Most business leaders regularly keep an eye on the competition, which makes a lot of sense. It’s important to stay up to date with what others are doing in your market and trends that could impact your business.

When it comes to evaluating internal performance, however, it’s something that tends to slip down the list of priorities.

The State of Business Process Management 2020 survey found that while a lot of businesses are enthusiastic about the idea of improving internal processes, the lack of clear focus leads to attention being focused elsewhere.

The reasons for looking internally at a business were varied amongst survey respondents, which helps to demonstrate some of the potential benefits on offer.

Around 70 per cent of organisations are working on internal processes to reduce costs or improve productivity, while 30 per cent are making changes to improve customer satisfaction.

This guide will look at some of the main factors that influence how and when leaders look internally, plus common mistakes and quick wins for making internal reflection into a habit. The next step will be to use our action plan to direct your change and improvement.

Having systems to track internal data

In order to understand how your company is performing and where there’s room for improvement, it’s important to spend time looking at internal factors rather than only benchmarking yourself against others.

That means considering how you can measure your own progress, from tracking how quickly you’re completing tasks to analysing how effective your sales and marketing strategies are.

Take a deeper look into how you can measure your own progress and success in isolation, as opposed to in comparison.

Being emotionally invested in the business

It’s normal to be emotionally invested in your business and team. The teams of smaller businesses in particular are often built using personal connections or friends, so you might have close relationships with your colleagues.

As such, it can be hard to truly have an objective opinion of how well things are going or where there are performance issues. Being aware of your potential personal bias is crucial when it comes to looking internally at your business and finding areas to improve.

Having the time to look at internal processes

Even if you have the best intentions of looking internally at your business, it will ultimately come down to cold hard numbers: how many hours are you actually putting in?

Getting better at reflecting internally can mean making some tough decisions about what you work on and what you delegate to others.

Can you dedicate some time to a leadership course or a training programme that will help you tackle internal improvements? How much time can you set aside on a regular basis to review reports and monitor progress?

Coming from a reactive perspective

Consider what has made you want to start looking internally. Has something changed that has triggered this interest or response?

One of the mistakes that a lot of leaders make is only starting to internally evaluate their company when things either suddenly get very good – or very bad. While this is normal, particularly in smaller businesses where there are finite resources, it can be detrimental.

In order to get better at looking at your company, you need to dedicate time to this process on a long-term basis. Developing a deeper understanding and driving necessary change should be an ongoing process, not a knee-jerk reaction to a change, either internally or externally.

Getting distracted by the small things

If you’re new to dissecting and analysing internal processes, you’re quite likely to get caught up in the little things. You might overlook widespread issues, such as flaws in your basic strategy or capabilities, choosing instead to focus on the first issue that you discover.

While you’ll naturally want to fix every problem you encounter, if you allow yourself to get distracted by the small things that need changing at some point, you will never have the time or energy to focus on the bigger picture. It’s crucial to stop and prioritise what actually needs to happen.

Talk to employees about their experiences

While you may be working on your own ability to look internally at your business, this is a target you can share with team members.

Set up a meeting with each department to determine where internal processes could be improved and how you can help them to work more effectively. Spend time setting goals together, such as meeting once a month to share updates on your marketing campaigns, or sales reports.

This provides a level of accountability, which is great for making internal reflection a regular habit.

Celebrate your discoveries

Looking internally at your business will bring to light a lot of areas that you may not have previously noticed, including positive ones.

A quick win that can motivate both you and your team is celebrating the successes you find along the way. Focus on your own achievements as a company and reward initiatives that employees have taken to improve how the business operates internally.

Meet up with a peer once a month

Joining online communities or speaking to other business owners is a great way to find out how others manage and prioritise internal reflection.

Meeting up with a peer or mentor once a month to discuss what you’ve done to work on your business can help to make reflection a consistent part of your schedule.

An external perspective can also be useful when it comes to solving issues you’re too close to or improving processes that have always been done that way. While internal reflection isn’t about comparing yourself to others, it doesn’t hurt to find out what another leader would do in your situation.

Now you’ve learnt about some of the factors that impact how and when you look internally at your business, use our action plan to direct your improvement efforts.