How to Develop a Strategic Plan: Giving Voice to Your Vision
Clarity is paramount to success. In life. In business. Having a clear goal and the way to accomplish it is the single most key element of growth—and one that so many people lack.
If you lack clarity, you lack focus. This is how businesses lose direction and begin to flounder. Worse still is that this is a root problem. The majority of employees aren’t directing the company’s future; that responsibility lies with its leaders. But all too often, the employees are held accountable for a mistake committed by the company’s leaders.
That mistake is a lack of clarity, and there’s only one way to fix it.
Create your vision, then allow everyone to share in it. Make it real. Give it emphasis, focus, solidity. Bring it to life for yourself, then you can fully engage others with it. The clearer it is in your mind, the clearer the picture you can paint for your employees.
Your people can only make judgments based on what they can see. They don’t have the same vision you hold and if you cant “Get your vision out” the gaps in information will be filled with their own version of your vision and this is a recipe for sure failure. When you give them the ability to see clearly what you see employee engagement will go up (because they know how to contribute) and Conflict will go down because employees spend less time debating what the outcomes should be
At Strategy X we’ve realized that the single most critical ability an entrepreneur must possess is how to refine and communicate their vision. Make it clear. Make it powerful. And make it compelling, because your people will only believe and see something if you believe init and see it clearly for yourself.
Here’s how we help you realize your vision.
Vision
Athletes know the importance of visualization. Professional and amateur alike know to visualize the motion, the catch, the jump, the dive. Over and again in their minds, they play out the reality they wish to achieve. It’s not just a goal; it’s a way of life.
Artists share in this trait. So do home renovators. Perhaps you’ve done some home renovations yourself. You had a vision in mind, something you wanted to see made real before your very eyes. The perfect implementation of something only you could describe. If you walked into your home one day and see the dream come true, then you can thank your own ability to impart a clear vision to the builders who could only have achieved exactly what you wanted by you describing this clear vision...
Businesses struggle when there is no clear direction. Where is the CEO taking the company? What is your role in the organization? Both at the top and bottom of the chain, these questions define the company’s ability to excel.
Say for a moment that you were able to travel three years into the future. What does your company look like? Have you achieved your goals? What goals are they?
The Strategy X Vision is:
Our Vision is to see our customers achieve their Vision, Mission & Goals so that owners, employees, and investors can live their lives to the fullest potential
You can see from the Strategy X vision it's specific “see our customers achieve their vision, mission, and goals”…We can measure our vision because if our clients achieve their vision mission and goals we have achieved ours.
StrategyX will ensure you aren’t seeing a muddled mess. You’ll see every aspect of your business unfolding the way you wanted it to.
Mission
If your vision is your greatest aspiration, then your mission is how you start making that real. Your mission is what you will do on a daily basis to achieve your vision. Think about the famous James Bond movies. His boss always give him the clear vision “to Kill the Enemy” and he then went on his “Mission” To find and kill the enemy with little disruption to the pubic”
A mission statement should be simple. It speaks to the very heart of what your business does.
TED Talks has a bold but straightforward mission statement: To spread ideas. Get people thinking, discussing, and imagining what could be. It’s very clear to the employees of TED what they need to do every day to continue to achieve their mission.
Strategy X Mission is:
Our Mission is to provide our customers with a Strategic Planning and Strategy Execution platform & process which enables them to feel comfortable and in control of their business vision, mission & goals at all times.
This Mission statement is clear. Each day at Strategy X we need to refine & develop our platform and process to ensure you’re comfortable and in control of your business vision, mission & goals at all times
Values
Values are quite simply what you value. We all value something. Some typical values could be Innovation, decision making, respect, results, self Improvement, leadership, and many others. It’s important to identify the values that will help you execute your mission and achieve your vision. Ask yourself. What values would I need to have to achieve our vision, mission & goals? It’s more than likely you already have these values, because without knowing it, what you value is probably one of the very reasons you started a business. One value that might be common to any business would be “Customer Service”. If you had a value of customer service then its more than likely that you will do what you need to do on a daily basis to ensure your customers are happy. This is how Values drive behaviours (Culture), behaviours drive actions and actions drive results.
StrategyX we value
Structure, Rigor, Execution, Customer Satisfaction, Innovation, Quality, Continuous Improvement, Accountability & Results. Through a solid structure, a rigorous process and effective execution we will ensure you achieve your desired results.
Culture
Culture is simply the behaviours that are demonstrated from your values….Its the way in which your company embodies its values and executes its mission. If you value Innovation you will behave/act in a way that drives innovation. Maybe you decide to spend 1 hour per day just innovating. When you seek clarity, you want your employees to know just what your company stands for, and what it means to the people who work there. If your employees can clearly define behaviours they need to demonstrate, then your culture will sure to be thriving. This is how you build teams, camaraderie, and a sense of unity from the highest to lowest levels on an organisation.
At StrategyX We bring the potential out in others by helping each other strive toward positive goals.
Core Business
How do you make money now? What are the transactions at the heart of your business? Are you offering a service, a product? How do you turn your vision and your mission into profit? That is the essence, the core, of your business.
StrategyX’s core business is:
We are a technology business, providing our customers with a software platform and process that help our clients plan and execute their corporate vision, mission, and goals
Core Competencies
How do you bring all of this to fruition? What skills, abilities, and creative mindsets do you cultivate to help execute your business vision, mission, and goals? Understanding what skills are required to deliver on your core business, mission and vision will enable you to recruit, select and develop these skills. Developing these skills will not only see you become good at your core business but if used creatively you can even use these core competencies to create a strategic differentiation, or also commonly called “Unique Selling Proposition”.
SWOT – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
The SWOT model analyzes your company entire to help define its ability to achieve your vision.
Strengths show where your company excels. What would your customers say you do better than the other guy? How strong are your assets?
Weaknesses are, naturally, the opposite. Where do your employees struggle with their roles? This is often a matter of unclear vision, which is why we stress the importance of focusing in on what you want and what you need to get it. Weaknesses also included deficiencies in supplies or product design.
Opportunitiestell you how you can improve your company. This is where StrategyX thrives, helping you to gain and maximize those opportunities. Seize the latest trends and adapt your approach to grow your company.
Threats are factors outside your control that could cause harm to your company. Market and economic changes can be threats, but so can competition. While these threats are external, you can combat them with clarity and proactivity.
Result Areas (Key and Secondary)
Result areas define roles within your company. What are your employees at each position expected to do? How will they accomplish it? This is where a lack of clarity can hamper business efficiency. Conversely, a strong guiding vision helps your employees to know exactly what they need to do in order to accomplish the company’s goals.
Bring Your Vision to Life
You should have a strong vision in mind for your company’s future. If not, that is your top priority, because every decision, large and small, made without that clarity is less than your full potential. You risk wasting time and money without a guiding principle that leads you to your success.
StrategyX can help you realise your potential. We have gone through the same growing pains. We realized that essential vision is so key to success that nothing else compares. The reason so many businesses struggle is because their plan is clouded, unfocused and the leadership team just doesn’t know how to execute.
We will help you see clearly. This is your vision, and you know where you want it to take you. Let us show you how, with a FREE TRIAL so you can see just how powerful clarity can be.