Thursday, February 10, 2011

 One month into the New Year on the day of the Chinese New Year, most business owners, entrepreneurs, and companies are well immersed into their business plans already. As I prepared for our upcoming chapter meeting with the Women President's Organization, I intended to follow-up on guiding the group to go deeper into the SWOT analysis with my co-chair, Linda Lane Gonzalez (President of Viva Partnership). This follow-up in addition to a conference call I participated in yesterday with my fellow chapter president elects in the National Speakers' Association (a call that became focused on using a one-page business plan), spurred me into putting my thoughts together and narrowing down effective business plan processes.

Although there's no "one size fits all" when it comes to business plans, there are some particular concepts within the architecture of a plan that are essential to present and future success. What comes first, second, or third? Does it matter? Should we start with our joint vision or should we establish our goals? Should it be vision, mission, values or mission, vision, values? Does this make any difference?

Indeed, it does! Most of the executives and entrepreneurs that hire me as a leadership consultant or as their personal doctor are usually torn by a lack of alignment between their personal and their organizational objectives; many feel on the verge of burnout, working harder every day, and wondering about whether so much effort is worth the return given the risk. Many feel estranged from their family members, even if they are "together"; many are constantly stressed for being the eternal firefighter without taking care of personal health and well-being; and many others feel empty and bored when they are not at work.

Identifying and aligning your personal and organizational values is the foundation for looking at where your business plan should lead you. Discovering where you are in conjunction with your company is the first indispensable step in: establishing personal, professional, and business relationships; and starting/building a company from scratch.

Why is this? By maximizing this compatibility, we are able to "work the details" into achieving common goals. Whenever a goal is set without identifying or agreeing on common values, issues will come up along the way.

These are the essential tips to consider when building robust business plans inclusive of industry size, profit vs. non-profit, and cultural diversity:

1. Values: What is dear to your heart? What do you stand for? Compare your personal and organizational values. Are they aligned? Knowing thyself and identifying your values is the foundation for any endeavor. Identifying your Values will give heart and soul to any enterprise you initiate. If you feel you are stuck, re-evaluate your values and go from there. Examples of values include: ethics, level or respect, depth of relationships with loved ones, time availability, and competitive game rules.

2. Mission: Where are you today? How does your personal mission compare with your professional mission? Are they aligned? People who get in trouble in this area may be saying yes to too many activities. As an example, many people may agree to social networking activities, either in person or digitally, with the intention of promoting their business and, by the end of the event – or the day – they find they wasted their precious time, did not advance the business, and ended up farther away from accomplishing their mission.

3. Vision: What is your ideal for tomorrow? What is your personal and organizational vision? Are they aligned? Many people – and companies – express mission and vision statements that do not seem to converge in any way. On the contrary, mission and vision are – and should be – the same. The only difference is the timeline. Mission is to today as vision is to tomorrow. For example, over twenty years ago, I created a personal mission to be an outstanding medical student and doctor while creating a happy family with my husband and two young children. My vision then, was to establish an amazing career along the way, within a happy marriage context, and raising two excellent people. Our mission and vision may change over time. This is why it's important to reevaluate our values over time.

4. Goals: Once you have decided and clarified what's important to you, you have defined your mission, and can see it both today and tomorrow, it is time to set up goals to substantiate your mission. There are many ways to establish your goals but one of the most common ones is to use SMART Goals (Locke & Latham).

Your goals need to be:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Achievable

• Relevant

• Trackable

Background story, I was accustomed to establishing dozens of goals when I was a clinical researcher at the National Institutes of Health. It was common for fellows to be involved in many studies and to juggle multiple responsibilities, including: writing research protocols, writing articles and contributing to publications, teaching medical students and residents, and seeing patients who participated in the studies. I was in shock when I joined the pharmaceutical industry and was instructed to write my business plan. There was one caveat: I needed to establish three goals for the year – only three! However, achieving these goals was essential to be in good standing, get promoted, and not asked to leave. You must create a sense of urgency with these goals and it's also important to come up with three to five of them. What you will see is a cascade effect, where those three to five overall goals will reflect company goals.

On the note of organizational alignment, the goals of a manager should be aligned with the goals of the VP, and then aligned to the President's and CEOs.

5. Strategy to Achieve your goals: Once you are clear on the goals you want to achieve to manifest your mission and work on your vision for tomorrow, focus on creating clear strategies to achieve those goals. You can identify a way of reaching that goal and simply look at the pros (or positive aspects) of taking that route versus the cons (or negatives) of taking that same path. Another way to do this is by doing a SWOT Analysis (Albert Humphrey): Look at your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Focus mostly on your Strengths and Opportunities. This is where order may become somewhat confusing again. What's the difference between strengths and values? Your Values should strengthen your value proposition and should provide unique positioning of your products and services. For example, if your strength is to deliver excellent services efficiently and fast, your value may include excellence and respect for other people's time and money. Once you are clear about these strengths that make you YOU, then you can bridge into finding great opportunities where you can manifest these unique characteristics.

6. Action Plan: Identify your objectives and lay out your tactics and actions to achieve them. Once you have your goals in place, create a strategy for each goal with specific tactics and actions that align completely. Track your progress through time and ensure that everybody knows what they are supposed to do (in a company). Avoid assuming everyone will get things done because it's written on the plan. Clearly communicate your expectations in regards to individual performance and productivity, and work together on the best ways to collaborate toward achieving common goals. Ensure people know how to achieve those goals; again, don't assume they know how to do it because you know how to do it. Avoid redundancy. There's so many people working in silos these days, you may have two employees doing exactly the same thing without knowing one another. These inefficiencies will hurt your business.

7. Evaluate your Action Plan and the Results: Look back: see what worked, see what didn't, and continue to improve your overall plan. This means re-evaluating your ongoing personal and business relationships, your current contracts, and your ongoing business plans.

Many spouses are in shock when presented divorce papers. Many business partners are in disbelief when their associates lead them into big trouble. Read through the signs, tune-in with your significant others; make sure that you are fully aligned in regards to your common values and your joint goals. Make sure that, when achieved, these goals continue to be important to both of you. This same concept is as important to spouses as it is to business partners. Don't assume – or get comfortable – thinking that because you are together, everything is great. Communicate on an ongoing basis and there will be few if any surprises. Once you have finished a project, proactively seek feedback from your clients. You want to know what worked, what didn't work, and what needs to continue to improve so that you can continue to work together.