Escape the Resolution Rut
Six Strategies for (Finally) Smashing Business Goals in 2024
As this year draws to a close and we usher in a new one, many of us set New Year’s resolutions as a time-honored tradition. In business, this exercise translates into annual strategic planning and goal-setting. However, an uncomfortable truth lurks underneath the tradition for businesses. According to a 2013 study by The Economist, up to 90% of companies fail to turn their resolutions into reality by failing to achieve their strategic goals. Did your business achieve its strategic goals in 2023?
If you find yourself at your desk or on a drive, take a moment to reflect on the goals that remain unfinished as the end of 2023 approaches. Which objectives did the company miss this year? Why?
Start with understanding the decisions, actions, and factors that made accomplishment elusive. Then, change the narrative for 2024. Keep reading to review the common pitfalls that lead to missed goals and, more importantly, how you can turn the tide in 2024 to transform your company’s aspirations into meaningful results.
Business Resolutions’ Performance Trap
Many businesses, particularly those in the lower mid-market segment, may be caught in a recurring cycle of setting and failing to achieve ambitious annual goals. The reasons are manifold, but they cluster around a few key factors:
Leadership Focus: Many senior leadership teams lack the time and management structure to focus on strategically growing the business (“working on the business”). Instead, they are bogged down in day-to-day operations (“working in the business”). This miscue tends to produce a senior execution team, not authentic leadership. Which, in turn, may drive misalignment of investment in financial, human, and operating capital for the business with anticipated but missed margin growth.
Goal-Setting and Planning: An effective and realistic goal-setting process often needs to be implemented to replace the current one. Management’s approach today may produce goals that are vague, too ambitious, or not truly aligned with the company’s capabilities or market reality. Or, they simply aren’t treated as necessary by the organization. We also see often that the goals are set only at a corporate level; they are not cascaded down to the department, team, and individual employee levels. Even when the right goals are set, they may not be appropriately implemented and managed continuously to ensure the business drives towards and exceeds these annual objectives.
Lack of Accountability: Senior leadership must communicate clear accountability for accomplishing these goals. When they do not, the lack of ownership can lead to goals being neglected or forgotten. Employees in the business need more context to understand the importance of the goals and their value in contributing towards the success of the objectives and the company. Even worse for the business, both managers and employees may not take the process seriously if, year after year, they have witnessed missed strategic targets and a lack of accountability. Instead, they view the annual exercise as a one-off distraction from their daily work. Because of the visibility, poor goal-setting practices and accountability can produce a company culture that lacks accountability since the employees see it consistently demonstrated by the senior leadership team.
Operational Cadence: Many companies lack a systematic approach to regularly review, adjust, and drive forward their goals, which can further hamper goal achievement. If the operating cadence is not maintained for even short periods, this disruption can perturb company effectiveness - putting those strategic goals out of reach.
Six Strategies for Smashing Strategic Goals in 2024
To make 2024 a year of mighty achievement for your business, turn the tide on how your company sets, manages, and accomplishes its strategic goals. Consider incorporating these six strategies for smashing strategic goals into your operations:
Elevate Leadership: Shift your leadership team from solely focusing on day-to-day tasks (“working in the business”) to the business’ borders where strategic growth happens. It would be best to forge seamless connections between strategic vision and operational tasks. This means dedicating time and resources to meticulously plan, rigorously review, and proactively manage business and corporate development initiatives (“working on the business”). Do this, and your leadership team can focus then on steering the business towards growth opportunities that deliver impact.
Disciplined Goal Setting Precision: Effective strategic goal setting begins with 1-3 significant corporate goals for the year. The key here is ensuring that they are SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-boxed. These overarching, companywide goals break into quarterly milestones, providing a realistic and ambitious roadmap. They break down further by strategy, function, or market, which adds precision to the roadmap your management team will use to lead. By defining success clearly and precisely, you align all efforts with an achievable overarching definition for the company to pursue.
Organizational Alignment: Foster unity and common purpose within your organization by developing and aligning department, team, and individual goals with the broader corporate objectives and key results. Work continually to ensure that every employee understands their crucial role in achieving the bigger picture. This alignment strengthens interdepartmental collaboration and reinforces a collective commitment to the organization’s success.
Accountability and Progress: Every employee should have visibility to strategic goals – theirs, the team’s, the division’s, the the company’s. Schedule regular, dedicated time at all levels of the organization to review progress, address challenges, and remove bottlenecks hindering progress toward these goals. By instilling a sense of involvement in hitting company goals, employees are better aligned to achieve their own goals. This fosters a proactive culture of accountability within your organization, resulting in less time spent by your leadership team on managing daily activities and more time driving the company forward.
Cultivate Trust and Tackle Issues: Craft a culture of trust and openness by creating an environment where issues are raised to be discussed openly and without reservation. Encourage transparent communication within and between teams to diagnose and treat the root causes of problems rather than merely managing symptoms. Trust emerges from leaders and teams focusing on solving the problem, not attacking the person. Foster an environment where vertical feedback loops flow freely, enabling senior leadership to extract valuable insights from every level of your organization.
Regular Reviews and Adjustments: Conduct regular (at least quarterly) check-ins throughout the organization to assess progress and extract valuable lessons from successes and setbacks. These check-ins also allow you to realign goals as needed with the evolving realities of your business landscape. Listen intently to all employees, gaining a deeper understanding of their perspectives and insights. These regular reviews serve as a performance evaluation and a dynamic process for continuous improvement and alignment with the organization’s growth trajectory.
These Six Strategies for Smashing Goals enable your organization to forge a robust foundation for growth, foster a culture of accountability, and navigate the dynamic business landscape with agility and resilience.
Embark on Your Journey to Operational Excellence with Alpine
Break free of the vicious cycle of perennially setting goals that will be missed or ignored. As we step into 2024, now is an excellent time to shift your perspective and approach. We specialize in helping companies make these shifts.
At Alpine Growth Partners, we are leaders driving leaders and their businesses toward greatness. Our team of former CEOs, COOs, and seasoned operators specializes in turning potential into performance. We’re not here to create dependencies; we aim to develop capabilities by empowering your leadership and teams with the tools and strategies they need for sustainable growth and margin expansion.
Don’t know where to start? Or, perhaps you do but want a second opinion. Please take our quick, 10-question Operational Snapshot. This isn’t just a survey; it’s the first step towards a roadmap tailored to your business’s unique performance management challenges and opportunities. The insights you will gain provide a foundation upon which we can help you build a stronger, more resilient, and thriving business.
Your journey toward operational excellence and strategic success begins here. Let’s make 2024 the year when your business sets AND achieves its ambitious goals.