Happy End of Financial Year.
Happy end of Financial Year
– the clock strikes midnight on the 30th June…..Yipppppeeeeee.
I’m an accountant at heart, so 30th June is more exciting than New Years Eve. Why?
It’s a great opportunity to reflect. What have I achieved this year. What am I most proud of. What is my biggest learning. Who has supported me this year – make sure you say thank-you. I always encourage my teams to update their CV every year – what have they learnt, where have they developed it’s a good way to remember all your achievements as well.
It’s also a new beginning in some respects:
New budget
New goals / objectives
New priorities
New Funding
New Tax Year
There is an element in companies, where people need to wait until 1 July, until they can spend the money on the next project, phase or project or new recruitment. It’s kinda silly but you see how it happens as the funding aligns with the new financial year.
The new financial year, gives you a chance as a leader to reset with your team – to set them up on clear priorities, with clear goals and provide a chance for a reset, if things haven’t gone to plan in the old FY. Starting the year with clear priorities and goals is critical and defining what success is for the year for the company, department, team and individual.
Getting some momentum at the beginning of the Financial Year is critical, for people to see the pace has changed, that energises the team and resets the expectation on how the team is going to operate. Finding some quick wins at the beginning of the financial year for the team is a good focus as a leader.
Measuring what matters, makes sense. Many companies don’t do this well. Starting a new financial year allows you to reset the priorities of the company and ensuring that you are measuring lead and lag indicators – not to many metrics but the right ones. Having regular reporting with these metrics is critical and ensures changes can be made as required / and quickly to change the course of the outcomes
So why I love the end of financial year:
It’s a chance to reflect on the old year
It’s a chance to reset the ways you are doing things for the new year to make it bigger and better
It’s a change to set your team and organisation up for success
Are you ready for the new FY, the budget is approved:
Have you defined your success metrics
Have defined your reporting
Have you defined how you are going to operate
Have you engaged your team on this journey