In our last blog we talked about the importance of key performance indicators (KPIs) to help grow your numbers. Of course the measures themselves are pointless if there is never any discussion about them. Here’s a simple and highly effective way to link those KPIs with a reporting and accountability framework.
First make sure that there is ONE leader for each of your 10 departments in your business; Directorship, Leadership, Product Development, Operations, Marketing, Sales, Finance, HR, Admin and IT. One person can lead more than one department but 2 people can’t lead 1 department. You can also contract out departments to avoid needing a large head count of team members (e.g. finance, marketing or IT can all be out-sourced relatively easily).
Then determine who needs to report to who. Remember that one person can only manage a maximum of 5 people effectively. Consider establishing teams with team leaders to enable you to achieve this 5 to 1 ratio.
Set up the regular meetings e.g. the CEO with each of the other department heads, the operations leader with either the operations team (if less than 5 people in the team) or with the team leaders in Operations (if more than 5 in operations team).
Set an agenda for each meeting:
1. What were your activities and targets last week / month and how did you go?
2. What support do you need / suggestions for improvement?
3. What are your activities and targets for this week?
Have team members report PRIOR to each meeting (say the Friday before the Monday meeting) using the reports and KPIs you established as part of their job description.
Lastly, and most importantly, make sure the meeting is no more than 15 minutes. Do the meeting as a stand up meeting so you’re not tempted to run over time.
Contact us if you’d like a simple weekly reporting format to use.