At the commencement of a new year, financial cycle or a new venture, it is timely to dust off the business plan or create one. In my experience, many organisations have the overarching corporate plan, possibly even a division plan. But when it comes down to functional work groups or teams the plans are informal or do not exist.
For those that know me well, I am a lady with a plan - always. So naturally I am biased towards setting up sound business plans wherever I may go. A business plan can take many forms and I will create a post shortly on how to create your own business plan. Generally a business plan identifies your business goals, objectives, required resources and timeframe. Before jumping straight to the how, let's focus on the why.
Create commitment
No one ever achieved a goal by being only interested. By setting the commitment to what you want to achieve, it creates a level of resolve in our conscious and subconscious minds. There is part of your brain called the Reticular Activating System (RAS). The RAS will alert you to the information you need to achieve your goal. Think of when you want to buy a new car, you start researching cars and then all of the sudden you see your desired car everywhere!
The same occurs for forming awareness and new habits with business goals. If you were to set a goal for 6 new clients per week, your brain will filter and alert you to new opportunities, you may think of old contacts, and often feel surges of motivation to cold call.
The great thing about creating a commitment, is that it forces you to raise your standards. When that is coupled with the RAS in full focus, it means that even when obstacles arise, the commitment to the goal forces you to persist and push until you find a way to achieve it.
Drives better decisions
"It's all in my head" is often what is heard when asking someone about the plan of their new business venture. Having a plan is better than having no plan to begin with. But without documenting it and setting boundaries, I wonder how will they question and evaluate before making decisions?
Successful leaders and teams ask better questions, so their decisions are well informed. The business plan is the roadmap for where you are heading. When new opportunities or issues arise, if they aren't addressed with the business plan as an overlay, it can really impact on achieving those goals. An example of a few key questions are:
How will this impact on the product/project/service outcomes? Leads to better decisions on trade-offs.
What are the known and hidden costs associated with this proposal/activity? Leads to better investment decisions.
How can we turn this around? Leads to better decisions on strategy and resources.
Asking questions with the business plan in mind acts as the master filter of how your decisions will contribute to the success or failure of those goals.
Communicates your vision
How do you communicate to your team about what the future plan is? Some leaders will have a plan of work activities possibly in a spreadsheet, others will keep a whiteboard visible. The thing is, how does everyone in your team know which direction they are heading and why? My post on The 3 Parts of Motivation: Purpose underpins the need to connect the purpose of the organisation to the work activity. Without having a link from strategy, objective, task, and KPI, the chain of communicating the vision is weak.
Having the business plan written down and displayed, reinforces what you are trying to achieve to your team (hello RAS). There are also other stakeholders who will be interested in your business plan, such as your board, bank, potential investors, customers and even future employees. Personally, I feel that all sharing the business plan on your website is an important communication tool. Obviously you should remove commercially sensitive information, but publishing it will absolutely drive focus and to my next point, make you and your team accountable.
Builds accountability
Having a well defined and communicated business plan builds accountability. As any good leader knows, your two jobs are to set the direction and help everyone in your team get there. You can build accountability through assigning business plan objectives to team members, directly linking performance reviews to them and frequently measuring or checking in on the progress to the goal.
It is important to remember to be flexible in the achievement of the goal or to even change it if circumstances outside of your control mean that the objective will not be achieved. However, this should only be done with thoughtful consideration and brainstorming to ensure there is no other way available to your team. It is not a get out of jail free card because the team just didn't get around to it. If a lack of focus has meant the goal wasn't achieved, then as a leader it is your responsibility to identify it early and course correct.
In summary, you need a business plan for your team that directly connects with your organisation's plan. If your organisation doesn't have a business plan then be bold and offer to create one! The business plan creates laser-like focus. You will know how important the objectives are to you, with all your decisions and activities leading to the results you desire.
If you are not sure where to start, stay tuned for the next instalment where I run through how you can build your business plan. Or get in contact with me via the Think Ascend website, I would be happy to help, because I do love a good plan.
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