“Victory loves preparation”
It’s a phrase I’ve been living by for a few years. And it was only when writing this article, that I looked up where it came from.
Perhaps it’s from one of the hundreds of business books I’ve read? Maybe from one of the inspirational business leaders I follow on social media?”
How embarrassing. It turns out to be a Latin phrase written on the side of a baddie’s gun in a Jason Statham film I’ve never even seen.
Hey ho. It’s still a good phrase to live by.
Because it means:
- Making sure helpdesk is ready to pick up the phone, 5 minutes before the lines open
- Never going on a sales call without having done at least 30 minutes of basic research on the company you are visiting
- Systemising the things that have to happen in the business every day, and having a plan when someone’s off sick
- Always having someone in the office trained and ready to speak to incoming new client enquiries (because these days, speed beats size)
- Locking in a trusted partner to help with your your basic prospect marketing (assuming it’s not a core skill of the business), so you’re moving prospects closer to becoming clients every day
This is one of the reasons I recommend your management team meets first thing every Monday morning (or as soon as is practical each week).
Even if the management team is just you and a colleague – and together you make up two thirds of the business – you still meet every week.
That meeting is about the small actions that have to be taken in order to get the better lives you and your management team desire.
Because growing your business isn’t going to happen without preparation.
And it’s not going to happen just by doing the stuff that the business does every day. Fixing computers and strategic IT planning is what the business does. It doesn’t grow the business.
So your weekly management meeting meeting is all about what the business is trying to achieve right now, and what must happen in the next week to move you closer to that goal.
You do it weekly to ensure you get into a rhythm. Something that is planned weekly is more likely to actually happen, than something ad-hoc.
Here’s a simple agenda for your management meeting:
1) Recap of goals: 3 year goal; and this year’s goal
2) Progress on actions agreed last week
3) What’s moving us away from the goal, and what can we do to kill it?
4) What do we need to do this week to move closer to our goal?
5) Agree actions, who is responsible, and the deadline for each action
A final quote to finish on. This one from Bill Gates (phew): “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”
The way to guarantee that long-term achievement comes only through taking small actions, every day. And your weekly management meeting is where you plan the small actions that will make the biggest difference, and make sure they happen.
