Grading your Efforts for Positive Growth
MPWRSource, powered byHubSpot’sGrowth Grader Tool, can help you and your business pinpoint areas...
The Marvel movie “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” recently came out. And around MPWRSource, you may have noticed that we love us some superheroes. And this movie did not disappoint. It may be one of the best Marvel movies yet, even if I didn’t get to see Chris Hemsworth. But as the movie unfolded (don’t worry, I won’t include too many spoilers here!), a line stuck out that applies to strategic planning.
While these words in the movie were spoken to Katy who becomes an archer, they’re applicable here as well. Many businesses struggle to grow and succeed, and often times it is because they’re aimed at nothing. They’ve done no preparation. Without a roadmap in hand, they’re just wandering around a bamboo forest that could eat them. (You know, like the one in Shang-Chi. See what I did there? They don’t call me Word Girl for nothing…)
A good strategic plan sets your target. It also provides you with the bow, arrow, archer, and training to reach it effectively. Your target should be an alignment of your vision, mission, and goals. An effective strategic plan will help provide guidance on where your priorities should lie and where it is best to invest your time, money, talent, and energy. Oftentimes, many businesses will think that they simply don’t have the time to invest in strategic planning. But the truth is that is simply a rationalization. Developing a strategic plan, while yes, time consuming, actually saves time in the long run. So just like an archer must train to be able to defeat the flying demon dragon come battle time, so must a business prepare through proper strategic planning.
Being business battle ready is not the only benefit to strategic planning.
Strategic planning helps your business create and maintain a growth mindset. A growth mindset is one that believes that talents and growth can be developed, versus those things merely being innate. A growth mindset focuses on education, development, and growth. It values collaboration and innovation.
A growth mindset encourages the talented people you have hired to take risks that can propel growth. With a strategic plan in place, all team members will know the target at which they are aiming and can take multiple stabs at achieving it, knowing that their aim will still get them closer to the target even if it isn’t a bullseye on the first shot.
Your strategic plan, by providing that aligned target, will also help people elevate your business. If team members are only stuck on daily tasks with no idea of a larger picture, sure, they can get their work done, but they aren’t really leaning into the very reasons you probably hired them. They aren’t maximizing their potential. It can also result in a lack of motivation because being stuck in daily tasks lacks direction. And what’s an archer without a target? Just some guy with sticks on his back.
A strategic plan, by providing a proper target at which all can aim, allows for decision making to be proactive rather than merely reactive. A business that is constantly reacting is shooting at a moving target. It may look like your team is busy and hardworking. In fact, reactionary work is time consuming and does require hard work. More so. Because a moving target is always harder to hit.
A strategic plan will highlight an organization’s overall mission so that business decisions can be tested to see if they support that target. When faced with an opportunity, team members can think, “How is this on target with my overall strategy? Will this get me to where I want to go?” And if not, then it’s a no.
Furthermore, an effective strategy will also highlight some “what ifs” so that your organization is better apt to pivot and keep up with ever changing business markets and trends and staying ahead of the competition. Organizations that plan what they can control are better able to react positively to the things they cannot control. Effective strategic slows that moving target down so that your aim remains true.
Not even Hawkeye woke up one day and struck bullseye with his first draw of the bow. A strategic plan enhances your organizational effectiveness by clearly setting realistic and measurable targets that are attainable along the way. As any athlete trains using disciplines that increases stamina, power, skill, and finesse, so too does a strategic plan aid in a business meeting its overall target. A strategic plan offers a much-needed foundation upon which all organizational activities can be built. It also helps you evaluate your success, pivot from missteps, compensate your employees adequately, and propel you forward with even better decision-making capabilities.
A strategic plan provides management with the blueprint to set operational activities to set and achieve goals. Because if it isn’t measured, how then will you be able to ascertain growth? A strategic plan enables effective goal setting of key performance indictors (KPIs). It also helps guide discussions on the allocation of resources and budgets.
Developing an effective strategic plan also requires input from different voices within an organization. This helps gather more insight into what realistic targets should be. Executives may not being able to see the pitfalls that those in the trenches may see and those in the trenches probably aren’t aware of larger scale issues that organizations shape. This larger perspective when it comes to planning helps each team member have a voice. And these voices will allow each team member to do what they do best and provides better insight into potential issues and their fixes at every level. This can help better allocate resources, time, and talent.
Most businesses aren’t facing flying demon dragons. Were there to be one in the sky, I feel sure everyone would know the target was clear: kill the soul-sucking demon dragon. They’d all grab their shields and staffs and bows and arrows and hurl their energy towards slaying the beast. But typical business aims are a tad more subtle. (At least I hope so. But if so, Word Girl is calling the Rope Dart and hopping on the nearest water dragon.)
An effective strategic growth plan helps each team member have a clearly defined role. (Again, I’m the Rope Dart. Might need to change my superhero name to Sister Hammer.) Every team member, from the CEO down to the lowliest intern, benefits from having a clear idea of how their role plays in the “big picture”. This helps every team member know what they’re supposed to be doing, how they’re going to achieve their goals, and feel like a valued member of the team. It not only allows them to see the target more accurately but arms them to have the best aim as well.
If your organization needs help with strategic planning and ascertaining the best way to hit your targets, just call Sister Hammer…I mean MPWRSource. We can help you launch your strategic planning initiative and make sure your aims remains true.
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