The Essential Checklist for Leaders
I offered to help a friend think about all the things necessary to set up a new business.
I first checked online and found a number of resources available to get anyone started, such as the following:
In reviewing these checklists, however, I felt like some pieces were missing from my own experience.
I am suggesting the following ten essentials required to ensure your business or organization is on solid footing with the ability to grow and adapt to the ever-changing winds of the internal and external forces.
Know your why. Simon Sinek wasn’t wrong when he encouraged business owners to know their cause and their compelling purpose. What is the reason behind your mission?
Organizational culture is incredibly important and I would argue the most important. What kind of culture do you want to foster? This should determine how you recruit and work with your team, how you treat your customers, your relationships with vendors and all that holds you accountable. Consider these Essential Management Principles to support creating the organizational culture which will keep you and your team working at your best.
Communicate, communicate, communicate. Regularly and often. Ensure your team, your clients and your vendors know your mission, vision and values...and your team should be very clear on your goals and how they contribute to that.
Take the time to plan. Do a SOAR analysis to better understand your strengths, opportunities, aspirations and results. I think this is a more thoughtful assessment than a SWOT analysis. Then use this information to develop and update your strategic plan. This plan should support your managers to create tactical, operational and contingency plans.
Be clear on your vision, your mission, and your values. Make it easy to read and distribute.
Data gathering is key for your key performance indicators (KPIs). What are the KPIs that will help you know whether you are meeting your strategic goals? What data will you need to track your KPIs?
Pay attention to your organizational structure -- what activities are required, who makes the decisions for those activities, who will be responsible for these activities and who will perform these activities. Use a RACI Matrix to help identify these activities and roles. Then find the right people to fill those roles and keep your structure as flat as possible.
Principles, policies, and procedures will be needed for the above noted activities. Start with the principles which will allow you and your team to have some flexibility in how to get things done easily. Keep the policies and procedures simple and meaningful to ensure the right balance of compliance and maximizing productivity and creativity.
File storage is a necessity. Where will you keep any files? How will they be organized to ensure anyone can find them and how will they know they are current? How long will you need to keep these files?
You will need the systems, channels and tools to ensure all of the above can be fulfilled.
These 10 essentials are the ultimate responsibility of any leader. I don’t mean for the leader to do all of these things themselves -- they just need to make sure these things are taken care of. And if the right people are identified to make that happen, I’m sure they will find other ways to make your organization even better.
Note: Adviso provides a great resource for mapping out your mission, objectives, strategy, tactics and KPIs.
Photo: Tammy Brimner/TLBVelo Photography
