A business plan is absolutely necessary for a new business or for gaining finances. However, a business plan, such as The One Page Business Plan®, can be beneficial for team and department leaders too. The art of leadership, developing plans, and executing them is a trickle down model. Once the organizational plan is complete, all of the departments need to develop aligned plans to contribute to the organization’s success. Additionally, engaging staff in plan development vastly increases your likelihood of business success.
Steps for engaging your employees in the process of creating their goals are outlined in the Harvard Business Review article “Making Sure Your Employees Succeed”, by Amy Gallo:
Steps for Engaging Your Employees in the Business Plan
- Make sure employees see the connection between their goals and the goals of the organization.
- Be a partner to your employees in helping them achieve their goals.
- Take an interest in your employees personally and help them incorporate personal goals as well.
The first bullet requires alignment between employee goals and the organization. Developing department goals that align to the organization is one of the best ways to achieve such alignment. A department plan is the connection between the organizational goals and individual performance. Moreover, business plans increase transparency, and create buy-in from the employees, if they are included in the department goal planning process!
How do you do obtain a business plan?
The One Page Business Plan® methodology is outlined in the ‘Related Posts’ below. Follow the steps of creating a Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategies and Action Plans. It’s simple, easy to understand, extremely transferrable, and is a succinct and clear communication tool. The plan allows your employees to align easily to organizational goals, and gives you an accountability tool too.
I find that managing expectations is one of the most common problems in coaching leaders and their staff. When expectations are not clear, they’re not met. Expectations are spelled out clearly, with due dates, ownership and simple language in the One Page Business Plan®. By combining a plan with monthly or quarterly updates, you’ve got an amazing accountability process.
In the next post we’ll address designing a business plan for a project and why you need one in addition to the organization and department plans.
If you are ready to ‘dive all in’, of course buy the workbook here or send me an email at lzettler@coreimpactcoaching.com to inquire about private planning or team sessions and get your goals aligned for accelerated success in the coming year.
Check out our video workshop here.
Related posts:
How is a business like a wedding?
You can’t track what you can’t measure.
Are my objectives really that intelligent?
Plans without action are a waste of time
What is your business North Star?