The 4th quarter of the year is upon us already – can you believe it? With the holidays rapidly approaching, the year’s end will be here before you know it. If you developed a strategic plan for your business for 2018, now is a great time to review what you’ve accomplished and what has yet to be done. Once you’ve done that, you can make some decisions about further steps to take or revisions to make to your plan.
It’s also the time of year to start working on your strategic plan and supporting initiatives for 2019. We’ll address that later in this article.
Review Your 2018 Strategic Plan Progress
When you developed your strategic plan for 2018 (if you followed the LXCouncil Strategy Map tool) you created a detailed list of targeted objectives and supporting initiatives assigned to individuals in your company. The nice thing about this is you now have something very tangible by which to track and measure your progress through the first three quarters of the year.
As you begin your review, you may find initiatives that hit a wall or never got started. This is the time to re-evaluate the associated objectives and determine what may have been the cause of any delay or derailment. As the business leader, it’s up to you to decide if those objectives are still relevant or important and create a plan to execute them, remove them, or postpone them.
As you are working through the review, you may find several objectives that are still important but not completed. With only one quarter left in your year (and approaching holidays), it’s time to be realistic about what can be accomplished over the next three months and get a plan together to get it done. You can then carry over the other objectives into your 2019 strategic plan.
Start Working on Your 2019 Strategic Plan & Supporting Initiatives
If you’re like most business owners and CEOs, you were aggressive with your 2018 plans and there may be items that didn’t get accomplished. If they are still important to the business, start your 2019 plan with those items and make a them the priority in Q1. Addressing them early in the year will help ensure they get accomplished.
If didn’t have a plan in 2018, it’s time to be more strategic in your thinking and create a business strategic plan for 2019. The benefits of doing a strategic plan for your company far outweigh the difficulties of pulling it together. As identified by our LXCouncil CEOs and business owners, some of the benefits include:
1) Team Focus and Alignment – increases retention and performance
2) Prioritization that gives direction without the CEO present
3) Better decision making based on communicated direction
4) Faster tangible results due to accountability and execution
5) Peace of mind for the CEO – priceless
We have a tool to help you! If you’ve not seen the “Strategy Map” used by our members for their own strategic planning, you can find it below. Click on the image to view and download a PDF version that you can use to guide you through your own business strategic planning session.
You may also refer to a few of our older blog posts as resource as you walk through your 2019 strategic planning process;
It’s important to remember that a business strategic plan is a living document. It does no good if it’s created and then it sits on a shelf. The purpose of the strategic plan is to guide your company through the year and help it stay on course for growth. It holds people accountable to specific responsibilities, and when executed properly it yields incredible results.
Expert Tip: Take the time to review your 2018 plan progress, make adjustments if needed, and start working on your 2019 strategic plan now!
If you are ready to kick start the growth of your business in a strategic way, LXCouncil is great place to start. Let’s start a conversation and unchain your infinite entrepreneurial potential.
Interested in learning more about what LXCouncil is doing to help business owners, like you, attain their highest potential? A short conversation may open a world of opportunity and connections for your company. Schedule a call today!
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