Leading Out of the Pandemic – Ramping Up

How to Re-Calibrate Your Business Strategy and Performance

As most COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted and the economy is picking up, leaders are re-calibrating their business strategies, revisiting strategic growth projects and assessing resources and people needed to execute in the post-pandemic marketplace.

The pandemic slowed or shut down certain sectors of the economy (energy, travel, retail, entertainment, restaurants, etc.) while others took off (healthcare, technology, online/delivery services, home improvement, fitness, etc.). Some are now leveling off after being highly valued. Which scenario applies to you?

Candeo Partners has identified five phases of project execution to empower leaders to set a context that fits their current business state, along with the appropriate focus and team support to match each phase: Formulation, Concentration, Momentum, Stability and Emergency. This article gives a brief description of the phases to start thinking about next steps for your organization.

Formulation

This is when you are setting the vision, defining the goals, creating the team, assigning roles and responsibilities and clarifying the win. Leadership focus is on generating excitement and aligning employees and key stakeholders with goals and commitments.

Concentration (Ramping Up)

This is when you launch, or ramp up, your strategy. The pandemic restrictions put short- and long-term pauses on different businesses. With those restrictions lifting, concentrated energy and effort are now needed to get things up and running. Per Newton’s laws of motion, more energy is required to put an object in motion from a standstill than to keep it in motion once it’s in motion. At the beginning, this might look like you’re putting in 12 units of energy and getting 3 units back in results. This phase involves a lot of trial and error, so a leader’s focus needs to be on keeping team members motivated and in action during times of failure and regrouping to see what works. At some point, the 12 units of energy will turn into 12 units of results, and the team will feel like they’re winning and gaining momentum.

Momentum

This is when your project is fully launched, running smoothly, and has a speed of its own. Again, per Newton’s laws of motion, this object (project) is now in motion and requires less energy to keep it in motion. This is exemplified by putting in 5 units of energy, getting 10 units back in results. In this phase, leaders focus on having the right systems and people in place to successfully execute project milestones and reach high levels of productivity.

Stability

In this phase, leadership focus is on operational consistency, streamlining, quality, and efficiencies. This In this phase, the leadership focus is on operational consistency, streamlining, quality and efficiencies. This should be a highly profitable phase with best practices and benchmarks to ensure optimal performance. It is also a time when it’s important to invest in continued innovation, succession planning, and training and development to preserve and grow market share. However, this is when leaders can be caught “flat-footed” if they do not keep innovating and investing in new products, and employees can become bored and look for new opportunities. Keeping an eye on the ball, i.e. not resting on your laurels, will help avoid such pitfalls.

Emergency

This is when the project falls one or two levels behind a given phase of execution. The default context becomes “crisis” or “something is wrong.” It is necessary to identify short-term and long-term actions needed to get back into the desired phase of execution, along with a defined timeframe. The leadership focus is on creating an empowering context, while engaging team members in taking action with frequent (hourly, daily) communication and updates on results. The ultimate goal is to mitigate the emergency with the least amount of time and money.

Conclusion

No matter what industry you’re in, this is an exciting time to be re-calibrating your business strategy, launching projects that were put on hold, re-building your teams, and taking what we have all learned during the pandemic and putting it to work in new ways that grow your business and stimulate the economy.

Candeo Partners is here to support your breakthrough strategies, team performance, and product launches to deliver on, or exceed, your plan today and beyond.