What we see is our “Must Do List” between now and Thanksgiving.
Why: We all know it is extremely difficult to keep focused and complete our projects between Thanksgiving and the New Year.
Our Top 5 Must Do’s
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Priority One: Client Care
Take care of customers by delivering with both a superior product or service and communication that wows the clients. (This might be the best marketing we can do to secure our future).
Completion date: Now -
Comprehensive Continuous Improvement List
It is critical to make sure everyone is crystal clear what we are working on to improve and setup our future. Clarify projects that must be completed between now and Thanksgiving. Why? It’s simple: Change or die.Your continuous improvement projects list needs to be public and reviewed weekly.Note: Ask us how to do this and/or meet with one of our C.I. project managers to assist you if needed. We can also provide you with a form to use that will make this easier.
Completion date: Now -
Do an anonymous company-wide survey to give all stakeholders a voice in assessing 2018 and planning 2019.
This is a step most of us skip. We need to stop, review, and complete 2018 vs just having 2018 run into 2019 without using a process approach on assessing and planning. Why? Worldwide research (ask for this if you want it) indicates over 50% of our staff needs time to process this.
Completion date: By Thanksgiving or earlier if you are a very large group of people. -
At Thanksgiving/Holiday provide a sincere “thank you’s” to all stakeholders that have contributed to 2018.
2 Reasons why:
- It costs very little to say thank you and it is a kind, personal way to express our gratitude to those who brought us to where we are at today.
- Most of us have 50% of our staff people who are high on the “people” side of the equation and who want and need to hear we appreciate them. Doing this, as a process, can be the start of enrolling their support for 2019 (and increases the possibility of retaining them).
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Take Care of Yourself
We cannot be the leaders we want or need to be for others unless we first insure that we are taking care of ourselves. As the flight attendant says, “Put the mask on yourself first!”
Thanksgiving to December 31st
When we have done the above well, we are ready to design and package a great 2019 game plan to support and achieve our 2019 vision, mission and values.
PS: To help you sort out how you might do this for yourself and give you a head start, we are offering a FREE introduction session on Continuous Improvement to assist you.
Call/email us at 773-641-9631 or John@JohnRuh.com.
Written by John Ruh
John M. Ruh and Associates are mission based business advisors who partner with growth oriented leaders to create the right P.S.T. support: the right People, the right Structure and the right Tools.