In last week’s blog, we introduced the concept of Growth Months. February, March, and April set the tone for the year. So how do we stay focused on these Growth Months?

I would start with the example of Jim’s 12 Questions. Jim Collins, the author of many leadership books like Good to Great, suggests that we break down our year by having 12 months of disciplined thought. Twelve Questions (jimcollins.com) My suggestion here is that you build on Jim’s 12 Questions by also having your own Guru 12; 12 months of focused work. Today, we’ll review the focus for each of the first five months of the year:

Guru 12

Alignment Month
January – Call to Action for all employees. Align vision with initiatives and clearly communicate the goals of the organization and how each functional area of the business is necessary to achieve those goals. Finish all performance reviews and establish goals individually that roll up to the company goals.

Growth Months
February – Fully engaged with all business growth initiatives, focused on greatest opportunities for the entire company. Also, manage all partnerships that directly relate to those opportunities. These could be vendors and channel partners.

March – Scorecard progress and goals. No one in the organization should not have something to measure their daily/weekly progress. Make them visual and current. We all have a number. Leadership should be meeting weekly to review the scorecard and making necessary changes as quickly as possible.

April – Review and reset with all employees. Have a second-quarter Call to Action, and share what has been learned, progress made, and next steps. Leaders have individual 1-2-1 meetings with all contributors to review their individual progress. Complete Excellence Meetings format if necessary.

Momentum Month

May – Don’t let the warm weather slow you down. Take new products and new processes to your “A” customer list. Growth requires retention as well. Be involved where it makes sense to be involved. As a leader, you don’t want to take over these meetings; you want to be present, show support, and let your customers know how important they are to your business.

We know that the Guru 12 will look slightly different for each business. If you’d like help building your 12-month focused/disciplined year, please get in touch with us.