Most leaders know that strategic planning is part of creating a business that can weather uncertainty and produce long-term results. Whether by intuition, training, or assignment from someone higher up, leaders at almost every level know they should be looking ahead and defining areas of focus and concrete goals for their teams.
But even when leaders know that strategic planning is part of their job description, they can get stuck along the way.
Here are four common areas where leaders get stuck in strategic planning—and how to avoid them.
Perhaps the most obvious place where leaders get stuck with strategic planning is not doing it at all. Rather than take the time to look ahead and plan, they keep moving forward with no change, often doing the same things that don’t work.
There can be many reasons for the lack of strategic planning. Some leaders may simply be overwhelmed with other obligations and feel too pressured with daily firefighting to make a long-term plan. Others may not realize that they need strategic planning, or they may assume that someone above them will hand down a plan for them to follow.
How to avoid:
Just start! Set aside a few hours or plan a short offsite meeting to begin focusing on a plan for your team. Even if you can’t develop a complete strategic plan for multiple years, pinpointing a few challenges or goals might be enough to start getting traction and feel more in control.
Occasionally, and especially with larger executive teams, leaders may not clarify who can make decisions or how decisions get made. When decision rights are undefined, leaders or teams can conflict with one another. That conflict can remain unresolved due to the unclear decision rights, which eventually results in ongoing tension and siloes that hamper business progress.
How to avoid:
Clarify responsibilities and decision rights at the beginning of strategic planning efforts. Define how decisions will be made—will the style be more cooperative or consensus? Ensure that everyone is clear on decision rights before any actions are taken.
For some leaders and teams, the lure of planning becomes an exercise in dreaming about big, occasionally vague goals. They may leave a strategic planning meeting with far too many goals to successfully execute and insufficient focus on what they need to do now. Or, they may have so many focus areas that they become bogged down with task forces, meetings, and other processes that inhibit real progress.
Sometimes, the team that designs the plan does not communicate or translate the strategy to the rest of the organization clearly and coherently. When this unclear plan or strategy comes down to front-line managers and team leaders, they cannot execute it.
How to avoid:
Keep your focus narrow; three to five areas of focus are ideal. These focus areas should be clear and concise, with concrete goals. As they get translated down to functions and teams, team leaders and managers will be better able to align their own team’s plans to the larger strategy.
The most significant place leaders and teams get stuck with strategic planning is leaving an excellent session or process and then not executing. They may attempt to execute the plan but not communicate or follow up appropriately. Some teams may not have the mechanisms to communicate, implement, manage, track, and follow up on the plan after they write it.
Peter Drucker once said, "Plans are just good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work." One could easily replace “plans” with “strategic planning” and immediately see the potential to get stuck. A team can walk away from a perfect strategy session full of fantastic conversation that results in a beautiful document, but the session may prove wasteful if that document doesn’t translate into how the organization executes.
How to avoid:
As part of your strategic planning, consider what obstacles you may face in executing the plan. Do you need more robust and careful communication to execute organizational changes? Do your team leaders and managers have the tools to design and implement their strategies as part of the larger goals? Analyze what could impair execution and try to address potential obstacles before you leave your planning session.
Strategic planning doesn’t have to be complicated. If you and your team struggle to start or execute your strategic plan, the experts at Stewart Leadership can help. Contact us directly to learn more about our strategic planning services.