Time to get honest. When was YOUR last performance review?
Did that subject line grate you? Even just a little. It's OK if it did. Performance reviews can bring up all sorts of things, including what we're not doing well. It's not the easiest thing to own up to being part of the problem in any area of life, especially in business.
As a small business owner this time of year can bring with it a host of planning:
· Planning for the end of year madness (#AmIRite product-based biz owners?)
· Planning for the best next 12 months
· Planning for a holiday (need help with this one? Check out my latest podcast ep)
· Planning for new staff (even casuals)
· Planning more strategic content and marketing.
And, the list goes on and on and on...
But amongst that list, I wonder how often are we spending time reflecting on, and planning for, how we can improve as the leaders of our business?
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Think about it. If you were an employee, chances are you would have at least one, if not two, reviews of your performance per year. (At some companies I've worked in we did it quarterly.) Let's say you have been running your own business for the last five years (like myself) and you haven't ever done one of these. That's five, if not 10, missed opportunities to really dig down on the areas you excel in and uncover the areas where you have room to improve.
How often are you gifting yourself a full performance review in your business?
How often are you sitting down and assessing how YOU may be the one that's getting in the way of things progressing?
And, just as importantly, how often are you celebrating the things you're doing well, especially skills or tasks you once may have thought were impossible to conquer?
No business is perfect. And no business owner is either.
This is NOT to lay a guilt trip on you or make you feel worse than 2020 already has. It's purely a wake-up call that when it comes to planning for an incredible 2021, we as the leaders of the business need to also be accountable to planning for our own improvements, tweaks or changes.
In some cases, it may be that "delegating" is something you could get better at.
For others, it might be that 2021 is really the year you'll take complete ownership of your financial situation.
Perhaps you understand the importance of email marketing and 2021 will be the year you nail this.
Or, maybe it's about knuckling down on the 20% of your business (i.e. top stockists, customers, clients or revenue streams) that possibly bring in 80% of your revenue.
It could perhaps be learning how to really set — and stick to! — boundaries and stop feeling walked over by staff or suppliers.
It might just be giving yourself a chance to celebrate, really celebrate, ALL you have done this past year.
If YOU were an employee of your business, how would you rate your performance, skills and areas for improvement?
If you're reading this and thinking, "that sounds like a good idea" but you don't know where to start, check out this free At-A-Glance Owner Performance Review that can give you some ideas.
Again, this blog is not intended to make you feel you haven't done enough, or that you need to be more productive, more ambitious, more #killer. Rather it is a reminder to stop, reflect and analyse what's working, what isn't and hopefully use this to set yourself up for a fantastic 2021.
I'll be doing my own review this week as I definitely have areas I need to get better at, as well as things I need to stop and celebrate #Partay #LetUsOutDan