Managers need to be proactive in their approach

It’s the first 100 days” has been a topic of discussion for six straight quarterly strategy review sessions. For six quarters, the top management team was discussing the same issue. And obviously they were not making any progress as the topic stayed in the minutes rolling from one quarter to the next.

Watching this play out made me wonder, “Why don’t they do what they know they need to?”

In construction, the first 100 days really matter. The old axiom holds true — how you start will determine how you finish. But what’s the risk of missing a day here or there at the beginning in a long construction project?

After all, there may be years to make the day up. It is the difference between finishing on time or being late, which equates to making a profit or not.

When the bid is put in and plans are in place, they don’t include “flex” time, meaning missing a day here and there is not part of the plan. So when you do, the result is also not as planned.

What is the equivalent of the first 100 days for you? What repeatedly stands in the way of your business accomplishing what you want in the way you want?

According to a LinkedIn survey, 89 per cent of professionals do not complete what they plan in any given day. Employees are easily distracted! They are distracted by “organisational life”, that is, what happens inside the walls of your company.

They are distracted by a lack of clarity in the direction of the company, left guessing and filling it in, thus distracting more people. And they are distracted by all of our modern social platforms. Distractions are the culprit in not finishing what you say.

I found it interesting that professionals in agriculture claim to be the most productive, with 83 per cent saying they get done what they planned and on time.

I guess it’s the industry DNA — you can’t miss a harvest or the crops die.

Since I read the results of this alarming survey, I’ve shared it with several CEOs who nonchalantly responded with “I’m not surprised.” Their indifference surprised me. It seems that their employees not finishing what they set out to do each day may not really bother leaders.

Well, it should. This is one of the easiest places to create surplus value — to extract more value in your business without increasing input value. And it is very easy to fix coming down to how — and how frequently — you monitor.

Do you proactively monitor helping your employees succeed? Or do you get caught in the leadership trap of relying on management reports for monitoring?

Most of the monitoring by report is done after the fact. It is monitoring after something has — or has not been — achieved. I cringe as I give this example as you shouldn’t have to monitor a to-do list.

But in the spirit of the LinkedIn survey, if you monitor the daily accomplishment of a to-do list after the day is over, what is done is done and what isn’t, isn’t. There is nothing you can do after the fact about what was not achieved.

Ability to correct

So relying on after the fact information does not help your team to finish what was planned. You can monitor reactively, after the fact, or proactively — beforehand. That is where you should spend your time, monitoring before — and while — your employees are performing. Then, if someone is behind schedule or off-course, you can still make the correction while you have time to deliver what is planned. While it made me cringe thinking about monitoring a daily to-do list, if an employee is not accomplishing what they set out to do, aren’t they creating the need for you to monitor more closely? If you do nothing, then nothing will change.

Pro-actively monitor to help people succeed rather than talk about what was done or not. When it is over, there is nothing you can do about it.

How you start and what you do every moment of each day matters for how you finish. Lead your team with the finish in mind.

According to a LinkedIn survey, 89 per cent of professionals do not complete what they plan in any given day. Employees are easily distracted! They are distracted by “organisational life”. Pro-actively monitor to help people succeed rather than talk about what was done or not. When it is over, there is nothing you can do about it. Lead your team with the finish in mind.