Partner Article

Kick start your year

The beginning of a year is a great time to get your staff together for a motivational session to discuss the key themes for your business for the year ahead. Lots of companies do it, but with the struggle for survival still a reality for many firms it can easily get overlooked.

Getting your team together, however tough times may be, is possibly one of the best things a small business owner or director can do. People genuinely love to be involved and you will be amazed at how supportive staff can be when asked. Try to struggle on alone, or bring in new ways of working without consultation, and you will face an uphill battle. Getting everyone together, giving them then facts, and then looking at ideas together, will almost always result in a better plan for the future.

At R&B Group we have a long tradition of doing exactly this during the first week back after Christmas. We originally borrowed the concept from a client whom we used to help stage a fairly impressive showpiece event each year. They spent a lot of money in those day, producing videos and complex graphics sequences, building bespoke sets, and giving all staff a goodie bag at the end. It was what you did in those days!

Our copycat events are undoubtedly less flash although they do always have a theme - this year it was London 2012. Despite the different style of event the objective is exactly the same; staff contribution to and buy-in on important strategies for the year ahead. Our client now holds much lower key affairs and our own sessions have evolved into increasing 2 way conversations. The staff really appreciate the opportunity that the events provide and have suggested we hold them more regularly. When was the last time that your team asked to contribute to the wider business plans and offered their own SWOT analyses of the business?

My New Year challenge to all business owners, if you don’t already, is to think of a theme and then hold an open and honest session with your staff to discuss plans for 2012. I guarantee you will learn a lot about your people and come away with some new ideas to kick start this Olympic year.

Antony Crerar is Development Director at R&B Group.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by R&B Group .