IT'S A NEW YEAR..... starting all over is an option.

 

It is interesting to see how sports franchises start over every year.   Of course they have to create the team, on the field.  They have to have strong community involvement and presence; market and sell tickets; make good financial decisions; have a positive impact on the media;  scout, hire, and develop future players.  And they do this one year at a time.  In the end, all that matters is the scoreboard... wins and losses.

Wow, this must take incredible focus, work and alignment of a great number of elements to produce success.  The policies, budgets, and job descriptions must pull everything together on behalf of the strategic plan.  Now if you have a great brand like the Toronto Maple Leafs or an NFL franchise, it helps in guaranteeing financial success.  But few teams are like the Maple Leafs or Saskatchewan Roughriders or Green Bay Packers where business success is almost guaranteed because of the passion in their communities and their TV deals.  For most sports franchises everything, and I mean everything, has to come together every year for the business to succeed.

It sounds like regular businesses could take inspiration from this yearly focus.  In the non sports world, we have the same need to put the right, spirited and competent team together; have community presence; market and sell a compelling; relevant offering; have an impact on the media, and of course win over our competition.  Our wins and losses are measured in market share, ROI to shareholders, budget attainment and many other financial variables.  The number of new customers, increases in size of sales, more and bigger sales to repeatable customers also tells us how we are doing.

It must get tiring yet exciting for the management of a sports team to start over every year, often with new management, new coaches, players, and many other changes. (Who said people can't handle change?)  Regardless, all the elements of what it takes to succeed never change.   Some put it all together, some don't.  What can make a difference is the spirit, sense of urgency, alignment and togetherness of the team whether it is sports or regular business.  Although owners care about the financial and customer wins the most, employees remember and appreciate the relationships and the teamwork. It provides, for them, energy and momentum.  You can cement those two business desires together in your plans and meetings.  Whether or not you have a strategic or operations plan, I suggest you get a team together to do the following:

1.  Review what is actually going on.  Can your talent take you to the next level?  The same with your management -   can they help you go where you want to go?  Do you have fresh leadership who will rally around the vision, the ideas, strategies, and the planning it takes to start anew?  How is your offering?  Are you adequately matching up with the trends and motives in the marketplace?  Is your involvement in the community adequate enough to be seen as a recognizable brand?   Does your marketing tell a compelling, relevant story in everything you do?  This may sound elementary but, are you aware of the set budgets, have you read the job descriptions to see if changes should be made to reflect the present business strategy and everyone's role in it?  How about the policy manual, what needs re-working?
    
2.  Decide on the new plan, new goals.  You could be driven by problems and circumstances and make incremental changes that you need to fix again in a year or two when the tension and attention is off them or you can begin your planning by truly creating the business you want.  You do this by designing the desired state of your business or department with all the elements in place.  Turn each outcome into specific goals and begin your action planning on how to get there.

Begin the year this way.  You will be changing your thinking, you will be motivated to learn, develop, work hard (what's new?), work strategically, and to put in place the alignment and organization required to take you from where you are (your assessment) to where you want to go.  Do this and you will have a 'sports team like' sense of urgency.

It's a new year.  My e-mails to you in January are about analyzing, re-thinking, and planning to begin the year to make 2011 and the next couple of years great.  

ACTIONS

Preferably with a team, take an hour and:

1. Make an assessment of talent, management, leadership, community involvement, numbers you measure, offering and story to the market, etc.
    
2.  Take out a piece of paper and write what is the desired state of your area of responsibility (business, department, role) Be sure to state the clear outcomes you want.
    
3.  Begin to plan and organize what it will take to go from your assessment to where you want to go this year.

'Just do it' could be your theme this week.  Sports teams have no choice but to do this every year.  You have the choice, so you will need some 'fire in the belly' leadership to get going.  You can handle it, believe me.

Have a great week!