It’s halftime, how did you do? The end of June represents halftime for the personal goals and business objectives you set for the year. Much like in a football game, the scoreboard only tells part of the story at the end of the second quarter. So, before you kick-off the second half of the year, the wise thing to do is a mid-year business review.
While the band is on the field at halftime, coaches and players are examining film and adjusting X’s and O’s to come up with a winning second-half game plan. Sadly though, many small business owners and sales professionals emerge from the July 4th holiday break with the same plan that has been in place since January.
We Know We Should
The cars we drive, the planes we fly in, and the high-tech machines we use all need to be tuned and calibrated to ensure optimal performance. Intuitively we know our lives and our businesses have similar demands, yet we fail to schedule the time for this review. It is encouraging to see more and more of my small business owner clients incorporating a mid-year business review into their management philosophy.
Common Reasons Why We Don’t
And while more of my clients are open to this, there are two common scenarios where people resist doing a mid-year business review.
“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” Things are going well and nothing appears to be broken. Think about the typical fast-food drive-thru lane, for decades they operated as a single lane. Nothing was broken, but a review of how the drive-thru lane could be improved led to adding a second lane. Which ultimately decreased the wait time when placing an order for customers and added 7-10% to the bottom line for the store.
“I’m so far behind, why bother.” Things don’t always go as planned. People quit. Suppliers fall behind. A host of things can stall or impede our progress toward goals and objectives. So, if you fall short of expectations the best thing you can do is a mid-year review. Take time to assess what progress you’ve made and appreciate how far you’ve come. Strategic Coach Founder Dan Sullivan calls this approach, minding the gap.
Minding The Gap
Sullivan describes The Gap as, “the permanent distance between the ideal and the actual.” So, when our focus is exclusively on the gap we can get discouraged and lose motivation. It is easy to be mired in the muck.
One way to “mind the gap” is doing a mid-year review. By acknowledging and appreciating the personal growth which occurred, your focus shifts from the gap to the gain. And while you may not be where you hoped to be, but you aren’t where you were, either!
So, celebrate the progress and be motivated to narrow the gap even further in the second half of the year.
To quote the famous philosopher Ferris Bueller:
Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it!
Make Halftime Count
Life does move very fast. But since June represent halftime now is the perfect time for a mid-year business review. So take the time to reassess your strategies before moving forward into the second half of the year. The mid-year review is more than an exercise, it’s a blueprint which aligns actions with goals that sets the stage for your success in the second half of the year.
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