We are officially in the last quarter of 2024, and if you hold a leadership role in a company, you are probably already thinking of ways to close this cycle successfully, delivering quality performance so that it will be possible to start the next year with positive results. However, is there a specific path to follow to make it work?
The answer is: no! Each company is unique, and even if it offers services or products similar to one or more competitors, it’s not possible to be identical and want to follow a standard for all. After all, what worked for one may not work for another and vice versa. Besides, it’s essential to know the organization’s history throughout the year to identify mistakes and successes.
If what you are doing has been successful for a while and is yielding satisfactory results according to the objectives set in the planning, probably the company is moving in the desired direction. I’ll let you know, that’s rare! Either you have a truly sensational team or your goals are not ambitious enough. And ‘doing well’ is not an obstacle to improvements and occasional adjustments, but it’s a ‘easier’ scenario to maintain during the last quarter, working consistently.
The toughest part is when you realize that actions are not working, and the results are below expectations or taking much longer than planned. This is more common to happen, for different reasons. This situation is a sign that it’s necessary to review strategies and understand what is not working correctly, so that it’s viable to make course corrections and ensure that your company recovers and performs well during these last three months of the year.
To make this process more efficient, you can adopt OKRs – Objectives and Key Results – which will greatly help your management to focus on what will really bring you closer to the desired outcome. To get there, choose an objective and define the results you want to achieve, which will most contribute to the larger result. Perhaps you won’t be able to do more than one, leave the others, if not even this one you will be able to achieve.
However, the manager does not need to and should not go through this adjustment phase alone. One of the premises of OKRs is that employees actively participate together with the leader, being part of these constructions. Of course, each respecting their role but understanding how their task influences the whole. This way, the team can collaborate effectively, knowing what they need to do.
The point I like to emphasize is that perhaps the annual result, looking in a general way, may not be achieved as previously expected, but at least in this last sprint, you and your team have learned to collaborate and focus better, being guided to work for the result, which I consider the ideal model. Trust me, this is just the beginning of building a different 2025.
