There is no doubt CEOs have more on their plate than anyone else in the company; however, passionate and dedicated leaders always keep strategic planning a top priority. It is the lifeblood of any organization that needs to propel into the future. Let us go over 10 strategic planning pitfalls CEOs are susceptible to making.
As per Mary-Anne Gillespie (a passionate business coach), too many business leaders become headstrong on what they want and where they see themselves in the future. The most vital factor that is often overlooked when it comes to strategic planning is the question, “How can I be instrumental in helping my employees become better at what they do?” There is no denying the fact that if you want to help your people get to where they want to go, they will help you do the same.
Most CEOs implement their strategic planning objectives starting within the company. If you start gnawing at the problem within, you’ll just be eliminating it for a short time. Rather than focusing on the effect of the problem, look for the cause. Start eliminating the problem from an external perspective.
This is another rampant oversight made by CEOs and business leaders. Communication expert and author Diana Booher outlines several communication skills of great leaders. You have to understand that your employees will never be able to peer into your thought process. You have to lay it out for them. Communication failure in business strategy planning translates into missed milestones and poor performance. Ensure your business planning objectives are clear from the get-go. Better yet, align them with the KPIs of your employees.
Another derailing mistake in planning is integrating solutions that do not generate value for your consumers. At the end of the day, it is all about what you do for your customers. To derive a measurable outcome, never downplay the importance of aligning the needs of your customers after realizing their wants.
Implementing sound business strategies is not the entire game. According to Cindy Montgenie, having a strategic planning goal that does not resonate with your team and does not communicate well will never be a winning strategy. Ensure your team is committed to realizing and integrating the bigger picture. Then set up a measurable benchmark to evaluate key performance indicators on a week-to-week or month-to-month basis.
Many companies hold “strategy meetings” on a regular, but boil everything down to just vague objectives and philosophical insights. The objectives discussed are then forgotten on clipboards and folders in the laptop. Understand that the crux of strategy planning is to focus on elemental strategies which will propel your business into the future. It is something that everybody in the company must follow.
With a cutthroat corporate environment today, pushing a traditional mindset in strategy will always pull you back. You have to realize the evolution of technology – and the fact that the world is on your fingertips. You can measure and control expectations, diversify resources and work on lost opportunity costs. Successful CEOs think outside the box when it comes to strategic planning.
Planning business strategies does not come with these prerequisites. They don’t have to be time-intensive or expensive. You could always go for hiring an external business coach who is experienced in driving results.
Successful thought leaders, business ideators, and CEOs believe in their strategy planning right down to the bone. They develop strategies that resonate well with their employees. They know how to spell out the intricacies of their strategies to touch the hearts and minds of their people, creating an exciting and competitive culture to drive the organization forward.
Acting on an assumption without first having it validated and verified via top-level feedback is a very bad idea. An upper management frame of mind is good; however, never exclude your team. Always have your assumptions vetted before integrating them.
Avoiding these 10 mistakes will help visionary leaders to stay consistent and ahead of the competition, and ultimately paint the bigger picture for the organization. The time you take to ensure a vivid comprehension of all the details needed to plan strategically will save you much time and money in the long run.
Fatima Mansoor is a writer at Aepiphanni, a Business Consultancy that provides Management Consulting, Implementation and Managed Services to business leaders and entrepreneurs seeking to improve or expand operations. She specializes in business & entrepreneurship, digital marketing, and health & fitness. Her focus is on creating compelling web content for small and medium businesses form diverse industries. She mostly writes for entrepreneurs and marketing agencies across the US, Australia and UK.
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