photo credit: alexkerhead

The end of December is always full of parties and year-end lists. This one is no different, except, well, there are decade-end lists, too.

It’s a good time to stop and think about what you accomplish this year, and what you want to accomplish next year.

Did you have goals for your business and for yourself? Did you accomplish them? Do you have goals for next year? Are they aggressive enough, or are you sandbagging? Can you push yourself to do more?

Was 2009 the year you took a risk? Made big changes? Got laid off? Figured out next steps? Went back to school?

Is 2010 the year you’ll make a big change in your career? Start a business? Go back to school?

A year is a long time while you’re living it, but easy to compress into a snapshot in retrospect. What you take away as the memorable moments from 2009 will define what the year meant in your life. You have a chance to influence what those will be in 2010. What will you remember?

Happy Monday! Go get ‘em, tiger.

photo credit: Nrbelex

I just finished the latest draft of our business plan. I hate writing business plans and tweaking spreadsheets. I only do it because there’s a chance it could wind up getting my company the money we need to grow.

Yesterday, I was speaking with a community group about how my company started. I was telling them about the first conversation between my business partner and I and how the outcome was an outline of the dry erase board. We still have a picture of it, somewhere, like it was our Rosetta Stone, helping us figure out where we were headed. Maybe it will be like Google’s garage.

Whether you run your own online business or you manage something that’s very offline, it’s important to think of how it all got started. Time and again, entrepreneurs and corporate leaders end up at a place questioning when it all changed. They wonder why a job they used to love turned into one they hate.

For me, it always helps to go back to the beginning. Or to put it on paper. Or to remind myself of the vision of what we’re trying to create. Doing so will help you find your place and make sure you don’t end up somewhere you don’t want to be.

What’s your relic? A founding document? An original business plan, piece of packaging or early prototype? Or, what keeps you on track towards that which you’ve been trying to create all along?

photo credit: AMagill

Many years ago I worked for an institution with some very bad habits about a tiny group of people making all the decisions. It felt bad when the decisions were handed down, and even worse when I was asked to participate in the method. Needless to say I’m not there anymore….and not surprisingly, neither is the management team that drove the whole operation into the ground.

Perhaps it was leftover from childhood, when Spy vs. Spy ruled our play time. We found out we could write in lemon juice as invisible ink, and require our friends to use passwords to get into the clubhouse. It was absolutely glorious fun, but kids’ stuff in a grown-up world doesn’t usually translate well.

Knowledge and Status

There are times to keep situations low-key and to keep preliminary planning groups small. Throwing open all processes to a large group from the beginning usually results in chaos and frustration. Problems arise when management fails to plan for appropriate transparency in the overall strategic effort. Your team should be defined as those upon whom you depend to help carry out change, as well as those significantly affected by the results of your decisions. This may mean administrative and executive staff, as well as clients. Rumors and misunderstandings quickly will destabilize your operational foundation once the word is out planning is happening behind closed doors.

The best thing to do is to let people know in regular staff or even client updates that management will be looking at some current issues, and then provide a general timeline for when others will be brought into the dialogue. It is important that people know up-front that their input and perspectives are valued, and will be taken into consideration if any new approach develops. Beware the intoxicating “knowledge is status” dynamic. When people are in-the- know for too long, and fully aware that others are not, they tend to want to protect that status by losing interest in transparency. Your governance team must understand from the outset that your process is an open one long-term.

Truth or Consequences

There is a familiar saying, “Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.” Simply put, this approach doesn’t work. Transparent management is not about asking permission so much as being candid, respectful, and trustworthy; and about extending the same expectations to your team. If we are honest with ourselves as we evaluate our own experience, we must admit that it is rare for colleagues to forgive fully being kept in the dark about the direction of the team they assume they are on. Without full investment in the direction, even the best ideas will falter in implementation. And without that investment, there will not be much incentive or accountability for driving to the goal. In the worst case scenario, your team may have a stake in sabotaging the plan to prove management doesn’t know what it is doing.

Your Cred is Everything

Management’s personal credibility is everything to the success of your organization. Decoder rings and secret knocks are child’s play, not grown-up management techniques. Staying above board early with your team, and as often as possible, puts you at a strong competitive advantage over today’s average approach to planning and engagement with organizational teams.

The added bonus for you? It feels really good, too.