This week the Intelligent Conversations team is taking a full day out of the office to evaluate our one page strategic plan and develop a 90-plan for Q2.  We’re working with our local certified Gazelles International coach Jerry Fons for the Mastering the Rockefeller Habits public workshop he is hosting on Wednesday.  It is also a great opportunity for us to invite our clients to attend and re-evaluate their plan too.  Why take a full day and pay a business coach to do what we could easily do on our own?

• There’s something about getting out of your environment and spending time with other successful business owners.  The energy in the room is incredible and contagious.  If you ask questions and share stories, you can learn more in a day like this than you could spending a week reading business books. 

• Certified Gazelles coaches make their money by asking tough questions and holding you accountable.  They help you see things from different perspective and focus on the areas that will have the greatest impact on your business.  You can try do this yourself, but we’ve found it’s a lot more effective with a certified coach.

• By removing your team from your daily office or conference room, you allow your teammates to feel comfortable in all contributing equally.  Placing all team members, regardless of level, at an equal table will produce a wider range of ideas and input on your company and quarterly plans.  When team members feel included, you’re more likely to hit those goals that you set as a company.

When is the last time you took a step back from the daily demands of working “IN” your business and invested some time to work “ON” your business instead?  It’s easy to stay busy and just react to whatever is coming at you, but we feel it works a lot better when you invest time to make sure you’re on the right path, that everyone on your team is aligned, that everyone reviews and re-commits to your core values and goals, and that everyone understands and is focused on the near term activities they need to do to drive your longer term objectives.

We practice what we preach.  This past week we met with two (2) separate clients that were taking the time to pause and evaluate their company and process so far for 2014.  While taking the time to review their existing sales forecasts and production this far we found that both had gotten off-course from the beginning of the year plans.  A few sales people were on target, a few sales people were no longer with the company and a good number of sales people were behind plan four months into the year – and struggling with how to get back on track.  We helped them refocus by working through our Pipeline Planning worksheet to identify the activities and “mid-course corrections” each sales person needs to make to get back on plan.  It was an eye-opening exercise but everyone left feeling charged and ready to take action once they understood where to focus their time and energy.