Yesterday was the traditional April Fool’s Day. Today is the first day of the new calendar quarter. 3 months have passed, and you should now have some data to analyze to see how you are progressing on your 2026 plans. Much like reviewing your monthly financials, you need a recurring event to pause and review actual data to confirm or adjust your action plans.
If you already conduct this regular review and comparison against the outlined targets, you should be commended for your business tactics and strategic investment. Unfortunately, too many leaders conduct a cursory assessment based on vague insights and then make quick decisions based on fractured ideas and input. When I have asked about why some avoid the more detailed analysis, the most repeated answer is that they don’t have time because they are too busy.
As simple as this potentially logical and reasonable answer might sound, when decisions and adjustments are made with minimal details as the basis for change, lost time on missteps is far more costly than a short, detailed analysis of the current business picture. An even more productive approach is to have each leader in the business conduct their own functional area analysis, present, and take ownership of either changes or continued best direction for their area of contribution. Top ownership should focus on enabling business leaders to succeed. Part of the enabling is developing their skills not just to execute action plans, but to craft and delegate the plan to the functional area to be most successful. When they are deep in the trenches with their plan and contributors, they are directly exposed to the challenges they can then help remove from the path to success. Top ownership/leadership can remain focused on the vision and long-term contribution the business has to its Core Purpose, etc.
Thus, as we move into the second quarter of 2026, where do you want to place yourself? Do you want to be the leader who drives contributors to meet and exceed plan targets, or will you gamble on being the fool and guess your way along the path for the next 3 months? It is always amazing to hear leaders talk about how quickly a month, quarter, and year fly by. There is no time to waste, but pausing to reflect on actual performance data and then making plan adjustments, either positive or negative, is a time saver. Not pausing rolls the dice, and you hope for certain outcomes, which the leader has less input into.
So, in an effort to give you some time to dig deeper into the details of your first-quarter forward progress, we will shorten this week’s insights. You are challenged to pause and give yourself the time to not just glance over the contribution points of the start of 2026, but to analyze not just what happened, but also go further and discover why it took place. If the outcome is better than planned, acknowledge your team’s efforts, but keep them focused on building a cushion in the coming months. If the outcome is not up to plan, determine what it missed the mark on and take corrective action to not only bring it back into alignment, but also recapture what was missed over the past 3 months.
Looking for an accountability partner to enhance your leadership capability in growing your business? Give JKL Associates a call and speak with a Promise Guide about your needs to find out whether teaming up with a Promise Guide can elevate your leadership skills to a new, higher level of success. Call us in MI (313) 527-7945 or FL (407) 984-7246
Journey On!
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Celebrating 30 years of Delivering on “Promises”
