Fall Back to Fast Forward

Do you begin to actively realign your team’s sites on what’s important in order to meet year-end goals? Do you work toward getting everyone recommitted to give their very best on the job all the way to the end of the year?

Chances are you answered, no, to these questions. If that’s the case, I hate to say it, but you are like most managers when it comes to the fourth quarter of the year. Most have run out of steam and enthusiasm, and choose to simply wait it out, all the while hoping that by some miracle, the department/company will come close to meeting its goals after all.

My belief is, those following this philosophy are missing the boat (and a huge opportunity!),  big time!

Fall is the perfect time to gain renewed employee-commitment by redefining the goals; not just reiterating those set at the beginning of the year. Goals set in January may have been unrealistic based on actual market events, or may have been out of reach due to some unforeseen circumstance. At any rate, what is important now, is that new goals be established that are reasonable and attainable during the final months of the year.

In order to make the most of the remaining months, schedule a team off-site retreat. A retreat will allow the team to step away from their daily business interactions, provide an opportunity to reflect on where the team currently stands, and clearly identify the new destination to be reached. Taking people out of their normal work environment encourages openness and collaboration among employees who might otherwise have little interaction. This builds rapport and trust across the organization. Surprising ideas and commitments are generated through the retreat process.

The focus of this off-site meeting is on inviting employees and managers to build a plan together to achieve the revised year-end goals, encourage collaboration among all participants, outline the specific steps to take, and identify key individuals to champion specific initiatives.

I recommend that you hire a professional facilitator, (ME!), to assist you with this process. It is important that those within management play an active and equal role to employees in the process. When a senior manager tries to facilitate a meeting such as this, creativity and innovation may be squelched. Employees become hesitant to fully participate fearing their jobs may be at risk if they say too much.

With me as the facilitator, team members will have an opportunity to identify, explore, and overcome challenges that have blocked their efforts in the past. As a result of trust being strengthened among team players, and communication improved, employee engagement and personal ownership will emerge renewed!