As the sun radiates and the rain showers on the initial days of 2023, we remain grateful that before us is another opportunity to do it well, better and bigger this time round.
To do that, managers need to have an assessment to understand what worked, how it worked and what enabled or activated its working. Where there were failures, an assessment will also help them identify why it never worked.
If we have to be fair enough as managers, there is a part that was attributed to the system – the systemic undoing that saw us miss the bull's eye and if we were to sum this discussion in two words, then it could be “Bad Culture”.
You may have had a premium strategy, but failed to double-click on the toolset needed to achieve the objectives. Perhaps you deployed the right team to the field but failed to deploy a system that could guide them real-time on.
Maybe there was a task that needed a shovel, but you thought you could equally do it with a jembe, and that landed your organisation in a position where it could only land 30 percent as opposed to 70 percent.
This is a clarion call for you to check the systems and their effectiveness as you marshal the next cycle.
Bureaucracies
In an environment that is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, there are plenty of challenges that require managers to think on their toes and perhaps change course, activate business continuity plans, expand and even review our strategy as needed.
Maybe in your company, the call was to be made by one person at the corner who took a lot of time to understand the why and how until the opportunity was missed as taking the initiative and applying good judgement was centralised.
As we usher in the year, be open to deducing the opportunity cost when you fail to make a decision to stitch on time.
Lack of safe space
Could it be the last time someone thought out of the box to salvage the situation that ended in termination despite the positive intent?
Did it make every other person stop thinking? Lack of safe space to try new ways makes employees stick to the old tested way. It kills the innovative spirit therefore what went wrong was not salvageable.
Lack of training
Covid-19 came with a bigger need to relearn, unlearn and learn – as situations kept mutating so do our reactions and this needed real-time transfer of skills, but we assumed that our talents could still deliver with the old thoughts and ways of doing business.
The best we can do this year is to assess the summation of knowledge, skills and competencies occurring in the business and answer- if they are sufficient to deliver on the objectives and competitive advantage if the business has a surplus to react to any emerging situation-future proofing.
Poor reward and compensation
A human body at rest, at natural standard room and temperature, knows what the effort is worth and nowadays, employees understand in form and shape their contribution to the bottom line.
Maybe there was an opportunity to sell more, but as it couldn’t come with a reward, they decided to leverage effort, most of the time demotivated and lacked the desire to exceed expectations – this year let's apply the rules of justice and appreciate,, more and pay as per their contribution to the bottom line, it’s a key retention strategy.
