For most organizations, December is all about closing out the year – grabbing those final deals, checking inventory, closing open loops. January is all about coming out of the stocks fast – go, go, go! – with February and March only a little less so.So it’s likely that November is the last opportunity you’ll have for quite a while to step back from the ‘what’ of your business and take a look instead at the ‘who’ (you already looked at the ‘why’ earlier in October, didn’t you?).
Here are my top 3 ‘Who’ questions for you to consider this weekend before November starts – I’m sure you can add your own. These build nicely on the 10 questions to jump-start your strategic plan.
Just write down one answer per question. Only come back to add more names after you’ve done something specific about the first three names you write (the secret sauce is in italics):
1. Who did you work with this year (employee, contractor, supplier, vendor) that you would be better off not working with next year? What are you going to do about it?
2. Who (employee, contractor, supplier, vendor) do you not work with now, that you positively want to work with next year? What are you going to do about it?
3. Who would you most like to confide in / seek advice from next year? What are you going to do about it?