“Four steps to achievement: Plan purposefully. Prepare prayerfully. Proceed positively. Pursue persistently.”
–William A. Ward

In order to effectively lead your team to success, you as a leader must help them understand how they support the “big picture”.  Individual and team goals and roles must be clearly aligned with those of the organization, and used as the basis of rewards and development planning.

PeopleTek’s Strategic Plan Process

Successful leaders build a plan and use it. At PeopleTek we use and recommend the “strategic plan process.” This plan uses seven steps that help you easily identify where you currently are, and the steps required to get you where you want to be.

The steps in the plan are:

Step 1 – Agree on the mission or objective
Step 2 ­- Agree on the focus areas; we suggest 3 -5 (also called streams)
Step 3 – Agree on the desired result for each focus area or stream
Step 4 – List the CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS (pre-requisites or dependencies)
Step 5 – Identify the ‘AS IS’ for each focus area (be honest)
Step 6 – Brainstorm and prioritize the “HOW TO’s” for each focus area
Step 7 – Ensure accountability by assigning owners to each focus area

Ensuring accountability is critical. An owner must be assigned for each focus area and for each “HOW TO” step, with each step having a target date for completion.

This planning process can also be used for individual development planning. Assess where each individual is, and state where you want them “to be”. Your plan could include specific courses (up-skilling specific functions essential for a job, perhaps technical needs, as well as leadership and soft-skill development.  It could also include cross training within areas of your current company or organization, a mentorship (either to be a mentor or be mentored), and even perhaps plans for a total career change.  Technical and professional networks could also be identified.

Track the progress of your plans, update them as needed, and celebrate your successes!