It's halfway through March, and that means if you're a business owner you are already behind on your strategic plans and goals for the year.
Did I get that right?
How did I know?
Because most business owners confuse planning with execution. You spent an energized day in January writing down a list of goals and then headed back to the daily grind. Your list is in a drawer somewhere by February and by March it's a distant memory.
There are many reasons these plans fall apart. Let's dig in to it.
1) They are built in isolation - One of the things many small business owners are guilty of is going it alone when it comes to planning. By including a leadership team, or even other key employees, it can make a big impact when it comes time to execute. If they feel like they've contributed to the plan you will get better buy-in from them, and they'll be more likely to prioritize their goals.
2) There is no formalized plan - You had a relatively informal session and wrote down a list of goals, but there's no context. A structured strategic planning process walks you through everything you need to consider and helps you arrive at informed short and long term goals. You will have clearly aligned actions that are assigned to individuals with specific measurements, and timelines. When you formalize all that information in a written plan then you have a roadmap that keeps everyone on the same page.
3) Priorities aren't realistic - You created a long list of "priorities", but there's just too much. Everything is important and urgent, so nothing is. If you give someone a list of 15 things to get done over the year, half of them won't happen. If you just come out with 2-3 big goals for the year, no one will ever find their way to accomplishing them. You have to break plans down into 2-3 concrete, actionable goals per person, per quarter that you know will move you towards your long term goals.
4) You set goals without alignment. 5 year -> 3 year -> 1 year -> quarterly -> monthly -> weekly. You need goals of appropriate scale for each of these time periods and they have to be directly aligned to support the tier above. You start with the big, long term goals and work backwards to the short term targets and tasks in front of everyone. When you do that, everyone has a clear link between their day-to-day work and the big picture.
5) Goals without owners Every goal has to be specific and measurable, but most importantly has to have one, and only one, person accountable for it. That doesn't mean others won't contribute to achieving it, but they alone own the responsibility for making sure it happens.
And finally, the real problem:
6) There is no accountability rhythm - You build a plan with your team, you formalize it in a written plan, you have a realistic number of priorities that are specific, measurable, aligned, each with one owner. But how do you prevent it from getting lost in the madness of the day to day? You have to keep momentum going with a check-in rhythm to track progress, deal with issues, and support each other when required.
A weekly check in touches on operational issues and keeps outstanding actions on track. A monthly review zooms out to keep your short term tasks aligned with your quarterly goals so you can check progress. Your quarterly offsite keeps you aligned with your plan for the year. Your annual offsite gives you a chance to celebrate your success, revisit your long term goals and set your strategy for the coming year. It's a cycle that keeps momentum and creates accountability for your team; and it prevents your plan from ending up in your drawer by February 28th.
This the type of work that makes makes the difference between a stagnating business growing slowly by accident, and one that is growing steadily, intentionally, and without chaos. If you want a guide that can walk beside you in that journey, I would love to help.