I always believed that being a member of the Royal Australian Air Force gave me a great foundation for my life, both professionally and personally. The things I learnt from my time in the military have been invaluable to my business success. The expansive skill set of strategic planning, competitive intelligence, decision making, leadership development, high standard enforcement, and innovation in execution are just a few of the skills that I walked away with.
When I first started out in
business, I looked at the skills I had, but then quickly realised that to be
effective, I needed to translate them from a military context, into a context
that would
provide me with the greatest value to my business.
I am reminded of these
skills whenever the end of the year is upon me, as I normally will spend the
last couple of months of the year planning and preparing
for the next year.
Here are three of the skills from the military that I find most useful for my business:
Intelligence: In the military, there is always a
systematic and ongoing analysis of competitors. Understanding and reviewing the
intelligence of your competition allows you to stay alive! So when was the last
time you spent time studying your competitors? Do you know who your top five
competitors are and what can you learn from them?
Action
Step: Before now and the end of the year, take time to identify your
top 10 competitors. Use the questions set out in my previous article – Competition
is not a Dirty Word and diligently work through these questions, so you have
a better understanding of what your competitors are doing. Use this information
to either make changes to what you are currently doing or allow it to show you
that what you currently do is cutting-edge.
Planning and Preparation: The military are known for their comprehensive and structured planning – which they do very well. Not only is the planning comprehensive, but it is timely and well executed. There are only 64 days until 2011 hits us – have you begun to put together your strategic plan for 2011? What are your goals and targets? Have you started to develop your 2011 Marketing Plan? Remember that 90% of all small businesses don’t have a marketing plan in place. Make sure you are one of the 10% that does.
Action
Step: Block out time between now and January 1st to plan for 2011. If
you're not sure what you need to do here, now is the time to identify the
specific type of support you need to help you develop your plan. Get clear on
this, and 2011 will be your best year.
Leadership
Development: The value of
a great military leader was more than just what they did, it was how they did
it, how they made decisions, lead their teams and presented themselves overall.
Many had to learn to be great leaders, and often in very trying
circumstances. I often find that when working with SME’s, they either don’t
understand or don’t see the importance of being a strong leader. But I would
like to challenge you to think about this differently, whether you are a
solopreneur or have a small team, your leadership skills and development is
vitally important.
Action Step: Please don’t make the mistake of not seeing yourself as a leader. Take time to create a vision of the leader you would like to be and see the impact this can have on your business.
I look forward to hearing how you plan to spend your next 64 days. Feel free to let me know.
Comments
I too am ex RAAF and every November I take my one support staff (my daughter) away for a week and we conduct a critical review of the last 12 months and brainstorm improvements and new ideas and always the most important thing to come out of that is the marketing plan for the next 12 months.
We also get in some 'team' activities and get out and get some fresh air and clear our heads every day before getting stuck back into the formal structuring. Around day three ideas are really popping and the 'down-time' of getting out and seeing the local sights means that ideas have time to percolate and often a gem will pop out over a coffee or meal in some little cafe.
By the time we hit the road to come home, we are both well and truly on the same page with a fist full of great ideas and excited to get back and start putting the groundwork in.
I used to wonder if it was strange to be doing that in November, but I can see now that maybe it's just a cycle I got used to many years ago.
That is fantastic! I think it is such an important time to be planning for the year ahead and was excited to read that you also plan in November. Maybe it was a cycle we became use to within the Defence without realising :-)
Deb