“There was a signature to a Bill Belichick team: Whatever the opposition did in the first half, his team tended to take away in the second half.”
Author David Halberstam
Good coaches in any sport come into a game with a solid plan to win. Great coaches are the ones who can assess the action in real-time and determine the necessary adjustments. In sports such as football, basketball and soccer, halftime affords the coach a few minutes to analyze the first half action and identify the critical changes that will lead to a win.
Halftime of the calendar business year has arrived. What halftime adjustments will you make to ensure your business is successful at the end of the year?
Following are three areas to consider as you prepare for the second half of business this year.
1. Assess Context
At halftime of a football game, the first thing considered is how the context or situation has changed since the game started 0-0. Are we winning or losing? Any injuries? What are the field conditions like? These and other factors give us an indication of the current context. Depending on the new situation, we may be required to make changes. If we’re down 21-0, we may have to throw the football more. If the winds are now gusting at 40 mph, we may need to run the ball more.
Similarly, the first thing to consider at halftime of your business year is the current context or situation. What are the patterns and trends in the market? How have customers’ thinking and behaviors changed? What new activities are competitors introducing? Are we winning or losing compared to the goals we established at the beginning of the year? How are we faring on key performance metrics? Using a tool such as the four quadrant Contextual Radar labeled “Market,” “Customers,” “Competitors,” and “Company,” is a highly effective way to visualize your situation.
2. Track Behaviors
The second factor a football coach will consider at halftime is the behaviors of their team and the opponent. Was the running game or passing game more effective? How has the opponent’s special teams impacted the game? Are the offensive and defensive lines blocking effectively or are they a proverbial sieve?
As any competent job interviewer has learned, anyone can talk a good game. The difference comes in the form of behaviors. What actions have our most successful employees taken that can be shared with others as best practices? What behaviors are driving our culture and are they all positive? Why did our most dangerous competitor lower prices? What can we learn from customer’s behaviors? Are they using more or less of our products? What aspects of our offerings are they willing to pay a premium for? Why have some left? Talk is cheap and behaviors are golden so track them
3. Make Decisions
Once a football coach has assessed the current context, evaluated the success and impact of behaviors, they must then make decisions for the second half. Do I stay with the starting quarterback or switch to the backup? Should we change the defensive scheme to put more bodies on the line and force them to throw the ball? Do we go for a one or two point conversion if we score a late touchdown?
In the same way a coach needs to make decisions regarding the use of his players, so too does a leader need to decide how to most effectively allocate their resources (people, time and budget) for the second half of the year. A McKinsey & Co. study of more than 200 large companies found that the reallocation of resources to faster-growing segments within a company’s portfolio of businesses was the largest single driver of revenue growth. But since human nature prefers the status quo, most leaders are reluctant to change their allocation of resources.
We need to challenge the business-as-usual mindset if we’re going to outperform in the second half of the year. How can we take resources from underperforming initiatives and put them toward more successful ones? What activities are wasting our time and should be eliminated? Which tasks could be outsourced to allow our people to be more productive? How could we reconfigure resources to make it easier for customers to do business with us?
The halfway point of the calendar business year quickly fades into memories of barbecues, firework shows, and vacation days by the lake. In addition to recharging your mind and body with each of those activities, invest time considering your halftime adjustments. You can spend the second half of the business year running up the score or getting blitzed by your competition. Ready? Set? Hike!
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