With any company, foresight and planning on every level is essential to the group, from the receptionist to the executive sales manager, each should have a written plan for the future.
By “planning” is meant a written sequence of targets to take one’s production from its current levels upward to higher and more affluent levels.
But how are such plans written and how would employees know what levels of production they would target for? Simply planning on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis is a very narrow view of things, therefore, executives should look much further ahead and have a plan for at least an entire year allowing them a much broader view with which to direct their area of the company.
All employees should be briefed on these longer-range plans to understand where the company is heading and how their individual planning and production would align.
Step 1 – Figure out what monthly production targets are needed in order to meet and fully cover the monthly expenses and payrolls. Select and target production levels a bit higher than that as the company’s initial production targets and once consistently being met, reward the staff.
Step 2 – Immediately begin planning and setting new targets in place for further expansion. Set these new production targets higher and write an overall company plan for the entire year.
Meet with your executives/department heads to present these new targets and your year’s plan. Then ask each to propose their own individual plan on how they could attain these targets within their areas and the time target. Once all individual plans are returned, work over each for proper alignment and coordination.
Step 3 – Now have each of your executives / department heads do this same activity with all their junior employees watching that these plans are laid out with very doable steps which could be completed in a fairly short amount of time. Don’t allow out-of-reach goals as these usually lead to loss or failures. Include games / bonuses once certain production levels are met and please, remember to stay ahead on creating new games / bonuses as quickly as earlier ones are achieved.
Step 4 – Start anew at Step 2 and continue to expand all production levels working to meet or exceed the overall and long-range company goals. When they’ve accomplished these goals simply create the next / larger ones to accomplish – there’s really no limit.
Keep the group focused on the future, and play big!
Craig Ferreira, CEO Survival Strategies, Inc