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The end of each quarter is time to look back and reflect on how things went in the past quarter and plan for the quarter ahead.

Having a business & personal strategy is all about creating an amazing sustainable business and creating a fulfilled, purposeful and meaningful life. Your business and personal strategy is only as good as the reviews you do and the changes you make as a result of these reviews.

When it comes to business strategy and the goals you have set, the quarterly review can be the most important as there is way more progress quarterly than can be seen daily, weekly and monthly which is always motivating.

Ideally you are reviewing progress of your business goals daily, weekly and monthly which makes your quarterly review easier, more streamlined and more effective,

Your quarterly business review is carried out as you approach the end of a quarter so your action plan is in place for the next quarter as it begins or very shortly after.

Here are 6 simple steps to carry out your Business Quarterly Review:

Step 1 – Review your business goals, the metrics you use to indicate progress and the progress itself

Are your goals still relevant?

Ensuring the goals you set at the beginning of the year are still relevant is critical to the success of your business. Having irrelevant goals means you are traveling in the wrong direction which is almost worse than having no goals!

It has never been more important to have relevant, clear, defined, meaningful, achievable and realistic business goals given the changes that have happened to business’s since the start of 2020.

Are the goals you set at the start of 2022 still relevant to you and your business?

Are you prioritising development of and respect for you and your team?

The success of your business is directly correlated to the amount of time you spend developing and supporting your people.

There is no greater way to spend your time than supporting, developing and showing respect to your people.

Do your goals still align with your Business Vision, Mission, True North and Values?

Your Vision is your direction.

No Vision, no direction, no progress!

Do your goals still align to your Vision, Mission, True North & Values of your business?

Are you regularly communicating your Vision, Mission, True North & Values to your people?

Are you regularly making decisions aligned with your Vision, Mission, True North & Values?

If not, your direction exists only on paper which is not the best place to have it!

Note: If you don’t have a Vision, Mission, True North & Values, now would be a good time to start thinking about creating these. No matter where you are in terms of your business, it is never too late to make positive change and that starts with Vision, Mission, True North & Values.

Do you have the correct metrics in place?

Your metrics should highlight progress towards your goals and should also highlight obstacles that get in the way of progress towards your goals,

Do your metrics highlight progress towards your goals?

Do your metrics highlight obstacles that get in the way of progress towards your goals?

When do you review these metrics?

Are you measuring the right things?

Are your metrics at the right level?

Are you improving your processes?

If you are not improving your processes, chances are your metrics are standing still or going backwards!

Process improvements = metrics moving in the right direction = goals achieved

Have you made as much progress as you planned in the past quarter?

Have you enjoyed the progress made or has it been an uphill struggle?

Have you over stretched yourself?

Have you under stretched yourself?

Step 2 – Evaluate what worked in terms of your goals, how were you successful?

What worked for you in the past quarter?

What did you do that enabled this success?

What areas of your business were successful?

What parts of your business did you enjoy?

Step 3 – Evaluate what didn’t work in terms of your goals, what got in the way of success?

What didn’t work for you and got in the way of your goals?

How did you deal with and overcome these obstacles?

What areas of your business were unsuccessful?

What parts of your business did you not enjoy?

Step 4 – Make informed decisions about what your key focus areas for the next quarter

Based on the answers to all of the above, what ACTION will you take for the next quarter?

Strategy reviews are only as good as the ACTIONS that are taken as a result of those reviews.

How can you support, develop and respect your people more in Q2? #PeopleFirst 😊

Are your 2022 goals still achievable based on progress made in the last quarter?
Do you need more goals to stretch yourself?
Do you need less goals to stop over stretching yourself?
Are there goals that no longer serve you?
What are your priority goals for the next quarter?
What are your non priority goals for the next quarter?
What will you do to continue progress in successful areas of your business?
What will you do to learn from and turn around unsuccessful areas of your business?
How will you measure progress of your goals in the next quarter?
What metrics will you update, add, remove?
How often will you update these metrics?
Where will you document your goals, metrics, progress?
How will you communicate your plans to your team?

Step 5 – Document your strategy, goals, metrics & progress

It’s really important to capture your goals, metrics & progress on your goals somewhere. Whether you prefer physically putting pen to paper or to use something electronic there are so many options. The science behind why writing things down to enable success is outlined in the amazing book

‘Write It Down, Make It Happen’.

My favourite tools are below,

Physical – I love Moleskine journals for tracking progress of goals & journalling. Moleskine journals are colourful, hard wearing, long lasting journals of the highest quality. It doesn’t really matter what you use from once you write your goals down and track progress daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly that will, at the end of the year, result in your Annual Review.

Online – My tools of choice online are Google Docs & Google Sheets and Google Slides. These are almost identical to Microsoft WordExcel and PowerPoint.

I use Asana for Project Management and absolutely love it. It has an app which is super simple to use and keeps everything in the one place and all super organised.

These tools are all ABSOLUTELY FREE, are very easy to use and are all you need to set and track progress in your business.

Step 6 – Learn more about Lean Business Strategy

The longer I work in Lean Business Strategy the more I learn.

There is always another level of Lean Business Strategy to move into and there is always so much to learn.

Your will learn the most about your business from your people. Take the tine to listen to them and prioritise their development. There is no end to what your talented people can teach you if you give the time to listen and learn!

If you are looking for a book on Lean Business Strategy, I highly recommend ‘Getting The Right Things Done’ by Pascal Dennis and really any other books by Pascal Dennis.

This is my bible in terms of Lean Business Strategy and Pascal Dennis is one of my favourite Lean mentors.

Getting The Right Things Done is an incredible book that can be visited again and again as you move deeper & deeper into the world of Business Strategy and success.

Below is a list of mentors that I follow and have learned so much from over the years from their books, podcasts etc – Marie Forleo, Amy Porterfield, Katie Anderson, Karen Martin, Pascal Dennie, Brendon Burchard, Robin Sharma, Tony Robbins, Simon Sinek, Dr Wayne Dyer (RIP), Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle. There are many more but these are my favourites!

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at Q1 and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to Q2,

The Art Of Positive Change

Grow Yourself, Grow Your Business

6 Steps to Your Business Quarterly Review