Running a business is like chess—you must plan each move strategically to achieve success. Just as you would analyse the chess board, you must assess your market position in your industry and anticipate competitors’ potential actions against you. By thinking ahead and positioning yourself wisely, you stay in the game and keep advancing rather than being taken out. The best way to do this is through balancing short-term goals and long-term vision.
Having your short-term goals aligned with a long-term vision is needed to propel a business forward. But what exactly do they entail? How can you implement them in an already established business? We’ve got you covered.
What’s the difference between short-term goals and long-term vision?
Short-term goals are focused on what’s happening daily, week by week, within a business. Think of it as “immediate performance.” They are specific, tactical, actionable, and often completed by one person or a team rather than the whole company within a week or multiple months. Then, once the daily actions are completed, your overall business will steadily advance toward its broader strategy and long-term vision.
Your long-term vision defines the ideal future state your business strives to achieve. It usually consists of the significant milestones a company desires to accomplish anywhere from one to five years into the future. Compelling long-term visions must be adaptable to industry trends and environmental challenges because change is inevitable. These visions work best when they’re ambitious and strategic with a direction in mind but open to flexibility over time. The key, however, is that you can’t achieve one without the other—they work together to achieve success.
If you only have short-term goals, you won’t have a clear vision of where your business is headed. If you only have a long-term vision, knowing how to get there will feel daunting. But by combining small, actionable steps with your big plan, you’ll steadily work towards and ultimately achieve your long-term vision.
Think of it as running a marathon. You won’t wake up one day and run 42kms without any training. Instead, you’ll spend months setting distance goals and strength training aspirations to work towards your vision of running a marathon next year. The same methodology is applied to the business world.
How can you balance the two?
Plan and track
Start big. Set time aside to brainstorm where you want to be and your overall long-term vision. From there, plan what steps you need to take to get there. By breaking down huge visions into more manageable, bite-sized tasks and goals, it’s easier to know what needs to be done. You can then schedule it out month by month or year over year and track your team’s performance. You can do this through visual dashboards, weekly reminders, and open discussions with team members.
Prioritise what’s most impactful
It may seem like there are too many small goals to achieve. Rather than trying to juggle them all simultaneously, identify which ones are the most important and how they can impact your business’s growth, and prioritise them to be done first. These small tasks may not achieve immediate results, but if they put your business on the right track towards achieving your long-term vision, that’s what’s needed.
To do this, you’ll need to use your critical thinking skills. If a project isn’t contributing to your business’s overall strategy, it’s crucial to stop and consider its purpose and whether it’s really necessary to spend an employee’s time on it. If it’s a side mission or a fun project that is not bringing revenue in, it may be best to put it on the side until the crucial work benefiting your business is completed.
Be flexible and adaptable
While prioritising is valuable, things happen in life. Not everything will go exactly to plan. If a short-term opportunity comes around and you think it will positively impact your business, it may be worth it to pivot and change your plan slightly. The opposite can be true as well. If you find the plan you set towards your vision isn’t working, it can also be adjusted to fit the circumstances of your business and the industry you’re in.
Say there are new technology advancements, unforeseen challenges, or changes in the format in which people work—all of these instances will require agility and resilience for businesses to seize emerging opportunities. It’s inevitable because the market will always be ever-changing, so while it’s critical to stay on the path, don’t beat yourself up if you need to make little tweaks or take a few detours.
Measure as you go
Everything is a process; you need to see growth and improvement. It’s important to set clear metrics to balance your short-term goals with your long-term vision and know when achievements are met. From there, monitor how those achievements align with the overarching vision.
A common approach is tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) through measurable metrics. These offer employees a way to track progress, identify areas for improvement, and stay focused on what drives success. Objectives and key results (OKRs) are goal-setting frameworks to bridge the gap between vision and strategy. Implementing them in quarterly meetings helps employees assess whether they’ve achieved the desired results by the end of the three months.
Make communication your #1
How can your employees know where you want them to be if you don’t communicate? Avoid this issue by making clear communication a necessity. Everyone in your business should understand how their tasks and day-to-day work contribute to the bigger vision.
Employees who feel purpose in what they do will put more effort and energy into it. To implement this, regularly discuss how their inputs make a difference in the business’s long-term vision. If they don’t feel they are making an impact, figure out how their workload can be adjusted. Remember, when every employee thrives, the entire organisation rises to success.
Invest for the long-run
When investing, focus not only on immediate returns but also on resources that will yield long-term benefits. Consider the difference between investing in market research to improve your product to fit your consumers’ preferences rather than spending on a flashy ad campaign that generates quick buzz but fades over time. Investing with a long-term strategy sets you up for a stronger future.
Find the perfect work-life balance
At the end of the day, how you run your business is up to you. But by setting short-term goals as stepping stones towards your bigger vision, you’ll achieve it in no time. It stems from balance, where you have time for yourself, time to empower coworkers, and time to work on the business strategy.
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