This month’s blog and newsletter topic is “Can you manage by hope?” In these confusing times, if you and your company run without analysis, prediction and planning, you’re managing by hope.
We’ve only got a few months to go until the end of the year. Your company is poised in one of three positions regarding your end-of-year goal. Guess what? Hope is not one of them.
You’re either behind your target, on target, or ahead of your target. The position you’re in determines the actions you should be taking.
Behind Target
Being behind target is the most difficult of the three positions, especially given that you’re coming down to the wire to make your target for year-end.
If you’re behind target, the main action you have to take is to find out why. Go back and look at your strategy, which should have been based on things that have worked before. Now examine your strategy with this question in mind: What isn’t working?
There could be one of two things wrong here. First, it could be that something that has worked in the past isn’t being done now. If that’s true, have everyone involved jump on those activities and make them happen.
Second, it could be that something that worked in the past is no longer effective. That may mean that one or more factors in the market have changed, or that the actions being taken in your company have been changed somehow from the way they were originally performed.
In any case, you need to rapidly analyze the situation, find out, and correct it. It might mean a new part of your strategy needs to be formulated and executed rapidly.
On Target
If you’re on target, that’s good. But remember, nothing stays the same for long—it either gets better or it gets worse.
When you’re on-target, you should constantly examine the working factors and continually strengthen them to remain on target.
Ideally, you should be working to get ahead of your target so that you have a cushion of comfort and don’t have to frantically work to stay on target.
Ahead of Target
If you find yourself ahead of your target, that’s best of all. Here’s the million-dollar question: what brought you there?
When the company is in this position, it’s easy for everyone to get excited and lose track of what was being done that brought about your being ahead of target. Once more, they might be operating by hope—“I hope it stays that way!” That’s a dangerous place to be, for not knowing what has worked, they could omit vital actions and slip right out of that position and find themselves behind target.
The answer is to jump in and conduct an analysis. Discover each and every factor that caused the company to get ahead of that target. Just as you would do if you were simply on target, you want to consistently strengthen those actions or activities. Being ahead of target is a wonderful place to be. Make sure you stay there and make it even better.
Remember, you’re in one of three places concerning your end-of-year target: behind, on target, or ahead. Wherever you find yourself, make sure to take appropriate actions.
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