LEADERSHIP PLANNING: PLAN, ADAPT, AND ACT
Good planning matters, but progress comes from doing. Invite your team to improve the plan, act before it is perfect, and adapt as circumstances change.
Carpenters have a truism that is taught to their apprentices who want to take up the trade: “Measure twice, cut once.” When you’re building a house, furniture, or even a kid’s playhouse, you want to waste as little material as possible and exceed the expectations of the customer. Ignoring details such as the length and width of lumber will create enormous headaches.
You can’t install a door properly if one side of the entryway is higher than the other. Consider if the doorframe is cut too wide. In that case, the door will not fit. If you’re building a house, the correct number of shingles should be ordered for the roof.
Good planning leads to good results.
Poor planning leads to a circus nobody wants to attend.
Great leaders learn how to plan. They teach their teams to plan. But they also know plans must be flexible. What was in the plan yesterday may have to be tossed tomorrow.
How should leaders approach planning? What are some guiding principles?
Start With a Plan
First, be like a wise general. Never enter a battle without a plan and never think for a day that leadership and business aren’t battles. You’re fighting for market share. The marketing team is vying for potential customers who could be a customer with another vendor or agency. A plan helps you to engage your potentials, be focused on your goals, and keep the team aligned. You may not win every single day, but without a plan you’ll certainly lose most days.
Let the Team Make It Better
Second, allow your team to make the plan better. Give them the vision. Allow them to gather the ingredients and make it great. Don’t be in love with the plan. Be passionate about the goal. As the leader, you need to see the result and be committed to that. Give the team the basic outline of a plan on how to achieve that goal. Ask them to make the plan better. Give them the freedom to ask for what is needed to make the dream a reality. You can’t point to a mountain and ask a team to climb to the peak without providing them the proper gear. The same is true for your goals. Don’t ask them to plan to reach a vision without giving them what they need to achieve that vision.
Start Before It’s Perfect
Third, don’t wait for the plan to be perfect before you make a move. The plan will never be perfect. U.S. General George Patton famously said, “A bad plan that is well executed will yield much better results than a good plan that is poorly executed.” Timing matters, as does the quality of the effort of carrying out the plan. Start doing. Don’t wait until the plan is perfect. You’ll never have enough data to calm your nervous heart or the team trained enough. There will be seasons where you must build the plane as you’re flying it.
Stay Flexible
Finally, be flexible. A good plan today might be a dumpster fire tomorrow due to market shifts. Plans made on sunny days rarely succeed when a hurricane hits. As the needs and wants of your customer change, so must your plan. The goal can remain, but how you’ll get there may take a detour. Be willing to make the turn. The path to success is never a straight line. It’s a road full of hills, potholes, bridges, mountains, and treacherous terrain. Put on your seatbelt and enjoy the ride.
Good plans get you to where you need to go. Great leaders hold those plans loosely while driving the team to execute the best plan possible. It’s time to start doing and making progress. Be careful not to fall in love with aiming. Fall in love with doing.
Creating Unparalleled Experiences,
CHRIS ADAMS
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