Does your company conduct a State of the Business Address? In this episode, Dr. Karen provides insights on the reasons to periodically conduct this important company meeting. When you regularly inform your workforce about successes, challenges, and examples of living the company values, you engage the workforce, reinforce the culture, increase retention, and reduce fear, anxiety, and destructive rumors.
Learn how to use The State of the Business Address to transform and inspire your company both for now and the future.
Contact Dr. Karen to plan your next State of the Business Address: Dr.Karen@transleadership.com
The post The State of The Business Address: Why and How? (Episode # 475) first appeared on TRANSLEADERSHIP, INC®.
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The State Of The Business Address: Why And How? [Episode 475]
Why Every Business Needs A State Of The Business Address
In this episode, we are talking about the State of the Business Address. This is a very special meeting that every company needs to have. If you have more than one person, you need a State of the Business Address every so often. The purpose of this address is to inform all business associates of the key events since the last State of the Business meeting. A lot of times, people don’t realize that what they know others have not heard and don’t know about. There has to be a mechanism or forum for informing everyone.
When you inform people about what’s going on in the business, you also have the opportunity to align all parts of the business on the same page. That’s important because if you’re not aligned, you’ll be using a lot of energy and power pulling in very different directions. With alignment, you focus that energy and power. You’re more likely to get to where you’re going because everyone knows where you’re going and you’re all heading with the same purpose in mind.
You also want to use the State of the Business Address to engage the workforce in the success of the business. When people don’t know what’s going on, they can’t sign on to it and say, “I’m behind this,” or “This is something I’m going to support,” or “Now, I understand so let me recommit myself to what we’re doing.” You also use the State of the Business Address to reinforce the cultural values. We’ll get into that a little bit more.
What you’re talking about during this address gives people pictures of what it looks like to live out the values of the corporation. When you also do the State of the Business Address, you’re decreasing anxiety and fear. You’re quelling the rumors that happen and occur in a vacuum of information. When your people are informed, that takes the rumors off the table. They will know when they hear a rumor, “That’s not true because I heard in the State of the Business Address that such and such a thing is what’s going on.” It’s a very important meeting. It has a great purpose in your organization.
What To Include In Your State Of The Business Address
Here are some things you want to consider including in your State of the Business Address. One would be the current direction and also the actions that people are taking in the company to fulfill the mission and vision of the organization. You want to reiterate how every member of the workforce fits into this mission and vision, fits in today, and also your forecasting for the future. You want everyone in every role to be able to see where they fit, and how they are contributing and adding value to the corporation.
You’re reiterating that direction. Don’t think to yourself, “We’ve covered this before. Everybody knows.” People need to be reminded. You cannot over-communicate on this direction part. There are so many other messages going on, activities happening, and mission drift. It’s a part of the scenario. You don’t want people to get into mission drift because they haven’t heard from you.
You want to make sure to cover the business successes. A lot of times, people forget that you have to celebrate successes. You have to show people routinely and regularly what success looks like in your company. You want to highlight successful projects that have been done since the last meeting. You want to talk about new clients that the company has acquired and perhaps those were some difficult clients that took a while to acquire. What’s the benefit to the business that you have these clients? What value are you going to add to that new customer?
You want to talk about any new products that have been launched. What kind of revenues are coming in as a result of all the work of the business? You want people to hear about the profitability of the company. You want them to hear about the success of the company and how you are fulfilling your mission through very specific examples. You also want to talk about problems that have been solved from maybe some past updates.
When the leader is aligned with their team in terms of energy and power, you are more likely to get to where you want to go. Everyone is heading to the same place with the same purpose in mind. Click To TweetMaybe two meetings ago, there was a big issue on the table and the company was trying to figure out how to walk through it. You’ve resolved that issue and walked through it successfully. Inform the workforce. Let them know about that success and what was done to get to a place of success. Thirdly, not only do you want to talk about the successes but you also want to talk about business challenges. What are the current issues to address? What are your ideas and plans to resolve these issues?
It’s not enough to say, “We have these challenges,” and then act like you’re clueless and have no idea about how to proceed forward. That provokes more anxiety. Let the organization know that you and the executive team have been thinking about ways to move forward on this issue, and you have some plans in place. You also want to inform them about these challenges because they may have some ideas even better than yours and they will be able to weigh in and share those ideas.
Sharing the challenges also keeps this presentation real. If people aren’t hearing the challenging sides, they wonder if they’re hearing the truth. They wonder how trustworthy you are and if you’re truly being transparent. In the State of the Business Address, you are covering the good, the bad, and the ugly. However, you’re doing it in a way that is aspirational, inspirational, and uplifting to the workforce.
Even when you’re talking about challenges, you’re not saying, “Woe is me. We don’t know how to get through this or if we’ll survive another day.” That’s not the message. You talk about what you are doing to stay viable, what you’re doing to thrive, and how you are covering certain shortfalls along the way. Make sure to keep it in that positive tone as you share the State of the Business.
Number four, you want to share individual stories about teams, and people in the company who exemplify the company values. For example, suppose you have a value that says, “We are proactive about resolving customer concerns before they become problems.” You want to give examples of teams that did that with a customer and how they got in there early. They had an insight about something coming down the pike, what they did to educate that customer, and what they did to do some brainstorming ahead of time and come up with a way forward that avoided a crisis and a true problem.
If that’s one of your values, you want to show people what it looks like to live that value out. You don’t want to assume that everybody knows and sees these aspects already. They may not know these stories. They may be in another country or another branch of the organization and have not heard what’s happening over in Asia Pacific, for example, when they might be in North America. You want to share the stories widely and across the geographical locations of your organization.
Number five, you want to be intentional about thanking the workforce for the success that the company has. You might think of specific people and teams as appropriate. As you’re talking about business successes in general, thank the workforce and let them know that none of this would be possible without their commitment, hard work every day, and innovation and creativity at work. Make sure to say thank you and let them know that you know they are the reason for the success of the business.
Number six, as you’ve covered all of these aspects of the business, you’ve shared the good news stories, the challenges, and given examples, you also want to ask for the help of the workforce about those challenges. You’ve already rolled out what you’re thinking. Let them know you want to hear from them. You want to know if they have an idea that would benefit the organization in addressing some of the challenges mentioned. Let them know how to move that idea forward.
Sometimes, you would have a place online where people can make a comment. You might have them go to the direct leadership person who they report to. There are all kinds of ways of gathering this information. You want to let them know you want the information and hear from them. When people share good ideas, make sure to implement them and also at the next State of the Business meeting, give credit to those people whose ideas you are implementing.
You want to be intentional about thanking the workforce for your company's success. None of it would be possible without their commitment, hard work, and innovation. Click To TweetThis lets the organization know you are listening. It’s not just what the executive team wants to do. It’s also their voice and what they see. Sometimes, because of where they’re sitting in the organization, they have more intel or knowledge about how to fix something than you might or even the executive team. A lot of times what executives forget, and this is why they’re often cavalier about whether to do the State of the Business meeting, is they don’t remember that people don’t know what you know.
You’re the CEO and the president of this company. You know a lot about the direction and what’s going on. Also, your executive leadership team is meeting with you to talk about what’s happening now and what the plan is for the future. Remember that the workforce is not privy to the conversations held in those executive team meetings. You have to have mechanisms for getting that information out to the entire workforce.
Do keep in mind that in the absence of information and updates, people make up their stories and those are usually far worse than what the true reality is. Tell your story, the one that’s true, that you want the organization to know. Otherwise, be prepared for a lot of false narratives that are not so true and might even discourage people.
Effective Format For A State Of The Business Address
What about the format for these meetings? Principally, you want that meeting to be led by the CEO of the company, or if you’re in a different structure and it’s the president of the company, then the top leader. People who work for your company need to hear your voice as the CEO and the president. That’s crucial. You don’t want to have it be a telephone game where you’re passing information on to someone else. However, the workforce does not get to hear from you directly. A lot of interpretation may get seeded into the original message. It’s diluted or changed in some way that’s different from what you intend.
Make sure that you, as the CEO and President, are the primary voice. When I say primary voice, that does not mean only voice. It’s very powerful to have parts of this briefing be covered by members of the executive leadership team. You want to have your executive team partners also involved. What this shows is unity and alignment at the top leadership levels of the company. You want the workforce to see that in action so you all can have a piece in it. Make sure also that the CEO’s voice is leading it and is also heard.
It’s also interesting another strategy you can use. This doesn’t have to happen at every State of the Business meeting but it’s a creative idea. You can include a client testimonial. You could have a client there live to talk about why they are working with your company, the profound results they’re getting, and what they’re delighted about. What this shows is your company’s why. You get to see the company’s why in action. You want your workforce to know the benefit of the value they are adding to customers and clients.
The person doesn’t have to be there live. The customer could be on a video that you play for the workforce. It doesn’t have to be overly long but they share a little bit about why they’re choosing your organization. You can also have a format on video or live where someone from your organization, maybe from your communications department, is interviewing that client and bringing out the best information. Sometimes customers are excited about you but they may not always know how to share the message without being interviewed by someone a little bit more savvy about a media experience. Feel free to include some client and customer testimonials in the State of the Business address.
The State of the Business address is for the entire workforce. You want everyone to be included across all geographical regions and time zones. You’re including it across all time zones so you want to be sensitive to the time that you hold the meeting. Of course, some people will have to attend very early in the morning while others may attend after hours in the evening if you have a global business. Yet, you want everyone to have the opportunity to participate in the State of the Business update.
Best Practices For Frequency And Meeting Duration
The frequency varies in terms of how often you should have these. For most businesses, four times a year or quarterly makes a lot of sense. For some, maybe three times a year. Three or four times a year is a good optic to strive for in terms of frequency. I wouldn’t have this less than once or twice a year. Remember that if you go a long time, that’s an opportunity for people to get off of the path they are on. You want to keep people aligned and heading collectively in the same direction.
Giving a State of the Business Address helps re-engage employees. It reignites their pride and loyalty to the company. Click To TweetIf you meet only once or twice a year, you might consider having a meeting that is more like an in-person mini-conference. Maybe it’s a longer meeting because you are covering a whole lot of aspects of the business and you’re only going to meet once or twice a year. For larger and more complex businesses where the speed of business is very fast and the industry is volatile, you want to have more meetings because there’s more to update the workforce about. Keep that in mind.
If you’re having regular meetings and that includes the three times a year and quarterly meetings, you could have a format that’s about 1 hour long, 1.5 hours at the most. You don’t need to belabor this. You’re providing a high-level overview. The business units are also following up with some regional meetings or some country-specific state of the business addresses that parallel what the overall company meeting is about. They may cover some additional details in those separate meetings. You’re staying a lot at the high level so that 1 hour or 1.5 hours should be plenty.
Some companies have their State of the Business Address weekly or monthly. Those meetings could be an hour or less because you’re doing a more frequent update in that case. You also want to consider recording the meeting. There’s always someone who’s not going to be there, who’s sick or unavailable, and you want the opportunity for them to hear and view that meeting later and hear the update.
Between meetings, it’s important to continue updating the company through other mechanisms. That might be through online sites that you have that are internal to your organization and shared drives. You’re giving some information about the company and newsletters. Perhaps some very short CEO videos and updates. This is not the only time you’re talking to the workforce. You are punctuating the state of the business meeting with in-between updates as well through various mechanisms.
Benefits Of A State Of The Business Address
You might wonder, “What’s the purpose of all of this?” We’ve talked about some of it in terms of aligning the organization, having everyone informed on the same page, and knowing the same information. There are additional benefits as well to having a State of the Business meeting. When people hear about what’s going on in the company, they can rekindle the pride they have in the company, and why they chose to join your organization and to work for the company.
You want people to have pride in the company because of the great work that you’re doing and the value that you’re adding to the world. It increases company loyalty when they hear about, “Our company is on point. We’re doing what we’re supposed to do. Our customers’ and clients’ condition is improved. We’re adding value that they are not getting elsewhere.” This inspires your workforce about the company’s purpose and the why. It re-engages them about being a part of the company team.
What I find is that organizations that make sure they have a State of the Business Address retain more of their workforce members. In the absence of information, it also feels like a lack of connection. When there’s a lack of connection and a lack of information, people often leave because that’s confusing. That’s when fear and anxiety rise. This is especially true in hard times. You want to make sure that you retain more people because you’re sharing more.
It also helps with selection. You can take snippets of your company’s successes and company stories and share them in the places where you are soliciting jobs that are available and open. When people see those snippets, the accomplishments of the company, the values exemplified, and the promotional materials that are public, they will want to work for your company, those who align with those same values and want to participate in the kinds of successes that you are experiencing in your company.
This is also an added benefit because you are getting new ideas and solutions from the entire workforce about the challenges that the company is facing. The executive team does not know everything that you need to move forward and find solutions to those challenges. When you meet with the whole workforce, you are bringing in the collective wisdom, knowledge, expertise, gifts, and talents of all those people you’ve hired so they can help address the way forward with new solutions.
When you meet with the whole workforce, you are bringing in the collective wisdom, knowledge, expertise, gifts, and talents of all those people. Click To TweetYou will also have more people who are living out the company values because, as you share the stories and examples, an a-ha goes off in their brains. “That’s what it looks like to be proactive. I can do that in my part of the business in this way.” It gets them thinking about how they personally can live out the company values and live the culture that you’re creating.
The State of the Business Address also increases collaboration between people because, as they hear what’s going on in other regions, functions, and parts of the business across the world, they will begin to see synergies between those different departments, functions, and countries. They might get excited about something that’s happening, let’s say, over in Europe that maybe they can use in the Asia Pacific. This allows cross-fertilization and cross-collaboration in your organization.
You’re also sharing and seeding what I’ll call best practices throughout the company. That’s an important aspect as people are sharing what’s working well. This whole process increases trust. People sense that there’s a high level of transparency, which increases their confidence in the company, the leadership, and where the company is going. If I haven’t mentioned it already, make sure that in your format, you include ample time for questions and answers.
Even though I’m referring to this as a State of the Business Address, that doesn’t mean it’s a one-way conversation. You want to hear from the workforce, their questions, any comments they have, and any concerns. When you leave that state of the business meeting, there may be additional areas you need to think about and address. In that meeting, you want to answer as many of these questions as you can so that people leave feeling fully informed as if they are part of the process, and as if they have been heard. Even though I’m saying address, it is a two-way process and you do have Q&A as part of it.
Inspiring Action: A Lesson From Nehemiah
As we’re wrapping up this message, I want to think about a picture of what I’m talking about from the Book of Nehemiah. You may remember that the children of Israel were in captivity. While they were in captivity, Jerusalem was in ruins. The gates were all burned with fire and the land was in poverty. Nehemiah was the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes. He got this report back from the people who came and said what the state of Jerusalem was. He was very distressed.
Ultimately, the king saw him when he was in this state of distress and wondered what the problem was. Of course, you couldn’t be sad around the king. That wasn’t a good thing. You could lose your head over that. Nehemiah had been praying to God and seeking God. Initially, he was a little frightened about the king noticing that he was sad. The king knew this was nothing but sadness of heart because Nehemiah wasn’t sick so something else was going on.
He told him about what was going on. The king was favorable toward him because God had already moved things around in the heavens to give Nehemiah favor with the king. The king gave him provision and all the time that he asked for and needed to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls and gates of the city. When Nehemiah came, he walked through, went through at night, and reckoned the area to see what the state of Jerusalem was and what it would take to rebuild the environment. After he had assessed everything, he had a State of Jerusalem meeting with the local leaders there.
This is Nehemiah, the second chapter, starting with verse 17. It says, “Then I said to them, you see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach. I told them of the hand of my God, which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s word that he had spoken to me. They said, let us rise up and build. Then they set their hands to this good work.” That’s Nehemiah, the second chapter, verses 17-18.
Notice several pieces of this state of Jerusalem message. He let them know what the challenges were. The gates were burned and the wall was broken down. He didn’t leave it there. He talked about the goodwill he already had, the good favor from King Artaxerxes. He talked about what the king said and what the king’s provision was. He was letting them know they had a green light from God.
Your workforce should feel heard. It is not just a one-way conversation but a two-way process. Click To TweetGod had provided for them because Nehemiah sought God first. The people, in hearing about the hand of God being good upon Nehemiah and the king’s words and provisions, were inspired, motivated, and energized to say, “Let us rise up and build.” Notice the gates had been burned and the wall had been broken down for a long time before that, but now you have a man with vision coming in to give a picture of what was possible, saying, “We have what they needed in our hands. We have the favor of the king and the favor of our God to get this done. He was the real king of Israel.”
Keep that in mind as you are inspiring your organization so that they will put their hands also to work in your company for the purpose, the calling, and the vision that God has given you as you lead your organization. Have a blessed day. Remember to schedule your next State of the Business Address.
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Creating A Positive And Profitable Corporate Culture
Did you know that workplaces can make a significant difference in the lives of people? You can create a positive culture that gets positive business results and also produces positive life experiences for your employees, clients, and customers. You can make a significant contribution to the world by creating the kind of culture where your people can bring their gifts to provide the most relevant and excellent products and services to your marketplace.
What the research shows is that companies with excellent leadership are also more profitable. As you flourish and grow in the world, you can do more for yourself as well as for others. If this resonates with you and you want to create a positive, profitable, and powerful corporate culture, and you care about succession, leaving the organization in a better position than when you found it, keep in mind that that kind of legacy is intentional. I am happy to partner with you to take your organization to the next level and create a positive leadership culture. Reach me at Dr.Karen@TransLeadership.com.
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I want to let you know that I am running a special promotion. You are a CEO or executive leader in a medium to large-size company and you care about how your people are treated, especially if you share our biblical values. You may be facing difficult decisions where you want some additional perspective. You may be planning for succession in your company, developing people, and preparing the organization for that succession. Perhaps you are going through change, leading change, or experiencing a merger or acquisition.
Whatever you are facing in terms of leadership, including developing your executive team, contact me or give me a call so we can have a discovery meeting to see what’s going on. Here’s the special promotion. In addition to your discovery time, I will interview up to three additional people from your executive team so you have even greater context and feedback about where to go next. Reach out to me at Dr.Karen@TransLeadership.com or phone me at (719) 534-0949 extension 1. I look forward to hearing from you and coming alongside you to complete and continue your leadership journey with positivity and profitability in your organization.
Important Links
- Dr.Karen@TransLeadership.com
- Dr. Karen Wilson-Starks on LinkedIn
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