|
by Andrew Lam-Po-Tang
Things to think about in the new year
If you own or manage a business
- Spend a day or two locked away from the studio and the team working out your 2-3 big objectives for the year. Keep them simple and concrete. For example, "increase revenue by at least 15%", or "do at least X corporate identity projects", or "meet with 3 new prospects every month", etc. Look at an annual calendar when forming your objectives to add some "timing discipline" to the objectives. Good quality management objectives are measurable, so test the wording and specificity of your objectives to see if they could be measured by someone other than yourself - refine them until they meet this criteria. Keep the printed list of objectives on your desk all year.
- Spend a day or two thinking about the business performance metrics that you would like to see on a one page "dashboard" report, either monthly or weekly. Think carefully about who you should share this information with. In my experience, it is better for a business for all of the leadership team to have access to the key performance metrics as then the key people don't need to second-guess you as to what the priorities are.
- Revisit the standard agenda for your weekly work-in-progress/studio management meeting. Business managers tend to put at the top of the agenda whatever they want to focus on, in particualr areas of current weakness - after a year you may find that some issues are now well under control, so perhaps it is time to reprioritise the agenda and put the "new" weakness at the top of the list. If you do decided to recut your agenda, make sure you have also revisited the list of invitees.
If you are an employee
- Spend some time working out and writing down your professional objectives for this year. They should be simple and measurable (as per the business objectives described above). Book some time with your manager to discuss them. Expect to negotiate with your manager to arrive at a list which both of you can agree to (if one of your objectives is to leave the firm, don't discuss this as it will probably be taken the wrong way).
- Think about your favourite reference publications and other sources of inspiration (can be activities, other places, museums, etc.) - can you update that list now?
- Make a short (5-10 items) list of the tasks at work that you find a real bore/chore to do. Stick the list on your desk so that you se it every day. Use it to stimulate your thinking about how you can get more efficient at those tasks, so that they waste less of your time. Alternatively, use the list for a discussion with your manager about whether someone else is better placed to do those things.
Cheers and have a great 2004!
Return to Observations
AGDA Members: Discuss this article in AGDA's Business Forum.
The views expressed this article are not necessarily those of AGDA. Please note that the information in this article is the opinion of the author only. I can therefore accept no responsibility for actions taken on the basis of this information. Copyright Andrew Lam-Po-Tang (andrew@lam-po-tang com), 1998-2008. Permission is granted to freely copy this document in electronic form, or to print, for personal use. Reprinting for non-personal use will require the express permission of the author (which I will generally be very happy to give).
|
