The Success Factors
In working with technical / scientific type clients with teams across the USA, I have found some things they all have in common which are pivotal to their success. We refer to these as The Success Factors.
Some challenging things they may have in common include:
> Being overly focused on the transactional
> The inability to find bigger picture strategic thinking time
> Frustration over communication systems that don’t integrate
> Lack of leadership advocacy / influence for making important things happen
A very useful remedy to this situation is to gather the teams together and drill down on what makes them successful. In other worlds, get them out of the routine, off-site if needed) and get the answers to these questions:
1) If we fast forward to the end this year, (or next year – you pick time) and look back,
tell me what must have happened in order for us to call it a successful year?
These may be things like new initiatives started or completed, Revenue streams supported, Results as measured by Metrics achieved.
2) As we look back, verbalize which barriers were removed that had an immediate and emphatic impact on the success of the team?
These will usually be things like, Removal of bottlenecks – needless bureaucracy, Lack of formalized Roles and Responsibilities, Under-utilization of delegation and Disparate competing cultures within the organization.
3) As we look back, how were we seen by the enterprise and how do we want / need to be seen in order to be successful?
These is the Internal Marketing Plan to the greater Organization to position the team as a reliable and trusted business partners vs past perception or “noise.” It may also entail Changing our Internal Brand, ie the way we identify and internally market ourselves to the organization.
If the year is flying by and you wonder, “Why haven’t we made a bigger dent in our most important initiatives this year?” try answering these Success Factor questions above and
then allocate Time towards the things that spell SUCCESS!
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