Implementing a strategic plan is a costly, but a necessary investment to out think and outlast your competition. Executing the strategic plan is one of the most repetitive challenges that I hear as a business coach. Beyond the logistics of how to implement a strategic plan, are these 7 qualities that help to ensure ongoing execution.
- Enthusiasm
Do you truly buy into the strategic plan? When you can embrace the plan and show your individual enthusiasm especially during difficult and dark days, you not only help yourself, but your other team members.
- Responsibility
From enthusiasm comes responsibility that results in personal accountability. You accept responsibility for your role within the plan.
- Commitment
Being on task, day in and day out to the execution of the strategic plan is what commitment is all about. It is one thing to know that you should do something, but it is another thing to do it consistently and with focus.
- Tenacity
Within this quality is the word ten. You and your people must be able to persist to the power of 10 especially when the plan is not working.
- Leadership
To be able to get results from yourself and others is the essence of leadership. In today's business world, this term is a collection plate holding a variety of interpersonal skills such as communication, decision making, goal achievement and time management.
- Confidence
Believing in yourself or confidence is necessary quality. If you live a life full of "weasel words" or "negative self talk," the likelihood of successfully executing your part of the strategic plan will be greatly diminished.
- Reflection
Taking the time to proactively think about what is going right, what could be improved and what is not working resides in the quality of reflection. Unfortunately, this is one quality that many people fail to embrace for a variety of reasons from not knowing how and being conditioned to be reactive instead of proactive. To ensure ongoing strategic plan implementation involves these 7 qualities and probably many more. Take the time to assess these intangible qualities with the same equal value as the time you take to evaluate your overall strategic planning process.
About Author: Leanne Hoagland-Smith, M.S., an Indianapolis business coach and Chicago business coach, partners with individuals just like you to turn these challenges into measurable outcomes using results driven processes for sustainable transformational change. Technorati tags: book summaries, business books, business productivity, self improvement, management, business strategy
