Let Your Employees Make Your Business Plan Come to Life

People and Process aligned with strategy and how you execute thereof. This theme became ingrained in my thought process after reading Larry Bossidy’s book: Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. A business plan can be the basis of this alignment. Some companies do not have business plans while others have elaborate plans. These elaborate plans perhaps get shared with only bankers, investors and board members. Oftentimes when business plans are created, they get dusty, cluttered and not really used.  At least that was what happened to me in the early stages of my career. You need to have a simple plan and give it to your people so they can understand and align their actions to it. The lack of alignment will hinder your chances of business growth. [bctt tweet=”You need to have a simple plan and give it to your people so they can understand and align their actions to it. The lack of alignment will hinder your chances of business growth.” username=”STUCKCoaching”]

Getting this Alignment

To be truly great, every company needs highly engaged and empowered team members. They need to be in the right roles and given the autonomy to make decisions to improve and grow the organization. They need to understand the company’s overall purpose and vision. Every decision they make needs to align with that purpose and vision. They need to be able to answer the question “Why is this company here in the first place”. Set goals with your employees to ensure this alignment. Individuals can have SMART Goals assigned them that drive their actions towards the achievement of the plan. Below: Jerry Jendusa speaking about the importance of The Why. After your employees are aligned with the company’s vision, empower them. Allow them to create, follow, and align their actions to your business’ processes. Inform them about how they are involved within these processes. When your staff is empowered to do their jobs, they become fully energized within your business which will lead them to do magical things. [bctt tweet=”When your staff is empowered to do their jobs, they become fully energized within your business which will lead them to do magical things.” username=”STUCKCoaching”]

Common Limiting Factors

Why is it that so many companies struggle with this?  Here are some things that I have seen in the hundreds of companies that I have worked with:

• There simply is NO plan
• If there is a plan, it is unrealistic and not obtainable
• Top management creates the plans and directs them towards bankers, investors, board members, advisors and themselves. How will the employees understand it?
• Leaders do not properly cascade the plan to staff, leaving them to ask “What’s the Plan?”
• Goals and targets within the plan are not measured
• The culture is such that the assumption is that management or the owner isn’t going to follow it
• Firefighting constantly takes place and there is less time spent on perhaps some of the more important Must Do/Can’t Miss items.

Instead, establish a simple plan on a single page and execute off it using accountability tools such as Must Do/Can’t Miss items. Measure them monthly. When your staff aligns their actions to this process, you will be amazed as you see your business plan come to life. Our Single-Page Plan concept is proven, established, and keeps you focused on the right things with an engaged and energized staff. Business after all, simply does not have to be all that complicated. For more tips on how to improve your business, follow STUCK Coaching on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.