It’s a new year, which means new challenges and new plans, at least for the first few weeks. Then a lot of us will go back to old habits and carry on much as before, which means the repetition of old results and old disappointments. This is such a common experience for so many of us, it’s amazing that we still even consider trying to make changes at the turn of the year. Will we never learn that it just doesn’t work? To be fair to myself, I do still go to the gym quite frequently, if not regularly, after almost 2 years of membership. I have multiple motivations for this though - the monthly payments, of course, my age and the corresponding health issues including family history of heart disease and the desire to be around for a long time to come, especially as I have a young son. That is quite a powerful combination.
For a business, large or small, the new plans for the new year need to be built on equally strong motivational foundations. Simply picking target sales figures from the air is meaningless for the people charged with achieving them. There needs to be a ‘golden thread’ that runs through to the emotional needs of each individual so that they can take ownership of the goals on a personal level. This increasingly means that the company needs to look after the employees and to provide the time and space for training in order to maintain and improve the skills which match the corporate aims. It’s an holistic approach which combines the needs of the individual with the needs of the enterprise because they cannot be separated.