Every business operator needs important information to make the right decisions. We often prepare reports and dashboards for our customers (and our team internally) to work from in real or near-real-time. Our days are impacted by what is important, urgent and required. But rather than waiting for problems to arise, the best way is to proactively search for these situations. Whenever possible, I always set up a dashboard or insight report in the following order: exception, execution, contemplation.
First The Exceptions
The exceptions are what you should do, but did not do. If you are properly structured and mechanized, you should first look at and tackle the exceptions. These can be leftover tasks from yesterday, issues that arose overnight or even what was not important yesterday but became so today.
Some examples include:
- Scheduled tasks, meetings or phone calls not completed
- Late invoices or bills not paid
- Deals, projects or other records that have not been updated or have been inactive for a while
- Scheduled go-lives past due
- Deals supposed to close still not signed
- Busted budget deliverables
These should be handled proactively in regularly scheduled all-hands meetings, in quick ad-hoc meetings (phone calls, too) or, when required, with crisis management.
Then The Execution
The execution is what you normally do. This is the core of your and your team’s job and how you create value, eventually leading to revenue.
Some examples include:
- Ongoing tasks
- Phone calls or meetings
- Records to update
- Deals to close
These should be handled proactively with daily meetings and weekly meetings with the right issues being flagged to managers and stakeholders.
Finish With Contemplation
You should invest in contemplation only when you have the time, which is why it is last. Sometimes something will remain in contemplation until it is urgent, and in that case, it might even become an exception. We dedicate time to contemplate when the normal framework has been completed. With this, we never lose sight of the importance in favor of a flavor of the month, or what someone prefers to work on.
Some examples include:
- Trends analysis, including competition and prediction
- Upsell and cross-sell opportunities
- Online stats recap and adjustments
- Sales by customer, time by customer, revenue by customer and gross margin by customer
These should be handled proactively with town hall meetings, quarterly meetings, yearly meetings and punctual strategy meetings with the decision-makers.
Final Thoughts
The next time you look at your daily dashboard, ask yourself, “Am I doing this in the right order?” and “Is my dashboard supporting reality?” If both are true, you will find ease in getting work done and a new alignment for your team members.
I suggest you set up a working session at the end of this quarter or the beginning of the next to identify your business’s exceptions, execution and contemplation. What triggers can you monitor? What meetings can you schedule? What reports can you leverage? Understanding the challenge is the first step to finding the solution.
