How Leaders Create Plans that Anticipate Problems

Wouldn’t it be great if the best laid plans never did go awry? And yet, that is the nature of business and the strategic plans we construct. There are bound to be changes and the key to successful implementation is flexibility.

Action learning and leadership development professionals agree: sound strategic plansmust look forward and consider that there will be hurdles to leap…the path willnot be smooth. Here is their advice:

• Be ready and willing to change. You are likely to need to adapt the plan to accommodate changes in the marketplace.
• Do your homework. Study market trends and include them in your projections even though you may not yet have been affected. Be realistic in what the future may bring and prepare for difficult scenarios as much as is possible before they occur.
• Allot adequate resources. Be sure you have set aside all the resources you will need to complete your plan successfully. Will you need additional talent or updated technology or an infusion of funds? Look ahead and garner what support you will need ahead of time.

The Right People for the Job

Most of today’s sizeable companies spend a good deal of time devising a strategy for how they plan to conduct business. Some are successful in implementing them…many are not. According to action learning and leadership development experts, one of the main reasons that even well-conceived strategies fail is that the wrong people were involved.

The question to be asked is who are the right people? They fall into several categories:

• The people who will be charged with executing the strategy. They should have a hand in creating the strategy and be involved from the beginning. If they come late to the party, they will feel far less engaged in seeing the strategy through to successful completion.
• Business leaders. The entire company leadership should buy into the reasons for the strategy and be committed to the process. They need to understand why the strategy is critical to future success and model confidence in the outcome through the inevitable stresses and strains of change.
• Key managers. Be sure management is on board with the program. They are the ones to see that their teams support the plan and keep it on track.

Ensure Your Leaders Know Themselves to Lead Well

Successful leaders know themselves well…well enough to know their strengths and weaknesses and well enough to represent themselves authentically. To do otherwise is to invite mistrust and miscues.  A work environment founded on distrust will ultimately fail.

Lead well by being true to and expressing your genuine beliefs. Action learning and leadership development programs are perfect forums for allowing your current and potential leaders to:

1.     Understand their strengths and weaknesses.

2.     Articulate their thoughts on major work issues.

3.     Test new ideas.

4.     Broaden their perspectives.

5.     Build and stretch relevant and applicable leadership competencies.

Above all else, leaders learn that trying to be someone that they are not and espousing goals that they do not believe in will only sabotage their efforts. Nobody likes to follow a fake. However, a well-designed leadership action learning program can build critical leadership skills, get real and important work done and deepen employee loyalty. 

How Getting Too Close to the Bottom Line Can Blind Leaders

Business leaders are responsible, yes, for bringing in the profits. But if they get too focused on the bottom line, they may miss important growth opportunities. Successful leaders are not myopic. They recognize that they need to continually look beyond the present into the future. Changing conditions demand forward thinking and some level of risk.

There are ways, however, to cultivate innovation and minimize risk…at the same time as you manage your day-to-day responsibilities. Take advantage of three areas learned from action learning and leadership development programs.

1. Create an environment where learning and new ideas are valued. Understand that small failures can precede big successes. 
2. Reward your best managers with opportunities to take on new initiatives and give them the financial support they need to explore new paths for company product and market development. 
3. Help them establish meaningful goals and reasonable time lines. And check in regularly to coach their efforts as you review their actions, reflect together upon what worked and adjust next steps going forward.