Summer is a naturally slower season for many businesses. The kids are home from school. People are taking vacations. Distractions are everywhere.
It’s easy to fall into a “going through the motions” routine at this time of year, but if you don’t stay proactive, you may find yourself in a summer slump.
Here’s the good news: it’s easier than you think to strengthen your business during the summer season and avoid this slump.
Step 1: Set a Thematic Goal for the Summer
Whenever you engage in success planning, you need to have an objective. What’s yours? What major, thematic goal do you want to achieve this summer?
Choose something that will drive real, long-term change in your business, such as:
- Improving your internal systems
- Enhancing the client experience
- Implementing new and more efficient processes
- Developing a new product or service
Be specific when defining your goal and set a timeline for achieving your objective. Since this is a summer goal, you may want to set your deadline for late August or early September.
Once you’ve defined your overarching objective, you can start breaking it down into more manageable milestones.
Step 2: Break Down the Big Goal into Smaller Milestones
You’ve defined your thematic goal, but how will you achieve it? Having a big goal is great, but it cannot be achieved in one simple step.
You need to break it down into smaller steps (or milestones) to create a roadmap to your objective and make the process more manageable for your team.
Plus, setting smaller goals will keep your team motivated and boost morale. Each milestone that you tick off builds a sense of achievement that encourages your team to move forward.
When setting your milestones, consider establishing monthly checkpoints. For example, you might start at point A on June 30 and hit point C by Labor Day. Each month, you’ll strive to hit the next milestone.
Here’s an example of what that might look like:
- End of June: Milestone A
- End of July: Milestone B
- Labor Day (Beginning of September): Milestone C (goal achieved)
Your checkpoints may be more complex, or you may need to extend them into early fall. That’s okay. Just make sure you’re setting achievable and realistic goals that will bring meaningful progress toward your main objective.
Make sure you’re assigning goals across all departments to streamline your efforts and make it a team effort.
I also recommend using your mid-year check-in as an opportunity to check on the progress of your goals.
Step 3. Encourage Individual Goals
You’ve set a major goal, broken it down into milestones, and assigned objectives across all departments. Now, let’s take it a step further by giving each team member individual goals.
Give your employees specific objectives to achieve that are personal to them, support your milestones, and align with your thematic goal.
Why should employees have their own objectives?
- It will keep motivation high
- It will give team members a sense of satisfaction
- It will help your employees feel valued
Each time a team member hits their personal goal, it will give them a sense of achievement and reinforce the fact that their hard work makes a difference. Their efforts are helping the entire organization achieve its summer goal.
With all of this goal-setting out of the way, it’s time to move on to the next step (arguably one of the most important): accountability.
Step 4. Maintain Accountability and Momentum
During summer slow periods when distractions are everywhere, it’s easy for team members to fall off track. To avoid this pitfall, implement a system to keep your team accountable and maintain the momentum you’ve started.
There are many ways you can approach this step, but I recommend doing weekly check-ins using a simple colored system.
- Green = on track
- Yellow = at risk
- Red = needs immediate attention
You can, of course, customize the colors or wording however you want, but this will give your team a simple and visual way to track the progress of your objective.
Along with weekly check-ins, set aside time for regular one-on-ones with your team members. Use these meetings to:
- Redirect their focus, if necessary
- Reinforce priorities
- Celebrate progress and victories
If team members aren’t meeting their individual goals, ask them to explain the issue. Find out how you can support them and what steps can be taken to get them back on track.
Make sure that you’re giving your team all of the resources they need to achieve their objectives. Set them up for success, and you’ll set your organization up for success.
These accountability systems will keep your team on the right track, but they’ll also help you adjust course as needed before issues progress into major roadblocks.
Step 5: Delegate and Recharge
We’ve talked a lot about goal-setting and accountability to keep your team focused and motivated. But there’s one last component here that can be beneficial for everyone (and is often overlooked): delegation.
There are only so many hours in a day, so offload some key tasks to capable team members. Allow other members of your team to step up and build capability.
Use the summer slow period as an opportunity for leadership development.
As you begin delegating tasks, consider taking time for yourself to recharge. Book a vacation and implement a “no-contact” policy. Designate one person to reach you in case of an emergency.
Your absence will give you a chance to gauge whether some tasks can continue to be delegated after your return.
For example, if a team member is put in charge of bidding while you’re gone and they do a great job, you can consider keeping that task off of your plate.
Taking time to recharge will also allow you to reset and de-stress, helping you come back more refreshed and ready to be productive.
Final Thoughts
Summer doesn’t have to be a slow period. You can avoid a slump if you’re proactive and move into the season with intention and a solid strategy.
By following the steps above, you can transform this period into one of progress and leadership growth.
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