n the last month of the year, we are looking ahead! We are preparing you to exceed your targets in 2022. Why? Because you can! But in order to ensure you exceed your business targets, you must take the proper steps to build an effective roadmap. This month is all about helping you build that effective roadmap. Today, let’s dive into creating your targets for next year.
Last week you pulled all of your numbers and did a very simple comparison: did I deliver or did I miss the target?
This week you must ask yourself: What must I deliver in 2022 and how will I measure it? This part of the process is your target-setting process for your 2022 roadmap.
Now, you have your list of the levers or components of your business that contributed to each KPI this year. You know what you delivered on and what you missed for each KPI. (Another way to say that is: you know what worked well in the business and therefore what you must maintain and what you need to fix in order to move ahead.)
Assuming all is going well in the business, you have no major pivots, no significantly large/new projects, you aren’t removing a product or a line of products in your business, it’s fairly safe to say you will be marching forward on a very similar path as this year. You have the same KPIs, but higher targets.
If that’s the case then when you identify what worked well, you will want to keep those activities and simply continue to execute on those KPIs. Maybe a few tweaks to raise the bar and hit the new target, but you are fairly set. So how do you know what to do when you raise the bar? You find out WHY it worked. Was it some additional IS systems support you received in that area of the business, financial investment to improve that area, maybe a super talented leader, etc. Why did it deliver so well?
For the levers that didn’t deliver, again, why? How much of a miss was there? Slight? Significant? Quantify the miss. Then, in an hour, determine why there was a miss. The point here is to understand where you must improve. If you have a process that requires 10 steps for completion, you must know which of the ten steps must have some improvement. That’s the key here.
Why do I want you to spend about an hour? Because you can get lost in the why. You need to understand the overarching why, not the microscopic why.
Many leaders freeze and refuse to move forward until they completely understand why. This is what I am focused on you avoiding in this instance. Know the difference between finding enough info to help you make a solid plan and when you have analysis paralysis.
You now have a high-level understanding of what you are going to focus on, the KPIs, and what you will raise the bar on and what you will intentionally improve upon.
How powerful is that?
Be Legendary!