Keys to "Moving the Needle" and Hitting Company Goals

Have you heard the term “Moving the Needle” as it relates to business performance? I hear it frequently and, depending on who you talk to, the context can vary significantly.

Frequently business executives are dead-set on moving the needle, but really don’t know how or where to start. In many cases, the CEO or Leadership Team will create a list of big company tasks or goals, hand them out to the various affected departments, and check up on them once or twice per year. Most of the time, the Leadership Team is disappointed in the results. Why does this happen so often?

 They ask themselves a few questions: Was the objective clear? Was the task too hard? Do we have the right people on the bus? Do we have the right systems?

There are a bunch more questions, but why are we asking these questions at all?? More often than not, the Leadership Team has failed.

In order to complete (…or even start) big initiatives that move the needle, two things are required: accountability and resources. Yep. That’s it. These are the two major factors when big tasks don’t get accomplished.

It's essential that someone on the team "has the ball" (takes ownership of the task) and understands that getting the task accomplished is critical. And the right resources need to be working on it. The resources required to achieve the goal may not be available, or may not have enough bandwidth to take on the task. (After all, they still have to do whatever their full time job is too!)

So sometimes moving the needle requires outside resources that are just focused on the goals and big tasks. If accomplishing the goal will give a significant advantage to the company, then knowledgeable resources from the outside can make a ton of progress toward the objectives.

Management of the task/goal and clear accountability for completion are the keys to great results.

Who has the ball, and do they know it?