It’s not unusual for the employees in a small business to have little or no knowledge of how the owner defines success for the business. For whatever reason, many small business owners feel sharing such data and information is too much for their employees to handle. “As long as they do their jobs, that’s all the matters,” is the mindset.
This attitude makes it impossible for the company to operate as a team. The absence of a clear definition of success demotivates the employees and does not give them direction or a north star on which to base their day-to-day decisions.
What is entailed in sharing the goals and progress towards achieving them (including the strategies and tactics making that progress possible) with the company? Here’s one example.
Wright Marshall owns Revival Construction in Atlanta, Ga. I’ve worked with Wright for some time now, and I’m impressed with how he has grown as a leader and businessperson, and the level of success his company is now achieving on a regular basis.
Wright has developed a template for sharing information with his entire team. He shares this every quarter in a company meeting.
Here is some of what was shared regarding year-end 2019, and 2020:
- 2019 Primary Goals
o Topics include “Gross Revenue and Gross Profit Percentage,” “Moving to a Paperless Office,” and “Increasing Production Capacity.”
- 2020 Primary Rocks
o Wright uses the EOS Methodology, as laid out in “Traction” by Gino Wickman as well as the ideas articulated in “12 Week Year” by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington.
o “Rocks” are “clear 90-day priorities” to help all employees and the company stay focused. Wright outlines the areas of improvement that the company will be working on throughout 2020.
- Review of 2019
o The significant improvements the company has made are listed here, including “Highest Volume Ever and Lived to Talk About It” and “Added New Team Members.”
- Sales Leads
o The company depends on sales leads. The graph shows month-by-month number of leads going back for 2 years. The trend is currently positive.
- Sales Backlog
o This graph shows “Sales-to-Date,” the “Sales Pipeline” (projects on which the company has been paid a retainer) and total months of “Backlog” created by both. The data is looking good.
- General & Administrative
o These are specific tactical objectives for the office. Included are “Starting Direct Deposit & Streamline Timecards & Payroll” and “Annual Trade Contractor Agreement Review.”
- 2020 Goals
o There are several, among them “Strengthen Bi-Weekly Job Cost Meetings” and “Continue Development of Job Description and Training Plans.”
- Best Practices and Principles to Achieve the Goals
o This is my slide title for several slides Wright included that lay out some of the points of reference for all the work needed to make real what has been proposed. Among those points of reference are “Lean, Six Sigma, & Kaizen.” By the way, each of these management methodologies are in and of themselves powerful and worth learning more about.
- Issues List
o Here is a breakdown for several departments on what needs to get done from a Lean/Kaizen point of view to create the success the company is looking for.
- First Quarter 2020 Rocks
o What exactly will the company be focused on over the 1st quarter of 2020 is laid out here.
- Employees of the Last Quarter 2019
o Here is where Wright highlights employees who made a positive difference in the company in the most recent quarter. This is a good way for everyone to learn how to contribute to even more success for the company.
Believe it or not, all this information is on a PowerPoint presentation with less than 20 slides and the company reviews it in under one hour.
Imagine doing this with your team. How would their commitment and productivity be improved if they were told the game plan? Everybody wants to be part of a winning team. Work with your employees to help them make your company the success you all want. Just give them the information they need to make that possible. To do so, everyone must understand what success means for your company.