Image Credit: Madhuri Gupta
When it comes to business strategy and the goals you have set, the Mid Year Review is the most important as there is way more progress in 6 months than can be seen daily, weekly and monthly or even quarterly which is highly motivating.
Ideally you are reviewing progress of your business goals daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly which makes your Mid Year Review easier, more streamlined and more effective,
Your Mid Year Business Review is carried out as you approach the end of June so your action plan is in place for July or shortly after.
Here are 6 simple steps to carry out your Business Mid Year Review:
Step 1 – Review your business goals, the metrics you use to measure 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!
Are the goals you set at the start of 2022 still relevant to you and your business?
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!
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 change 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 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
Step 2 – Evaluate what worked for you, 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?
What parts of your business brought you happiness and joy?
Step 3 – Evaluate what didn’t work for you, 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?
What parts of your business did not bring you happiness and joy?
Step 4 – Make informed decisions about your key focus areas for the next quarter/6 months
Based on the answers to all of the above, what ACTION will you take for the next quarter/6 months?
Strategy reviews are only as good as the ACTIONS that are taken as a result of those reviews.
- Are your 2022 goals still achievable based on progress made in the last 6 months?
- 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/6 months?
- What are your non priority goals for the next quarter/6 months?
- 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/6 months?
- 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 and share your strategy, goals, metrics & progress
It’s really important to capture your goals, metrics & progress on your goals somewhere.
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.
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 for documenting are,
Physical – I love Moleskine journals for tracking progress of goals & journalling. Moleskine journals are colourful, hard wearing, long lasting journals of the highest quality.
Online – My tools of choice online are Google Docs & Google Sheets and Google Slides. These are almost identical to Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint.
I use Asana for Project Management and absolutely love it. Asana 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.
When you have completed your Business Mid Year Review it’s critical that you share the outcome of your review and your plans for the next quarter/6 months with your team.
There is no greater way to show respect to your people than sharing the progress they have made and the plans you have for them in the future.
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 learn about.
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.
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 Lean Business Strategy and success.
This is my bible in terms of Lean Business Strategy and Pascal Dennis is one of my favourite Lean mentors.
The best place to learn about your business is from your people. Ensuring your people are your primary source of learning will not only sky rocket your business but will also deliver a Lean culture where people are deeply respected.
Take the time to listen to your team 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!
I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at the last 6 months and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to the next 6 months.
If you liked this post, you might like like my post on the
‘A Guide to Your Personal Mid Year Review’
Want to read more about Positive Change in life & business?
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Thanks for reading,
Siobhain
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