Considering a business review session: eight ineffective behaviours to avoid

Every business conducts a review regularly at specific times, either quarterly or monthly. Sometimes, the review is at a business unit or enterprise level. The business review process is a valuable learning process in every enterprise. 

The business review session is an opportunity for an engaging discussion as business leaders consider the progress, lessons learned, and constraints to overcome and plan future actions. Every learning involves change.

For real change to happen, teams engaged in the change process must embrace the change.

Every year, I participate in several business review sessions and strategy retreats as the facilitator or a keynote speaker.

The following are the eight behaviours that get in the way of holding an effective business review. Some behaviours are persistent and stem from the culture, necessitating a shift.

The unfortunate result is overall business underperformance when these behaviours persist for a long time.

I. Team members who are not willing to ask questions:

Most business review sessions are mainly presentations by heads of departments or business units.

A culture of silence develops when departmental leaders focus on their presentation without paying attention to the presentation by the other departments.

The departmental leader does not intend to ask any questions, so they will also not receive any questions.

The review then becomes an engagement with the CEO interrogating while all the other departmental heads look on or at the screens and wait to take their turn at the podium and present.

II. Executives not willing to listen for a new perspective:

A CEO may have heard quite a familiar story of the sales team regarding the developments in the marketplace.

There is a tendency not to listen to their views at the usual business review session. When leaders adopt this posture, they lose out on the potential new perspective that a team may have on the business situation.

Leaders must allow themselves to listen fully to ideas and consider what is said differently. And if there is no new information, then ask for it.

III.  Leaders who believe their truth without any humility to consider what might change: 

The business review session should consider the achievements of the business leaders as well as the challenges that need to be solved.

The team must also explore what might change in the future. Any management team that believes its assumptions without the humility to consider what might change in business is setting itself up for a negative surprise.

The purpose of the retreat is to consider what might be on the horizon and not to sing our praises.

IV.  Leaders who debate each other over flimsy topics to win the applause of the team:

The political infighting between two leaders, which happens in the management meetings, rears its ugly head in the business review meeting in the presence of other leaders.

Unfortunately, those arguments do not add much value to the discussion.

The argument is to show all members present which leader is right and who is wrong.

Such behaviours dampen the energy and team spirit needed for an impactful business review meeting. Such behaviour trounces better ideas because leaders allow politics and power play to take the time and space to discuss important ideas.

V. Team members afraid to say what’s on their mind:

At the beginning of the session, the CEO introduces the session and encourages everyone to say what’s on their mind.

However, no one speaks. When I encounter these situations, I conduct anonymous polling to initiate discussions on the important.

Sometimes, I also use small group discussions to generate discussions on the issues that are relevant for discussions. This process provides a sense of security to those willing to speak.

VI. Ignoring client feedback and being fixated on projections:

The team must ensure customer voices are heard during the meeting if the purpose of the business review session is to evaluate the progress achieved in delivering on the promises made to customers.

Sharing customer feedback with all leaders present or inviting a key customer or customers to share their feedback with the management team is a meaningful way to bring the voice of the customer to the business review session.

Ignoring customer feedback is akin to the management team putting themselves in an echo chamber and enjoying listening to their voices.

VII. Scheduling back-to-back presentations and not allowing for engaging discussions:

I have taken the liberty to change the program line-up any time I have had the opportunity to facilitate a business review session, and the agenda is full of presentations without allowing enough time for discussions.

One of the most meaningful benefits of congregating all business leaders in one place is the conversations that leaders can have with each other regarding the future of the business.

Making the business review session a theatre full of presentations without any time for a discussion is a waste of valuable resources.

VIII.  Not paying attention to nutrition:

Most business retreats are held at exotic conferencing facilities with food and drinks to refresh team members and provide energy for the intended discussions.

Nutrition plays a significant role in mental alertness. You may be familiar with what happens to the energy levels of team members after lunch.

I have witnessed many leaders lose their alertness in the afternoon because of the food they took during lunch break.

I do not believe in allowing leaders to have inappropriate nutrition and bringing in “energizers” every hour to boost their energy levels.

pay attention to the food they eat in order to stay alert during after-lunch sessions.

Ensuring that the above behaviours do not dominate business review sessions will significantly improve the overall performance of businesses as lessons learnt from the process are used to improve future performance.

Be of good cheer!