Are you thinking big enough? Have you ever looked back on some old notes or old goals and noticed how you achieved everything you wrote down to do? I hear the following comment often and just heard it yesterday at one of my CEO roundtables: “The years were off, but I accomplished all that I had written out to do.” One of the greatest mistakes any leader can make is not thinking big enough or clearly enough about the future.
Ever wonder what the CEOs of companies such as Procter & Gamble, Merck or John Deere do and where they go to get advice on growth and strategy? McKinsey isn’t a one-stop shop, and boards of directors may or may not have all that is needed to help a company stay on track in the areas of optimal growth strategy and planning.
I’ve worked with C-level leaders of these companies and know people who have been their strategic growth advisers. I’ll share with you some simple steps to maximize growth at your own company. These steps are same ones that the world’s best companies use.
You can do a handful of things to greatly improve your odds of “getting all you can out of all you’ve got.”
First, do a self-analysis to answer three simple questions:
- Are you confident that you’re being as strategic as you should be?
- Are you making plans with adequate detail?
- Are you following through with creative, consistent accountability that pushes the envelope and ensures you execute to your potential, passion and purpose?
Quarterly, leaders responsible for an organization’s growth can use a simple self-management process that addresses each of these three areas.
STRATEGIC
- Vision Points – Are you testing your vision points? Are you dialoguing with advisers whom you trust to communicate candidly enough with you to poke holes in ideas or challenge vision points that might be incomplete, outdated or not bold enough? When your vision is 30% shy of your potential, guess what you’re likely to hit.
- Diversion Points – Are you and trusted advisers testing the uniqueness of your approach? Are you continuously refining the clarity of your difference and the value that it has for the customer? Are you building a defensible nature into your strategy—creating walls that competition, vendors and the environment can’t topple?
- Focus Points – Is someone challenging you to intensify your focus and leverage your greatest strength? Too often, we’re so impressed with our successes we slow down too much while enjoying the view in the mirror. Effective competitors focus on improving their strengths exponentially instead of focusing too much on improving weaknesses.
PLANNING
Thorough planning requires that you identify seven essential areas of objectives. Do you have clear objectives identified in all of these areas?
- Market & Marketing
- Innovation
- Culture
- Resource (Human, Financial, Physical, IT)
- Productivity
- Community & Social Responsibility
- Profitability Requirements
And is someone challenging you on the clarity, metrics, accountability and reach of each of those seven objectives?
PROCESS
Are all of the above reviewed in regular quarterly sessions whereby you assess progress, adjust targets, check off accomplishments and set new objectives as needed? Even with a board of directors, it’s lonely at the top. Every leader needs confidants with whom they can think out loud and have both their strategy and plan tested and pushed. Who is your strategic growth coach, and are you having strategic growth dialogues that put your head in the clouds but keep your feet on the ground? It’s never too late to start.
