It’s January and for many this is the last week of the first month of the fiscal year. If you did your job well, if you cascaded your strategy, set proper KPIs, your teams now know what to do.
So next week, when you close January, when Finance rolls up the numbers you’ll have your first monthly review and you’ll be red or green.
KPI = GREEN
When you are green, when you hit your most important KPIs – in the first month – a few things could be going on:
- You we’re lucky with for example a big order
- Your commercial teams were sandbagging at saved some of their december orders/opportunities to January
- You executed against your plan and genuinely hit your KPI – you probably need more ambition in your KPIs (read: why your need to be red throughout the year).
KPI = RED
If you are red, as you are kind of supposed to be, it’s time to answer these three questions I always ask my teams:
- What’s going on?
- Why? (repeat 5 times)
- So what?
If the first to questions are answered, quickly, dead simple, supported by data and if it doesn’t relate at all to the plan or the strategy, just continue. No need to do problem solving.
At the end of month 1, the main answer to the first ‘why’ typically is “We were late out of the gate”. We didn’t do what we were supposed to do, because the team wasn’t ready, the KPIs weren’t set, the action plan etc etc. If this is all the case, it’s just a matter of execution. Just ask the team what they need to do and need from you to get back on track. Should be fixed within a week or two.
So unless after one month you find your strategy is off, customers have changed their mind or the world has changed, stay the course. Don’t waste time driving extensive problem solving if you know what the issue is and everyone agrees on a counter measure.
Good luck with your first reviews! Let me know if you need help.