Creating Plans is the first step in the Make an Impact phase of the roadmap.
The AIM Leadership Roadmap helps leaders who have a new mandate, new team, or who need new ideas to lead with confidence, accelerate impact, and deliver results in their leadership role. In this article series, I’ll break down the steps you can take to inspire growth in your people and your organization and build your leadership legacy. Want all the info in one place right now? Jump to The Definitive Guide to Leading in a New Role.
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Today’s topic is Create Plans. Step 4 in the AIM Leadership Roadmap.
Creating Plans is the first step in the Make an Impact phase of the roadmap – with a focus on leading your team to develop a game plan then execute on game day and everyday.
Creating Plans will help you go from having ad hoc to do’s to establishing concrete plans for your whole team.
Here are actions to achieve this:
- Understand the Current State – In the previous step you synthesized your ideas and picked your priorities, now it’s time to do it with the team. ‘The status quo exists for a reason’ – I’m not sure who said that first, but it’s a great place to start. Gain an understanding of the current state – review current results, current activities, the current environment, and existing plans. Gather reports, interview the team, consider doing a SWOT analysis to identify current Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Download your free Situation Assessment Interview Guide and use the ‘Strategy Understanding Questions’ to get started.
- Develop Vision and Priorities – You may start with a visioning exercise, if your team or organization doesn’t have a clear vision. This is your purpose, why you exist, and acts as the north star for your team when making decisions. I always say you want your people to make decisions in alignment with the direction you are going, so it’s important they know and buy into that direction and vision. To pick the priorities that become your plans, you can revisit your decision criteria from step three (Synthesize Ideas). Your criteria might include ease of execution vs impact on the business, or cost to do (money and resources) vs impact on the business. Using your vision and your decision criteria, agree on team priorities.
- Assign Actions – Before assigning actions, I like to do a resource needs analysis. To achieve the priorities you’ve chosen, what resources are needed? Do you have all the right people in the right roles to make the magic happen? If you have gaps, how can you fill them? The next step of building buy-in to the plan is to assign actions – do you have volunteers, are there specific people who are best-suited for specific actions, is there a stretch assignment for someone you are developing? Assigning actions and creating accountability to complete those actions is key to moving your vision and strategy forward.
Review your plans regularly and revise them as needed. This will help you stay on track and adjust your strategy as your business evolves.
In the next article I’ll discuss how to Align your Team to go from inconsistency to being in sync.
Team Alignment Coaching and Workshops
Do you need to align your team around common goals, behaviours, and expectations? Find out more about my Team Alignment Coaching and Workshops. Working together will help you achieve the following outcomes:
- Set Direction – define purpose and strategy
- Innovate and Re-Invent – generate new ideas and solve problems
- Improve Decision Making – have the right people making the right decisions
- Build Team Cohesion – improve team dynamics and create a high performance culture
Connect with me today – jen@actionimpactmovement.com or book an intro call.