Throughout my 25 years of professional business leadership, I’m always surprised over how many business owners and leaders choose to remain reactive and tactical – versus strategically proactive – regarding their business activities, in essence sabotaging their ultimate success and potential.
The following is my summarized effort of the key imperatives of focus, upon which truly committed business leaders must focus, lest they become afflicted by “tactic-itis,” which often deludes people into THINKING they’re being productive – which is a symptom of being simply BUSY – versus focusing on achieving strategic objectives and RESULTS in their business.
- Determine your business’ TRUE PURPOSE and value proposition. Not what you THINK it is, but what the marketplace acknowledges it to be. What is the UNIQUE solution set that your business delivers? It cannot be what your competition delivers… it must be an ideal, or a series of ideals, that only YOUR business delivers.
- See the business as it REALLY is. This can be done through a simple SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), or a more in-depth audit process. It’s amazing how many business leaders choose not to do this… Maybe it’s because they don’t want to see the “bad” aspects of their business (which the market readily sees), so they choose to remain in denial.
- Identify Key Resources and Support Systems. Whether they be human resources, who share a compatible vision as you, fiscal resources (realizing that cash flow is like blood flow to a business), and the key areas that require your most critical focus and attention.
- Create action plans that include accountability, monitoring and measuring, time frames and contingency plans. Like in any effective business battle campaign, achievement of key milestones and variables cannot be left to chance. Then you must effectively delegate, lest you end up doing everything yourself again…
- Take effective action (not “spastic” action, with little organization and direction), ensuring that all meetings are agenda-driven, and that only the right people are attending. Collaborate and build momentum, constantly monitoring the KPI’s (key performance indicators) along the way.
All good business is strategically driven. Of course, tactics must always be conducted in order to achieve results, but it’s sound STRATEGY that drives every successful business. Don’t leave it up to chance….