenue streams.
• Launching a market leading product or service.
• Acquiring a major competitor.
• Improving operational efficiencies and reducing expenses.
• Improving liquidity and capital to help weather a future economic downturn.

This will likely be an iterative process and it will take a little time however setting this directional focus will pave the pathway for smooth strategic discussions and planning.

2. Build the Right Leadership Team

Strategic planning is a team process and for it to be effective you’ll need the right people and group dynamic. Whether you are building a new team or top-grading your existing team it is critical to have the right make-up. Assembling a strong leadership team is similar to building a winning professional sports team. First, you must identify top talent candidates to assume the key leadership roles that pertain to your vision. Performance, experience, and strong foundational skills should all be considered when recruiting your leadership roles.

Filling positions with top talent is only half the battle. Your leadership must function as a high-performing team. That means they must trust one another, hold each other accountable, and be capable of providing and receiving constructive criticism. Are you ready to act as coach? It’s your job to mold your leadership team into a cohesive unit that is aligned with your strategy. You’ll need to dedicate time and resources to build your team and a solid leadership foundation.

Download: Strategic Business Planning

3. Sell Your Vision and Build Consensus

Socializing your vision with your leadership team members individually (before any group discussions) starts the consensus building process and sets the tone for effective group dialogue. In order to fully unite your team and move forward, team members must be aligned, inspired, and motivated to fulfill the mission. To accomplish this, your vision should check the following boxes:

• Clearly and concisely steers the organization in a meaningful direction.
• Drives enthusiasm, inspiration, commitment, and excitement across your team.
• Reflects the company’s values and mission.
• Provides employees with an opportunity to see themselves as part of something larger.
• Challenges people to step outside of their comfort zone and take on new responsibilities.

Keep in mind, your vision and mission should be enduring but how you get there may change along the way. As long as you continue to be transparent and communicate effectively, your team will be able and willing to adapt.

4. Create Your Strategic Business Plan

Once you have assembled your team and gained buy-in on your vision, you can start working together to build a roadmap to achieve success. Early in strategic planning process, you’ll work with your team to define your organizational values and your mission statement, assess your company’s current performance, make the necessary assumptions about your future business environment, identify your current performance deficiencies and preliminary opportunities for growth.

• This is followed by a robust discussion that will:
• Outline the factors that are critical for business success
• Set your strategic direction relative to target markets, new customers, and advances in products or services
• Define your competitive advantage, differentiator, and value proposition
• Establish key improvement actions and initiatives
• State clear and specific business goals, objectives, and performance targets

The combination of these element provides the essence of your strategic plan.

5. Relentlessly Track Progress

A strategic business plan is only as good as the team’s ability to execute. As you embark on your journey, it’s critical to track your progress and measure effectiveness. It’s up to you and your leadership team to determine the key indicators that will be used to measure results. Here are the four key achievement categories where you can group your indicators:

• Customer Satisfaction – How customers measure the value of your products and services
• Organizational Culture, Learning & Growth – The evolution or development of your company culture
• Operational Efficiencies – The efficiency of your internal processes, workflows, and technology
• Financial Performance – Your progress towards maximizing revenue and reducing expenses

For each indicator group, consider the goals, critical success factors, and key initiatives that fit under each. Your indicators should be challenging, but realistic. Your team should also be clear on exactly what the indicators are. Be sure your team knows what success looks like and don’t keep moving the goalposts. If your indicators aren’t attainable, you’ll quickly lose their motivation and engagement.

Preparing for the future can be difficult, especially during times of heightened uncertainty, like we are living in now. No matter how ideal company vision and plan is, you’ll most certainly experience unforeseen challenges and head-winds along the way. With a combination of strong leadership skills, organizational effectiveness, and employee motivation, however, you can make sure your organization is be better prepared for what’s ahead.

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OFFICE HOURS

Friday, August 14th @ 10-11AM Eastern

Co-facilitated by David Liddell and Ali Rayfield, our Monthly Virtual Office Hours are open to clients and colleagues, as well as those who are new to the Liddell Consulting community. These hour-long events focus on different timely leadership topics, which we announce as each date nears. Dave and Ali will lead the conversation, but encourage participants to come with personal experiences and questions to keep the conversation relevant and helpful. If you have a topic you would like to suggest, we would love to hear about it.

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Past Office Hour Topics have included:

• How Leaders & Managers Can Keep People Focused & Productive at Home
• Delegation from a distance – Setting People Up for Success in a Virtual World
• Managing Performance – How to Give & Receive Feedback Virtually
• People, Tech Transformation & Unleashing Remote Work
• Employee Engagement – Connecting Between Screens
• Your Workplace Culture & the Quarantine – Evolving to Succeed & Thrive
• Leadership Lessons Learned – How Resiliency Will Conquer the Coronavirus

*A meeting link will be sent to all who register to participate.