As we close in on Q4, what are your expectations for how this year will turn out for your organization?

Our reader poll today asks: As we close in on Q4, what are your expectations for how this year will turn out for your organization?

• It will be far better than we expected – 9%
• It will be better than we expected – 23%
• It will be about what we expected – 46%
• It will be worse than we expected – 19%
• It will be far worse than we expected – 4%

More good than bad. Those of you having a better year than expected (32%) edged out the 23% whose year is going worse than expected. That’s somewhat encouraging in a time of economic and social unrest. The question for leaders in both situations is similar – what are you going to do to improve your outcome as the year comes to a close? For those doing better than expected, how can you avoid coasting into the finish line and instead guarantee your better-than-expected performance? For those doing worse than expected, what actions can you take now to change the trajectory of your results. Additionally for both groups, how can you generate more accurate predictions and forecasts for next year? More accurate forecasts help you better allocate resources and manage your operations. It’s worth investing time in seeing where your variances were this year and assessing how you can reduce those variances next year.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.