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Most business New Year’s Resolutions are bogus, but only because CEOs fail to make them a priority. Commit to these resolutions in 2015 and your business will thrive.
As the year draws to a close, many CEOs begin to reflect on what they accomplished over the previous 12 months and what they could do to improve themselves (and their companies) in the coming year. Often times, this leads to CEOs coming up with a list of BHAGs (big, hairy, audacious goals) that may or may not be attainable (think: In 2015, I’m going to grow my company’s revenue from $100,000 to $100 million!).
Truth is, I love BHAGs. I think they allow CEOs (and employees) to dream a little bit and push the boundaries of what they thought was possible. Unfortunately, BHAGs can also distract CEOs from the smaller, simpler changes that have a better chance of creating significant impact (think: If I stop eating three donuts every morning and work out for 20 minutes a day, four days a week, then I can reach the big, hairy, audacious goal of losing 50 pounds in 2015).
Those smaller goals are the ones I want to focus on in this post.
So, without further ado, here are 10 possible New Year’s resolutions that CEOs may want to consider committing to in 2015:
1. Focus on your customers
For 12 consecutive weeks, pick up the phone and call (or meet) with at least three customers that you don’t already know. There is nothing like customer conversations to truly understand how your organization is perceived in the market (and perception is truly reality). After each call, try to determine a couple of changes you can actually implement.
2. Improve your product
Identify the areas of your product that are most desperate for improvement (hint: ease of use is probably one of them), and spend the first 90 days of the year helping your product groups brainstorm improvements AND build the processes, organization, and staff to make ongoing enhancements. Set and meet measurable progress goals by the end of Q1.
3. Get into the customer services trenches
Sit with your customer service staff for a half-day each week (for at least 4 weeks) and answer incoming customer service requests. You can use the knowledge you gain to make 1-2 significant changes (e.g., product feature, product usability adjustments, customer self-help tools, etc.) to drastically improve overall customer success and service.
4. Evaluate your marketing
Choose a (simple) brand message and make sure that by the end of Q1, everyone inside your organization recites the message when prompted (this is not as easy as you think and should be measured by random prompts at the end of the quarter). You might also focus on improving or optimizing a particular marketing tactic or strategy (for instance, your content marketing program).
5. Optimize your sales process
Put 1-2 new sales approaches in place that significantly improve the efficiency and/or effectiveness of your sales funnel — and set goals for noticeable improvement by the end of Q1. For example, channel sales teams could improve their online channel partner support or optimize partner training. BDR teams could work on their lead hand-off procedures or lead nurturing programs. As the CEO, you should lead these initiatives and give them your stamp of approval. (For more, check out this eBook on how to build an outbound B2B lead generation team that drives sales.)
6. Improve employee morale
Take one employee to a one-on-one breakfast or lunch each week for 12 weeks (or until you run out of employees to take out). This will go a long way toward improving your relationship with employees and overall team morale, and you’ll glean key insight that can help you make significant changes by the end of Q1. (See: Get More Talent: How to Build the Talent Factory Your Company Needs to Scale).
7. Tweak your overall strategy
Want to beat your market’s Goliath? Consider implementing one of the strategies from this eBook(or come up with one on your own). The goal here is to create or increase a competitive advantage, and make considerable progress against your biggest rivals.
8. Drive better financial results
Take your current plan for Q1 and figure out how to outperform it by 10-15% on the bottom line in the first quarter. How can you do this? By raising the bar on hiring, focusing on better cost management, or getting involved in closing more sales. Oh, and you may also want to assess your organization’s financial maturity.
9. Focus on company-wide execution
Make sure that each of your direct reports has 3-5 major goals for Q1 that are tied to objective measures for success (and ask your direct reports do the same thing with their employees). Also, establish a regular (at least weekly) review of progress against key activities and goals. For a good overview on what this process looks like, check out this case study.
10. Have fun
Pretty simple, right? While goal-setting and team-wide improvements are important, you can’t forget about company culture. It’s critical that you (and your team) wake up every day excited and passionate about your work. To make this happen, implement a few initiatives that allow your entire team to occasionally step away from their work, loosen up, and do something they enjoy (that doesn’t involve work).
There you have it.
Now, I wouldn’t recommend trying to tackle all of those resolutions at once. In fact, I’d suggest choosing the 2-3 resolutions that are most relevant to your business and focusing only on those in Q1 and Q2. If you try to follow through with all 10 at once, it’s unlikely you’ll accomplish anything.
So, which resolution(s) will you choose? And what will you do to ensure you don’t blow these resolutions within the first few weeks or months of the year? Share your ideas and suggestions in the comments section below.
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