Strategic Planning & Accountability Go Hand-In-Hand

As strategy planning is just around the corner (if not already here), do you find yourself digging out your 2010 Strategic Plan to see what you have accomplished, or is your strategic plan routinely referenced to ensure your strategic objectives are being met?

If your strategic plan is dusty or even hard to find and you are wondering why ½ of the tactics are not yet implemented, there clearly may have been a breakdown in accountability and follow-through. Strategic Plans fail all too often because leadership does not hold employees accountable.

Accountability and follow-through are imperative in making your strategic plan a living, breathing document that truly guides your organization to fulfill your vision. To transform your organization through the strategic plan, leadership must build and sustain personal accountability starting with management and continuing through to frontline employees. The process is simple, but it makes a world of difference…simply determine who is responsible by when, set priorities for each person, and monitor progress.

This year, when you begin the Strategic Planning Process, assign accountability to the strategic objectives and then monitor your plan on a regular basis. Plans are monitored on a regular basis help to ensure personal accountability and organizational progress.

Don’t Plan to Fail in 2010

Avoid the Top 3 Strategic Planning Pitfalls

Not all strategic planning is created equally. The majority of companies find a mere 63 percent of the goals outlined in their strategic plan are achieved each year. Why leave all of that opportunity on the table?

How can you pull the extra level of growth out of your strategic plan? Make strategic planning an ongoing process rather than an annual event combined with a golf outing or Board retreat.

Most companies see goals fail because their strategic planning process lacks three basic components necessary for success.

• A chain of leadership involvement that extends beyond Executive leadership to include those business leaders actually responsible for producing results.

• A defined accountability program to achieve the goal and detailed process for ongoing progress reviews.

• A platform that includes ongoing monitoring and review to take strategic planning from a onetime annual event to an evolving growth process.

Incorporate these three elements into your planning and you’ll achieve more next year. Or, consider successful planning programs like Best Year Yet®, a strategic planning process that achieves significant, measurable and relevant results by generating alignment to move everyone in the same direction. Best Year Yet is a program that changes behavior, culture and performance to deliver success year after year.

Want to find out more about Best Year Yet – email Sharon Lovejoy at slovejoy@marketmatch.com and plan for success in 2010.

Deanna

Reflecting on Reflections

I had a personal epiphany over the weekend and then turned it into a professional one.

There's no greater reflection of ourselves than observing the actions of those we lead.

It all started when I wished my 5-year-old son would stop yelling first and asking questions later. 

Then I realized that he was a “mini-me.”  A 3-foot tall version of my impatient, hotheaded self.  He wasn’t born with a short fuse, he learned it through watching me.

The same is true for our institutions.  As managers or those responsible for the service delivery of our banks or credit unions, if you are unsatisfied with the actions of your staff – first look at the culture that created the behaviors.

Walt Disney understood this:

“People look at you and me to see what they are supposed to be.  And, if we don't disappoint them, maybe, just maybe, they won't disappoint us."

- Walt Disney

I don’t believe that Orlando, Florida is the hotbed of outstanding, service-oriented people.  If that were true, your experiences outside of Disney would be the same as those inside the park.  What Disney has, however, is a clear definition of service excellence and a consistent and unwavering expectation from the CEO to the janitor that this definition is to be lived everyday – with absolutely no exceptions.

Rather than punish my son for his actions, I will make a conscience effort to not disappoint him in MY actions ... then maybe, just maybe, I won't be disappointed in his.

How will you and your management team effect the service culture of your institution?

Take Care,                                                                                                                  

Eric

OTHER MEANINGFUL WALT DISNEY QUOTES:

“You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.”

“Of all the things I've done, the most vital is coordinating those who work with me and aiming their efforts at a certain goal.”