Wow!  July 1st! 182 days into the year - a convenient date to mark the middle of the year!  Yes, it’s halfway through, or for those “glass half-full” thinkers…..we’ve got an entire half a year left.   Think about that.  What have you accomplished?  Are you quietly ticking through the list of goals and objectives that you established before the beginning of the year?  How about the strategy that you put into place during those “retreats” back in October and November?  How’s that working for you?  Are you implementing? 

When these questions are asked of clients, I’m accustomed to seeing the “deer in headlights” facial freeze.  Some feign ignorance, mumbling under their breath while flapping their arms about their desk looking for a non-existent business plan.  Yet others can look me straight in the eye and answer with complete confidence, “Yes, Jonathan, I’m at 46% of goal and the reason for this is….”

First we have to assume that you have a business strategy, plan, goals, or whatever you want to call it.   Perhaps that is a bad assumption to make in the first place since it is estimated that only 3% of Americans have or make personal goals for their lives.   If this is the case, then how can we assume that business people have goals for their professional lives or companies?  Not everyone is wired for such deep thought or planning.  ”Goals, schmoals!”  ”I don’t need to write that stuff down!  Why should I?  I don’t even use a prepared presentation when I go and call on a potential client.”

Therein lies the problem.  If you find yourself an achiever in sales, relationship building, client-centered sales or any type of business development work; it is not atypical to realize that you just might tend to “shoot from the hip.” 

Secondly, if you are one of the few that have a plan, how are you tracking your performance?  It is not uncommon to see a plan sit on the shelve, untouched by human hands from January 15th through October 15th.  That is until panic sets in, the process for planning starts all over again and there is a need to review just what kind of crap you came up with for last year’s plan.  “Hey, that is good stuff!  Some of my best work!”  Hopefully not a work in fiction.  Hopefully you really did set out to accomplish your plan, your objectives were in earnest and your strategy was thought out.   If the later is the case, then you should have a system for checking in consistently with the plan. 

Here’s a few that might work for your organization:

• Bi-weekly accountability meetings to report out where each department is in relation to the objectives.  Every leader is being held accountable to the job at hand.  Take one minute per dep’t. 
• Utilizing a Visual indicator (think dashboard) that will tell you at a glance what your percentage to goal is.  You can go to LogixML or INetSoft to find some resources.
• Calendaring the objectives when the tactics and resources are assigned.  Break the objective up into milestones that will happen along the way to fruition.  Somewhat like eating an elephant……
• Departmental one-on-ones with departmental leader that helps to keeps the goal in front of all those responsible within the department for meeting the objective.  Each department can have their own visual systems as well.

Here’s an example of what a visual dashboard might look like:  

If you haven’t already reached for that business plan, do it now.  Blow off the dust, open it up and take a look at what you planned for the year.  Assess your progress and find out exactly where you are at.  Get your objectives up in front of you.  Assign, delegate and manage the process to accomplish your strategies.  After all, you’ve got half the year left to do it.

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