“How is your business doing?”
That’s a loaded question to say the least. It’s also a question that business leaders and entrepreneurs can take for granted when they’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed by the constant changes happening in our current market.
Your first thought in answering this question might be to refer to revenue or sales. Yet, even if revenue or sales are increasing, that doesn’t mean your business is doing well.
What the question really asks is for a progress check on how your business is doing compared to how you want it to be doing. So, you can’t really know if your business is doing well unless you have a vision for where you WANT the business to go.
To make this kind of evaluation, you need to identify what factors determine your success or growth. There are so many different ways to evaluate the progress of your organization’s growth – and it’s not always just revenue or sales.
Provide Clarity in Direction
If you’re feeling like you have to do 10 times more work only to see little or no progress in your business, you might have lost perspective of the vision and direction for the organization as a whole. When there is no vision, there is no strategy – only reactivity or quick-fix solutions. This isn’t sustainable.
Moreover, when leaders are busy fighting day-to-day fires, teams get easily confused from being pulled in different directions. This ultimately leads to disengagement and further slows the progression of the business.
Setting clear goals and objectives is one your first responsibilities as a leader. While it seems extra challenging to provide clarity in such uncertain times, it CAN be done – and it all starts with you, their leader. When you when you have a clear target objective, everyone in the organization has a clear direction.
If you’re feeling stuck or overwhelmed, take these steps to gain clarity on the goals and priorities that will drive your organization forward. (Spoiler: It’s simpler than you think!)
The bottom line is when people know where they’re going, they’re able to bring their own unique ideas and perspectives to the table to get everyone there faster.
Motivate with Measurable Goals
Providing clarity to your team includes setting clear roles in the context of your vision for the organization. Your team is able to be more motivated, productive and effective when given context to their roles and assigned tasks. When the team knows what you’re all trying to achieve and how to get there, it leads to engagement.
To track their progress towards the goal, come up with progress indicators or key performance indicators – not just sales and revenue. While a sales team might track new revenue, a customer support team would track customer satisfaction ratings. The key here is to define what evidence will prove you are making progress.
Having short-term goals that make up the long-term goal motivates high achievers to keep reaching and meeting those goals. Sharing the success of each short-term goal will boost employee confidence, knowing that their efforts are contributing to the common goal.
When you have clear measurable goals, you’re able to provide direction and motivation to your team so you can all get there together, faster. Establishing a strong, motivated team means your organization can make a bigger impact by serving more customers and growing and scaling your business.
If you’re really serious about growing your business now, join our FREE online training at MillionsByDesign.com, where you can discover more tools to get Clarity, Focus and Momentum so you can grow and scale your business without stress and overwhelm.
