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The good news? Well, your sales team made it through 2014. But now? Well, suddenly you’re staring at the start of 2015. It’s a new year, another whole year to get through. The question is, how best to do it? Everyone who manages people needs to plan if they hope to get the best from the time and resources available. These are some of the areas you may want to consider as you prepare your team’s plan for the year ahead:
With luck, the company leadership will have shared with you their annual goals. It’s now your turn to think about what contribution you and your team can, and will, aim to make towards them.
Once you have decided what these are, you need to turn them into SMART objectives for you and your team. This involves meeting with your team members, sharing the company vision, direction and how your work will further the company’s goals.
Just because your team has always operated in a certain way, doesn’t mean it needs to continue like that. Take a good look at everyone’s skills, experiences and ambitions and consider re-structuring the team. Often, it can have a re-invigorating impact, as people rise to new challenges. It can also stop people from becoming and feeling stale.
Presumably, your team has training and development plans. They are some of the key things that your team looks for in you, their manager. So, not only does it make sense for you to plan for your team to be as equipped as possible, it will also deter your team members from looking for other jobs elsewhere.
Preparing a plan for the whole year can feel very daunting. Often, it’s also impractical. It’s much more useful to assign what you need to achieve for each quarter of the year. These are manageable sprints that everyone can feel enthused by without feeling like it’s a never-ending challenge.
Conversely, there’s every chance that you will be leading your team again this time next year. So, it’s worth considering whether there are any things you want to do that may not pay off this year, but will sow seeds for every year that follows.
Although the responsibility for the plan and its execution will, rightly, rest with you, it’s worth including as many of your team members in as much of the planning as possible. This has two positive outcomes. Firstly, they may come up with some great ideas that wouldn’t have occurred to you. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, they will feel that the plan belongs somewhat to them. What could be better than when your team members feel a sense of commitment to your plans, and to making them work? Happy planning!
Heather Foley is a consultant at etsplc.com, a UK-based HR consultancy.
