Did You Fall Short?
We’re in the second quarter of 2015, and our yearly plans are being implemented… or maybe they aren’t! There are a number of reasons that people fall short of achieving their goals; the top two are 1) the goals were too big to take on, and 2) people often lack the structure necessary to help them stay on track. You may have heard the question asked when there is too much on your plate; “how do you eat an elephant?” The answer is… one bite at a time. Breaking your goals into smaller bite-sized chunks over longer periods of time is a solution that many successful people have adopted. It helps you and your team view the goals as more realistic and achievable.
Jane’s Goal Setting Triumph
Jane had a goal to increase her revenue by 25% in 2013. She put a lot of pressure on herself and her team to accomplish this huge leap in revenue for her business. When results were not happening right away, she became frustrated and lost confidence that she and her team could achieve this goal. She backed off of the goal and lowered her expectations, demotivating her team in the process. Of course, she didn’t achieve her goal. She was hesitant to plan again until she found a new planning model.
In 2014, the goal was the same; but Jane broke the goal into bite-sized pieces. Her yearly goal was still to increase sales by 25%, but this time she broke the goal into four quarterly goals. She planned quarterly sales increases and designed operational and sales initiatives to support this goal. Jane’s team worked on improving systems first and planned for a moderate increase in sales during the first quarter, with the majority of sales growth planned for the third and fourth quarters. They began to see the results of their efforts to improve systems—one small step at a time—in every part of the business, and sales growth increased with each quarter. She and her team became progressively more motivated and inspired as they witnessed the incremental growth, and they achieved their sales goal by the end of the year.
90-Day Planning Works!
What allowed Jane and her team to succeed was the implementation of a 90-day planning process, where they tracked their progress and planned next steps. Key team players regrouped every quarter to celebrate their successes, work through the obstacles and challenges, and plan for the next quarter with the yearly goal in mind. Jane met her goal of 25% growth, increased her profit margin, and developed stronger systems to support her business and her team by implementing a new way of thinking about business planning.