How do you keep a team focused when the news coming at them is so alarming? How do you plan when the future is so uncertain? How does your business survive in the face of mounting economic pressures? It all boils down to planning. But long-term formal plans have likely been thrown out due to this ‘new normal’.
The most successful businesses create a strategic business plans and many of those organizations review their plans and adjust for new opportunities, quarterly, bi-annually. Rarely do businesses have the need to plan week to week or day to day. But during this unprecedented time, that is exactly what you have to do to survive and thrive.
CEO and founder of ActionCOACH Brad Sugars, addresses the need for business owners to set more nimble and flexible goals at a very granular level. Sugar’s explains in the video attached, https://www.facebook.com/BradleySugars/videos/889338604846761/ that businesses are in three buckets; 1) planning for reopening 2) pivoting to meet new business opportunities 3) ramping up to meet new business flow. In each of these buckets, business leaders need ways to keep their staff more focused on the most important and critical activities to stay on a path to a) survive in the short term and b) to prepare to thrive in the long term.
Whether you are preparing to add staff to meet new demands, making plans to reopen or changing processes/systems/ and reallocating resources to deliver new products or services keeping track of the most critical activities where you need to make the most impact. Setting S.M.A.R.T (Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound) goals is a great way to achieve your plans. During a crisis you need to adjust your goals scope, time frames and relevant to keep the business operating. Break the big challenges down to the smallest increments and give your teams attainable targets to hit.
Establishing shorter time frames for goals is critical now to ensure that everyone in the organization gets “wins”. These wins, regardless of the size, keep employees positive and it makes them feel more invested in the outcomes. These KPIs or critical activities keep everyone in the organization in a mindset of productivity. During a crisis, every goal achieved becomes exponentially more important and even more important. The outcomes of these short-term goals keep the business resilient and moving forward. Keep in mind, employees may be asked to take on projects, duties and roles they have never done before. You as a leader needs tools to ensure they progress and stay committed.
Sugar’s notes that shorter term goals should be very flexible. Ensure that your team is ready to go back to “normal” at a moment’s notice, and everyone has to stay nimble to address changes in the marketplace. Being able to pivot, adjust, redirect, and redeploy resources quickly may be the difference between survival and extinction of your business. One day at a time has never been so meaningful.
Click here to get access to Brad Sugar’s new 10-day, 5-hour training program for FREE to help businesses survive and thrive during this crisis.
https://www.actioncoach.com/covid19-business-survival-training/