Leading at Light Speed is a must-have leadership book by Eric Douglas highlighting the 10 Quantum Leaps to build trust, spark innovation, and create a high-performing organization. Chapter 2 is all about Sharpening the Strategic Focus.
A strategic plan shows how to implement your vision and is divided into three parts: goals, objectives and actions.
Once you’ve defined the vision, you need to define the priorities for the organization in the form of goals and objectives. The desired amount of goals is approximately three or four. Too many goals will tend to blur the focus and make it hard to accomplish what you desire. Once the organization has successfully executed on those priorities, then you can introduce more.
Indifferent leaders often aim their focus at too broad a spectrum, forgetting the importance of maintaining one priority at a time. This method has the potential to upset the focus and drain the energies of the people in the organization. One CEO had 14 goals for her company. When asked about her lack of focus, she promptly replied: “It is important that we have a goal that reflects everything we do.” Sharpening the focus means establishing priorities, not satisfying everyone’s pet project.
How do you define priorities? If your vision is to expand into new markets, then your goals should reflect that, with related objectives of opening new offices or introducing products that will attract sales in that market. If your vision is to become more vertically integrated in the sources of production, then one goal might be to buy a manufacturing plant. What’s important is being clear about the priorities. A priority should be isolated and addressed independently.
Objectives seek to define the initiatives and developmental points you need to reach in order to achieve your goals. Actions capture the specific steps, timetables and responsibilities for achieving the objectives.
The senior leaders of an organization need to pay close attention to defining and articulating their goals. Leaders should be given responsibility to work with their departments and units to refine the goals and tie them to specific objectives and tie them to a coherent set of action steps. This “cascade” effect enables every manager – and ultimately every employee – to connect what they do to the strategic plan.
Take this free work survey to reveal how your company compares to the 10 consistent practices of high performing organizations.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Niche Marketing Tactics (dohertyassoc.com)
- Do You Need a Business Plan? (dohertyassoc.com)
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
