The year-end holidays and the new year celebrations bring “end-of-month”, “end-of-quarter” and “end-of-year” metrics for companies, groups, divisions, regions, individual leaders with budgets, and sales people, and any others who are measured on these time-sensitive numbers.
Congratulations to those who were successful and for those who did not make it, good luck keeping your job.
On to 2022
You are now faced with 2022 as you close out the 2021 books. Everyone wants the best start they can get. Some of us are better situated than others as we enter 2022. I will begin a series of “Focus 2022” blog posts in the first quarter of the year which I hope will help many CEOs and people that are struggling. What are the reasons for these struggles? The continued pandemic, business fluctuations, resource dynamics as employees change jobs and others lose their jobs due to layoffs and general stressful post-holiday syndromes!
As CEO, let’s create a short list of things you can look at and take action on to begin your 2022:
- People
- Process
- Products/Services
- Company Culture
People
Do you have senior leadership team members that are not delivering? Are there any team members or employees needing training? Do you trust your team members to get the job done or are there questions? Actions suggested: for 2022, implement training for everyone, from your senior/executive leadership teams to your back office empoloyees who make the ofice run – billing, order processing, etc. As hard as it may be, eliminate those not delivering unless the training will move them into a different role to deliver results.
Process
Are your processes efficient? Do you need to change meetings for optimized operations or time management? Actions suggested: for 2022, look at everything from the perspective of efficiency, resources, cost and time. Anytime you can shave off time for efficiency, you save costs and enhance quality.
Product/Services
Regardless if you are a hardware/software product company or Saas company, you need to take a health check. Actions suggested: for 2022, review product line/service P&L and for older lines, consider end-of-life exercises, raising prices, bundling to increase deal sizes or other ways to reduce costly lines of business not generating revenues or profits required. Talk to customer service/success teams and learn about trends and feedback about products and services. Align 2022 plans with successful, growing and scaling product lines and double down on marketing and sales.
Company Culture
This is one area that I write a lot about. In my 2x award-winning book, The Rookie CEO, You Can’t Make This Stuff Up!, I say that the CEO’s philosophies and leadership styles drive company culture. I provide ideas to help with culture in the book.
Talking to your customers, partners and employees will give you a snapshot of perceived culture. Actions suggested: for 2022, include the above discussions plus an open and frank discussion with your leadership team. Ask each leadership team member to nominate one person from their teams to form a culture task force team that will continuously gather feedback and input. In a joint meeting with the task force and leadership team, review suggested activities that will inspire employees, increase engagement and increase job satisfaction.
Summary
Once you execute the above analysis, prioritize what makes sense for your company in 2022 with your leadership team. Kick off a multi-phased approach in January for Q1, Q2, and maybe Q3 to improve your overall employee satisfaction and your culture will follow and flourish.
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