I remember my parents lamenting how quickly time passed and, as a kid, I thought they were crazy. Every day seemed to crawl along. Now, I get it. A blink ago it was December and we were all planning our amazing 2020. Little did we know what 2020 had in store. Now, we’re almost to December again.
How are you coming on those plans? If you’re a typical agency — you’re behind.
Distractions, especially this year, (both worthy and the squirrel variety) have drawn your attention and your time away from your biggest priorities.
It’s not too late but it is time to get serious about it. Here’s what I’d like you to do:
- Pull together any planning documents you developed for 2021
- Schedule a 2-3 hour meeting with your leadership team
- A week ahead of that meeting, send them all the documents with your assessment of the agency’s progress on each goal
Ask them to come prepared to discuss:
- Is this still a priority? (For each item)
- What do we need to do to get this back on track/keep on track?
- Who needs to own this goal/initiative?
- If we only accomplished one of these goals — which one matters the most?
Have an open conversation around these questions and then revise your plan. Odds are, you were more ambitious than is reasonable. So get realistic with yourselves and get back on track.
Note — if you don’t have any planning documents — that does not mean you should disregard this. You can still pull everyone together and create a plan for the new year. It’s time to build a rock-solid foundation for your agency. Think about how to strengthen your current client relationships, increase your employee satisfaction to keep the ship steady, and fire up the biz dev efforts.
Now is the time. Take full advantage of it and give yourself every opportunity to finish 2020 as strong as you can.
I’d love to hear how the meeting went. You are going to have it, right?
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