How to create a 2-page plan for success in 2021

/in /by

Whether 2020 has been a year to forget or business is booming, now is the time to look forward to 2021. Your competitors are not breathing easy and waiting for the holidays to come around. Here’s how you can get started:

  • Gather your core leaders now for a one- or two-day offsite, in-person or virtual.
  • Pull out the two-page Strategic Direction document you created at the end of 2019. How did you do? Are your actual results performing against your budgeted or predicted results?
  • Revisit your organization’s purpose – what are you trying to achieve?
  • What are your organization’s strategies – in other words, how do you achieve your purpose? This includes products, services, markets, and competitive advantages.

Share your organization’s purpose and strategies with every single team member, and explain how you will celebrate success in 2021.

  • Look at the purpose and the strategies you listed. Do the strategies support the purpose? If so, great! If not, reflect on the disconnects and realign where necessary.
  • Compile what you’ve agreed upon as a team into a two-page Strategic Direction document for 2021.
  • Communicate! We believe the best way to communicate this is through an ALL TEAM meeting.  Engage every single team member in reclarifying purpose, key strategies, and your description of what a successful 2021 will look like.  Explain how progress will be shared throughout the year, and how you will celebrate when plans are achieved. Yes, this is the place that culture intersects with leadership!
  • After the meeting, your managers can develop their 2021 plans and targets based on this new Strategic Direction document. (Side note – having a solid Strategic Direction also makes it easier for managers to say NO to certain ideas or initiatives that don’t fit the plan. Read more on saying NO here.)

Do we know what 2021 holds for us? No, but understanding who you are as a business, and what you are trying to achieve makes it easier to decide what you will invest in.

I can help facilitate the creation of your 2021 Strategic Direction document. Contact me for details.

Sherri Miller, Founder and CEO
Center for Extraordinary Success

Email me   Connect on LinkedIn