Define Your Driving Critical Success Factor

With 2010 right around the corner, business owners should be planning for next year. A big part of their plan should be defining what their Driving Critical Success Factors (DCSF) are going to be for next year. Having a DCSF will help to guide a business in a positive direction and will help ensure business success.

TAB President and CEO, Jason Zickerman, talks about the importance of a DSFC and how it can benefit your company as well as business owners and employees.

Every once in a while, good luck may come your way. However, if you base running your business on good luck, you are more than likely going to find yourself out of luck. The reality is you may find yourself in the same or worse situation and possibly even out of business. In these difficult economic times we are facing, when budgets are down and your company’s bandwidth has more than likely decreased, it’s more important than ever to have your greatest efforts be focused on your Driving Critical Success Factor (DCSF). This may not be easy since there are many critical factors in your company, but this is the most critical factor in order to move your organization forward.

Once you’ve identified your DCSF by yourself, with key executives or people you trust, you can share this with your entire team so they too have clarity and know in which direction the company is heading. This will be one of the greatest benefits you can give your employees because it will allow them to clearly identify their priorities.

A key element to achieving your DCSF is helping your team see how their efforts and contributions are directly impacting the DCSF and the success of the organization. Don’t assume they understand how important of a role they are playing; take the time to communicate this with them. To keep employees driven, it’s a good idea to tie-in incentives— typically something that is short-term and related to the DCSF.

Benefits of identifying your DCSF include:

Reduces stress level—by having one main focus this helps eliminate work that isn’t critical and does not support the DCSF. Employees will experience less guilt for not getting through their apparent workload. The simple fact is they will get more done by doing less.

Communication—having a DCSF allows you to be able to communicate effectively to your stakeholders where your company is headed. At times you may find they may not be happy with some areas that might not be getting appropriately addressed, but in these times, they will respect your prioritization and thinking.

Provides inspiration—achieving your company’s DCSF provides a sense of accomplishment which inspires employees to move forward and be ready to attack the next DCSF when it’s appropriate.

Makes decision making easier— normally you have several critical factors competing with each other for a finite amount of resources—your DCSF will allow you to decide what projects you do and do not take on based on whether or not they support your DCSF.

Be sure your DCSF is measured frequently with you and your team and adjustments are made accordingly to keep your company moving in the right direction—this is most critical in these challenging economic times.