Have you ever noticed how everybody goes on a diet in January?

Now, not everybody stays on a diet for very long in January. In fact, I’d wager that by now, the people who went on the most aggressive, restrictive diets on January 2 have probably already thrown up their hands in despair and headed to Baskin-Robbins. (more on that later.)  But if you are going to go on a diet, January is the right time.  Why?

Well, have you ever noticed how everybody goes on a diet in January?  Lots of people do, and lots of people, especially people in the diet and exercise business, know it.  So the best deals on gym memberships, healthy foods, and weight loss programs tend to come around in January.  When you participate, you’re riding a wave of supportive messages with thousands of like-minded people. The world is supporting your strategy.

Consider, by contrast, what it would have been like to try dieting in November and December. You’re surrounded by marketing messages and bargains on sweets and rich, heavy food, overcommitted with errands and social obligations that make going to the gym a hassle at best, and everything around you is about abandoning all forms of discipline in service of seasonal merriment.  You’re really up against it, right?

Now, let’s think about this idea in a more general sense.  We know that with all the good things we talk about in professional development like self-discipline, goal-setting, affirmations, positive self-talk, and organizational skills we can do absolutely anything we set our minds to, and we can do it whenever we are truly ready.  And that is all true. I am not in any way condoning that someone who is ready to lose weight in November should put off the process until January.  What I am condoning is taking a look around you at the environmental factors that are making your chosen strategy easier or harder to achieve.

Diet-related stuff is not the only stuff with “seasonality.”  If you know you or your business needs to make a major purchase in the near future, a little research about when the item(s) you need tend to go on sale could save you a bundle.  By the same token, the product or service you are selling may have seasonality as well.  Are you maximizing the opportunities afforded by that?  And the product example is only one among many. What other environmental factors affect your business, positively or negatively?  How can you work with them instead of against them?  If you don’t know, how can you go about finding out?

In business and in life, there will be things you can’t control or change.  Knowing how to catch the wind, whichever way it’s blowing, and trimming your sails accordingly, will get you where you’re going faster and with less effort.

It seems to be a common assumption among executives and HR departments that everyone in their organization is “climbing the ladder.” So it’s not surprising that, when a person-who-does-the-work (a “producer”) emerges as a star in the production department, he often finds himself promoted to management.  Let’s explore some reasons why this may not be such a hot idea in the realm of strategy.

1. Producing and managing involve different skill sets. A person who is brilliant at doing the work may not be brilliant at facilitating other people doing the work, which is what managers are supposed to do. A great producer with poor management skills will mistrust her subordinates and have trouble delegating responsibilities.  Her subordinates will quickly tire of her constant micromanaging and criticism of their work.

2. Star producers may not be interested in management. It’s going to be very hard for a producer to turn down a promotion, particularly if it involves perks like higher pay, better hours, or an office with a door. But a promotion from something he is really great at, to something he is not great at, may be a recipe for frustration and failure. A producer who loves producing will miss that direct involvement in the work, and will not feel like this move from expertise to cluelessness is much of a “promotion.”

3. Your best producers are a tremendous asset on the production line! Why would you pull someone who is brilliant at doing the work into a position where she’s not doing the work?

4. If management is the only “promotion” path, it may be time to change your attitude about your producers. Just recently, I found the best example of this I’ve ever read — Hollywood. At the risk of creating some confusion here, in Hollywood the “producers” are the actors.  They are the ones who do the major work; the ones without whom the “company” cannot exist. One could extend this example to all the cameramen, stage hands, etc. — but you get the idea. The artists and craftspeople of Hollywood are the front line of production in that industry.  Now suppose Hollywood did what other industries do, and “promoted” the best actors to paper-pushing office jobs at the studio.  The very idea seems absurd, right? And yet that’s exactly what happens in manufacturing and engineering companies all the time!

So what could you do instead, that would provide your producers with the salary increases, benefits and recognition they deserve, without taking them away from the realm where they do their best work? Give it some thought and please, share your ideas here!