The Secrets to Building Leaders Who Can Stay Ahead of Your Company’s Growth

As organizations scale from $10M to $500M+, one of the most overlooked, yet critical growth factors is the evolution and growth of the senior leadership team.  The job requirements of the COO or Chief People Officer for a company with $500M in revenue are more complex than the job requirements for the same functions when the company has $10M in revenue.  The Team that got you where you are can be, but rarely is, the same team that can take you to the next level.  That’s not a failure - it’s a natural, but often painful, evolution.  

One of a CEO’s core responsibilities is assessing a leader’s ability to grow - in hard and soft skills - at, or faster than the rate the company is growing.  A leader’s ability to grow faster than the company is growing means that they have capacity to see, chase and capitalize on opportunities as they arise.  Robert Glazier has a great graphic illustrating this concept in the first chapter of his book, Elevate Your Team: Empower Your Team To Reach Their Full Potential and Build A Business That Builds Leaders.

When a leader is a great cultural fit, but you see the needs of a role outgrowing that leader’s capabilities, you need to determine whether that leader has the capacity to grow with investment & training, or whether you can best serve the company AND the leader by engaging authentically and openly with the leader on both their core strengths and the future needs of the role.  

Transparently planning with a leader for them to transition into a role that will continue to align with their talents will engender loyalty. Bringing in the talent that has the skills to help you achieve your growth objectives will enhance your team’s trust in your commitment to achieving your vision. This means 1) evaluating leaders for core strengths & future scalability, not just current performance, 2) identifying leadership gaps before they hinder growth and investing in their growth, and 3) committing to authentic, transparent conversations with your leadership team.  This is how mission-driven CEOs can intentionally build teams that grow with the business - while maintaining culture, clarity, and vision.

Reflections:

1. How have the needs and skills of key organizational functions changed? Do the team members in those roles have those skill sets - hard and soft? I.e. Would you enthusiastically re-hire each person on your team based on the current needs of the role?

2. Which members of your current leadership team are thriving - and which are struggling to scale with the business?

3. How would the needs and job requirements of each leadership role change if your business doubled (or 10x’ed) in size in the next 24 months?

Unleash Your Team's Genius with the Working Genius Model

We all have natural gifts and when we better understand our unique strengths and frustrations, the transformation we see in our work and life is amazing. You may already be familiar with The Working Genius model, by Patrick Lencioni, and it is often one of the first assessments that I use with all my clients. It goes beyond just identifying your working geniuses or frustrations - it also helps you understand how they either fuel your energy and motivation or take away from it. By recognizing the specific types of work that bring you joy and excitement, you can harness that energy to achieve peak performance.

In its most simplistic form, the Working Genius model identifies six types of working genius or frustrations. Your geniuses fuel your energy and your frustrations take away from it. These are:

Wonder: This type of genius is skilled at asking questions and exploring new possibilities. They are curious and have a natural ability to see the bigger picture.

Invention: This genius is creative and innovative. They excel at generating new ideas and finding unique solutions to problems.

Discernment: This genius has a keen eye for detail and is skilled at making judgments and decisions. They can analyze information and weigh different options effectively.

Galvanizing: This genius is a natural leader who can rally others around a common goal or vision. They inspire and motivate their team members to achieve greatness.

Enablement: This genius is excellent at supporting others and helping them succeed. They provide the necessary resources, guidance, and encouragement for individuals or teams to thrive.

Tenacity: This genius possesses exceptional perseverance and determination. They have the ability to push through challenges and obstacles with unwavering resolve.

Why is understanding your working geniuses and frustrations so important? Individuals and teams are better equipped to focus on tasks and projects that align with their natural abilities, leading to:

Increased Productivity: When you understand your unique strengths, you can focus more on tasks that align with your areas of genius. This leads to increased energy and productivity as you are doing what you love and are naturally good at.

Improved Collaboration: By understanding the unique geniuses of each leadership team member, teams can benefit from improved trust and cohesion for more effective collaboration.

Enhanced Job Satisfaction: When you're able to work in your area of genius, job satisfaction naturally increases and you feel valued and successful.

Leadership Genius Gap Awareness: Being aware of the specific skills and strengths that are missing from your team is crucial for effective leadership. This awareness enables you to understand what qualities to prioritize when recruiting new members.

The Working Genius assessment offers a valuable tool for individuals and teams to maximize their potential. By understanding and leveraging their unique strengths, individuals can focus on tasks that align with their areas of genius, leading to increased productivity and job satisfaction. It allows teams to collaborate more effectively by recognizing and utilizing each team member's unique genius. The Working Genius assessment promotes a work environment where individuals and teams can thrive and succeed. 

Contact me if you are interested in learning more.

Insights for the Second Half of 2023

We are at the end of our second quarter, 50% through 2023. What a year it's been!

As we move into the second half of the year, how are you elevating your business and continuing the momentum you gained in the first half.

1. Clarity - How has your vision been clarified?

• What have you learned in customer conversations over the last couple of months?

• What are the key trends that are creating new opportunities for you?

• How can you add additional value for those you serve?

2. Commitments - What is showing up for you related to your commitments?

Where are you seeing even greater results than you expected? As you look ahead to the second half of the year, what new commitments or reinforced commitments are you making related to:

• Your Health?

• Key Relationships?

• Your Senior Team

• Your Customers

• Your Community

• What are you no longer going to tolerate?

3. Calendar - How are you leveraging your calendar to allocate your time towards the things that matter most to you and give you the most energy?

We have a limited amount of time in a day. One major trend that we are seeing is the exhaustion and tiredness experienced by many exceptional leaders.

It is so important that we utilize the summer period to replenish our energy, rejuvenate ourselves, and contemplate the various new possibilities that lie ahead. Additionally, we need to maintain our commitment to investing in our senior team and ensuring that we have the right people in the right seats, individuals who also share the same passion for the culture we have fostered—a culture that strives to make a positive impact for the greater good.

4. Communication - Are you engaging with your team and your larger organization effectively?

Frequent communication with your team and your larger organization is crucial to success. A great way to do that is to ensure that your meetings with your senior team end with these four questions.

1. What did we decide?

2. Who will do what? And by when?

3. What do we need to cascade? Who needs to know?

4. What won't we share? Are these topics highly confidential or has it been aligned at the senior team level?

These learnings come from my most recent work to become certified in Patrick Lencioni's Working Genius model.

The benefits of the Working Genius model for both individuals leaders and your team include clarity on their unique professional gifts, greater engagement with the team and a way to build trust through vulnerability and better understanding of fellow team members.

I'm happy to share this assessment with anyone, if you're interested please reach out!

Warmest Regards,

Ethan & the PFD Team

A Checklist for Your Next Annual Planning Meeting (FREE Download)

When holding your annual planning meeting, it is critical to conduct the event in a location that provides few distractions. You want attendees focusing on the important details of planning your business and not having their attention divided by their normal, day-to-day routine of checking text messages, sending “quick” responses and other similar activities that may be critical to getting things done, but are not conducive to the future-planning process. 

So when it comes to planning the fine details for your annual meeting, you should exert the same focus you expect of attendees. Leaving the details of planning the meeting to the last minute can result in an unfocused event that doesn’t tap into the high-level participation you require. 

Below we’ve prepared a checklist for your annual planning meeting, but also a few strategies to consider when organizing the meeting’s finer details. 

How to Approach Your Annual Planning Meeting 

Real-Time Situational Awareness: Your annual meeting is a collaborative affair,  calling upon your CEO, your leadership team and a strategic coach to show up, be present and be at the top of their respective games. With all the changes and uncertainty in the world today, your leadership team is a critical link between your business and its customers, so be ready to provide them with the correct tools that will lead to strategic thinking and execution planning–and have them do the same.

Repeatable Growth Process: Preparing your team for a high-success meeting can also lay the groundwork for future meetings. High-growth companies can either create a lot of politics or build a repeatable growth process. We strongly recommend focusing on the latter.

Fun Process: Despite the critical importance of your annual planning meeting, it shouldn’t be a high-stress affair. It should be a fun event that allows your team to relax and showcase their best selves, without being on the defensive. Allow your team the breathing room to provide critical insights that can lead to future growth. A fun meeting also allows you to better see your leadership team’s “true selves.” which can provide key insights into which leaders are in the right roles for the next level of the company’s growth. This is an important insight, both for your team’s future happiness and also for the success of the company.

Planning Checklist

Timeline:

Two months (or more) before the meeting.

Tasks: Select your annual planning location and finalize your dates.  

• Find a location that is inspiring, fits your culture and will allow you team to focus on the PLANNING of your business and not on the day-to-day details of working on the business

Related content: Why we recommend planning your annual off-sites a year in advance.

One month prior

Tasks: Select your growth coach.

• Ensure there’s a good cultural and personal fit between your growth coach and your CEO.

Related content: Learn more about PFD Group’s coaching strategies | Why do I Need a Strategic Coach?

Five weeks prior

Tasks: Finalize and distribute a preparation survey to your leadership team.

• Give your team one week to complete the survey. The survey should be mandatory for participants and also require input from their direct reports.

Three weeks prior

Tasks: Based on survey input, finalize a high-level offsite agenda and team activities. 

• Plan a general flow of exercises focused on three areas: Trust and culture; understanding changing customer needs to refine your unique and valuable strategy; and build a clear team and individual execution plan for the coming quarter and year.

Two weeks prior

Tasks: Confirm catering, finalize the event schedule and book any remaining travel that needs to be confirmed.

• For the best value, book air travel no earlier than 45 days prior to travel and no later than three weeks before departure. After that, the airline recognizes the “urgency” of your travel needs and fares go up accordingly.

Related content: What goes into planning an event with purpose?

One week prior

Task: Send out final preparation questions and aggregated survey results to all participants.

• Survey answers should be fully shared, but in a way that preserves the anonymity of  respondents. Transparency helps drive trust and anonymity encourages more honest feedback. Both support the team in focusing their offsite time on the questions that will create the greatest value.

One day prior

Task: Coaching team arrives to complete the set up.

Night before

Task: Welcome dinner.

• A welcome dinner, if possible, is highly recommended. Here you can celebrate the wins of the previous quarter and recognize your core value award winners, while also kicking off your strategy meeting on a celebratory note.

Related content: Who Should Attend Your Annual Strategic Planning Meeting?

Annual Planning - Day 1

Focus: Culture, strategy and team bonding activity.

• The first day is key. It needs to clarify and reinforce your team culture, trust, unique and valuable strategic direction along with time for the team to connect outside of the meeting room.

  Related content: Vision Boarding: Creating Your Future and Your Personal Why

Annual Planning - Day 2

Execution.

• Your meeting agenda should establish clear team and individual priorities and guide the meeting to capture key communication takeaways for the entire company. You should also finalize the quarterly offsite dates for the next four quarters. Remind your full leadership team that these meetings require mandatory attendance while also providing them with enough time to set these dates in stone.

  Related content: Creating Quarterly Themes to Strengthen Team Morale

The next weekly leadership team meeting

Tasks: Share the key takeaways from the meeting; follow up by sending these takeaways to the entire team. Ensure all individual priorities are included in the software you use to run your business.

• We recommend Metronome Growth Systems. Metronome software is optimized so you can work ON your business, and not spend time working on customizing off-the-shelf project management tools to meet your business needs.

  Related content: Who Should Attend Your Annual Strategic Planning Meeting?
  
  

Who Should Attend Your Annual Strategic Planning Meeting?

As we enter the final quarter of 2022, the idea of 2023 is quickly becoming a reality. While we don’t know what to expect of the coming year, one thing is certain. CEOs and senior leaders should already be planning their business strategies for next year and beyond. 

Planning for the future is not a solitary activity and business executives should be laying the groundwork for an annual strategic planning meeting that brings together your senior leadership team for a thoughtful discussion and planning session that will propel your business into the future. 

As you start crafting the agenda and designing your anticipated strategic outcomes for your annual meeting, it is critical to spend some careful time envisioning your ideal attendee list. A misaligned attendee list can quickly derail any positive outcomes you might anticipate from your planning meeting. 

Keep the Invitee List Intimate 

A general rule of thumb is to keep the attendee list at about six to eight people. 

With five or fewer people in the room, brainstorming becomes a challenge. People may feel too pressured to speak up if they feel people are judging their ideas. The more that one person becomes reluctant to share ideas, the more that tension could flow to other attendees. 

On the other hand, if there are more than 10 people in the room, it can be difficult for everyone to be heard. Or for the group to find focus. With larger groups, conversations may drag on, which can leave less time to cover the entire agenda. 

Having more than 10 people could also lead attendees to split their attention or slow down the meeting by diving into side conversations during the parts they feel aren’t relevant to them. 

Bring Your Top Customer Service Expert

Planning for the future involves strategic task making, and these strategies should always be in alignment with the interests of your key clients or customers. While everyone in attendance should be knowledgeable about your customer preferences and market trends, at least one attendee should be an expert from your customer service team. 

Customers are constantly shifting buying habits so the attendee who works most closely in fulfilling customer demands should be in attendance to provide the intelligence and to support the strategic plan by providing insights on the market you serve.

Inviting a customer service professional to the annual meeting is equally true for B2C and B2B businesses, as both must rely upon the ultimate shareholder–the customer–to support any plans for growth and expansion.

What Value Will This Attendee Add? 

Not all employees–not even your senior leaders or A Players–are the right fit for all meetings. This is especially true for the annual meeting. 

The last thing you want to have to happen during your strategic planning is to have a subset of attendees tune out the meeting because they feel parts are “not my area.” If there’s a likelihood they will become distracted and turn to surreptitious texting or emailing while others are speaking, then maybe they shouldn’t be on the attendee list to begin with. 

When building your list of anticipated outcomes for your annual meeting, ask yourself what every potential attendee can add to those outcomes. If you aren’t able to clearly define their purpose, it may not be of value to invite them to attend. 

A Cultural Fit 

Like most companies, you probably have an employee who is a strong tactician. They are do-ers and love nothing more than checking things off their to-do list. You can count on them to get things done, but their vision for the future may not extend much beyond the task list just in front of them. This employee may not be the right to attend a high-level strategic planning meeting. 

Similarly, there’s the person who believes anything and everything is possible until it comes to meeting deadlines. Then, work becomes impossible, demands are too high and it’s everyone else’s fault but their own that they’ve overcommitted to the latest project. 

This type of employee may still bring their talents to the larger organizational structure, but may not be the right fit for your strategic planning meeting. However if their “it’s not my fault” behavior is persistent, you may also wish to reconsider your talent strategy. 

 If you already know a person will show up late or will present over-the-top feedback in the form of constructive criticism, or they will demonstrate any other roadblock to successfully meeting your planning objectives, you should listen to your own inner compass and exclude them from the attendee list. 

A successful annual planning meeting means being strategic about inviting attendees that can and will hammer out an achievable, actionable plan. It is okay to admit that not everyone in your organization fits into this dynamic. Don’t slow down your own strategic planning by inviting the wrong people to the meeting. 

Thoughtful Exclusion

While it is true that not every employee is a right fit for your annual meeting, it is also important to know that being added to the do-not-invite list may feel like a threat to the people who aren’t invited–even if they didn’t really want to attend in the first place. 

Harvard Business Review has coined the term “thoughtful exclusion” on how to handle addressing the people who are excluded from any meeting. 

“...in order to avoid the dreaded logjam of over-inclusion, the brain science makes it clear that, with the right approach, thoughtfully leaving people out could become one of the greatest managerial moves a leader makes.” 

To keep employees, especially senior leaders, from feeling hurt or threatened by being excluded from the strategic planning meeting, have a plan to discuss the intent behind the meeting and why they might not be the right fit at this time. 

Want-To Score

At PFD Group, we have built a Want-To-Score (™ pending), which is a designation that identifies the ultimate doers of any group. These are the people who are most likely to get things done. They have the grit and tenacity to not only see the vision for the future, but also have the vision of how to see the necessary tasks are completed to make this vision a reality 

If you’d like to learn more about how to identify your Want-To players or how to build the ideal annual planning meeting, contact us for more information. 

Is Your Corporate Culture Lacking Employee Engagement?

If you think employee engagement is on the decline, you aren’t alone. 

A recent Gallup survey found that employee engagement has hit a new low. Just one in three U.S. employees report feeling “actively engaged” at work, according to the survey, while nearly one in seven (14%) report feeling actively “disengaged.” (2022, Gallup.com)

Gallup says it collects this data by asking random samples of the working population about “organizational outcomes, including profitability, productivity, customer service, retention, safety and overall well-being.” 

Managers Are Most Disengaged

An interesting and important side note to this survey is that managers are among the employees who report feeling the most disengaged at work, with manager engagement declining by seven points since the last survey. In particular, managers report sharp decreases in the subsets “believing they have clear expectations” and “feeling someone encourages their development.”

This decline in manager engagement leads to an obvious assumption. If so many managers are feeling disengaged, is it any wonder that employees are also mentally checking out? 

What to do? Gallup recommends going “back to the basics'' by establishing clear employee communications. 

Improving Engagement 

We know remote work has opened up new opportunities for many businesses, and not every corporate culture loans itself to a full-time, in-office environment. But if you do have an in-office set up, we recommend you make it an energizing one that is designed to engage and motivate employees. 

In-Person Meetings

We also believe in the power of in-person meetings. Leadership teams who get together to strategize, socialize and communicate in person on a regular basis are the ones with the strongest employee engagement. 

“In-person meetings provide a sense of intimacy, connection and empathy that is difficult to replicate via video. It’s much easier to ask for attentive listening and presence, which creates the psychological safety that people need to sense in order to engage and participate fully.” 

–Paul Axtell, corporate trainer and author of the book Meetings Matter

Consider how in-person gatherings work in your personal life. 

Have you ever heard anyone make the case that Zoom is an excellent replacement for Sunday dinner, backyard barbecues, weddings and the after-school play? Of course not.

The same is true for work gatherings. 

The side discussions alone are invaluable. They help build trust and allow the team to fully get to know one another. They also often lead to idea sharing that helps foster business growth and success.

Importantly, eight in ten employees say they want in-person meetings. 

We know that in-person meetings are not always possible on a frequent i.e. weekly, basis especially for companies that are fully virtual. Whether you are an in-person business, fully virtual or hybrid operation, it is critical to bring together leadership in strategic, in-person quarterly and annual planning meetings. These meetings should be held in a private, dedicated space that minimizes the risk of interruptions and allows the entire leadership team to fully engage in the strategy of growing and improving your business. 

Good for the Economy 

In the Business Value of Meeting Face to Face, the U.S. Travel Association reports that employees believe in-person meetings help them advance their professional growth, reinvigorate their engagement and productivity and foster better stronger leadership skills

In-person meetings are also good for the economy. The in person gathering can require everything from local catering to air travel and overnight stays. Across the U.S. in-person meetings support 800,000 American jobs and generate nearly $50 billion in local, state and federal taxes. 

Set a Regular Meeting Cadence

If you do bring your executive team together, amplify the results by planning regular meetings–at least quarterly–and set specific agendas and goals for each meeting. 

Nothing kills the positive effects of a great meeting than the loss of steam as “real world”  deadlines and expectations start to take precedence. Knowing that a follow up in-person meeting is already on the books will help keep everyone on track, as they consider how their day-to-day actions will affect the bigger picture. 

Demonstrate the importance of these quarterly leadership gatherings by scheduling them at least a year in advance. 

By giving your team plenty of time to schedule their own life events around the high-level meeting schedule, you let your employees know that you value their time which in turn will improve attendance and participation rates. 

Getting into a regular rhythm may take some work as you get everyone on board, but ultimately, your team will be grateful for the ability to plan around the schedule. 

If you’d like more information on building successful in-person leadership meetings, contact us today. 

Related Content

Meeting in person is great for personal leadership growth as well. Read more about the awesome benefits of coming together at our PFD Group Alaska Summit here.

What is my Role as CEO?

As CEO, our roles aren’t necessarily as clearly defined as other senior roles. When we think of other roles, like Chief Financial Officer or Chief Marketing Officer, we have a better idea of what that means. Chief Financial Officers are clearly responsible for the financial health of the organization, making sure that we have plenty of cash, that we aren’t over-leveraging debt, etc, and Chief Marketing Officers control the marketing strategy and execution, using their expertise to understand the tactics that will further awareness and best support the overall brand identity. But what is the Chief “Executive” function? For this role, what we are responsible for, are not as clear-cut. With this lack of clarity, we can find ourselves taking on far too much - not effectively delegating key functions to our team so we can optimize our time with the highest-priority activities.

As CEO, we should rethink our roles to be three things: Chief Vision Officer (CVO), Chief Relationship Officer (CRO), and Chief Mentorship Officer (CMO). What this means is we are in charge of our company’s strategic vision, as well as building a community, relationships, and culture that will allow is to realize that vision.

As the Chief Vision Officer, we are in charge of creating the strategic and creative vision for our companies, and for communicating it throughout the organization and beyond. The best talent out there will want to be a part of something special and something inspiring, and they won’t want to come into an organization that doesn’t have a vision for a better future. Why? They want to be a part of creating that better future. As the CVO, we must consistently be looking at our vision, and allowing our leaders to see themselves in and shape that vision. If you need help clarifying your vision for your company, download your Legacy Vision Tool below.

As the Chief Relationship Officer, we are in charge of creating key relationships in our communities that will propel the company to success. This means not only finding great industry partners and mastermind groups that will help you realize the vision of our company, but to intentionally use your time to give back to the community. The best talent will want to be a part of a company that cares about how they make a difference in the community that immediately surrounds them. Further, this sort of outreach will connect you with amazing people that will help you source your future talent.

As the Chief Mentorship Officer, we are in charge of stewarding a mentoring and learning culture in our organization. This is so critical to talent development, because we want our employees to always be growing and learning, and we must create the culture in which that is valued. We also must take charge to mentor great leaders into their roles and to create opportunities for them to continue growing in their leadership. After all, why should our employees stay if they don’t see themselves professionally growing in their job? The best employees will want to create new challenges for themselves to be able to professionally grow and reap those benefits. Our job is to make sure we challenge our employees with new things to learn, but also give them the support to be able to thrive in that environment.

With these three key roles in mind, we are able to drive forward into the future of our organization while creating a team and culture that supports growth.

3 Reasons Why Accountability is a Game Changer in Building a Healthy Culture

We can all agree that accountability is an important factor in business.

Although most of us can agree with this statement, it is easy to deem the subject of accountability as something you will tackle when you have more time. Creating a culture of accountability does take work and commitment, but if done correctly, will provide endless benefits to your company and your people. At PFD, we want to help you succeed and would like to share how accountability is linked to a thriving business and workplace environment.

you attract “A” Players

Many leaders may find it hard to hold their peers accountable for fear that it will upset them. While it may feel like you are being someone’s friend by not holding them accountable, this is only harming the individual and the organization at a larger level. Not holding people accountable insinuates that you do not have any expectations for them. “A” Players want to have clear expectations, to be challenged, and to be held accountable. 

Keep in mind that “A” Players crave a culture of accountability, while “B” & “C” Players are often repelled by it because it does not give them a platform to underperform while going unnoticed. Overtime, accountability can become a flywheel for attracting “A” Players and repelling the “B” & “C” Players.

This is one of the single most important things you can do for your business because a great business can only be built with great people.

Your processes are more effective

A business could have some of the best processes out there, but if they do not have a key person accountable for each function, their processes become irrelevant. If a new process is introduced without clear roles of accountability, it becomes hard for the employees to know where they should focus their efforts. Not only do processes need to have people responsible for the various functions, but they also need to hold these people accountable. Once this is done, employees know their roles and responsibilities and can better focus their efforts to meet the expectations provided for them.

more freedom for everyone in the company, including you!

When done right, accountability will create more time for you, your leadership team, and all employees. When a culture of accountability is established, less time is spent micromanaging. This gives the management team more freedom to work on their tasks, and the lower level employees more freedom to complete their tasks in the most efficient way possible. As a result of this, the leadership team will spend less time worrying if deliverables have been completed and have more freedom to work on strategy and the vision for the company.

Accountability starts with you. 

Leaders set examples for their peers. In order to create a positive culture of accountability, you need to hold yourself and your peers accountable first. Overtime, this will create a ripple effect. A culture of accountability will emerge, holding a place for A players to thrive and contribute to the success of your company. 

At PFD, we cannot stress the importance of accountability enough. We highly recommend Metronome Growth Systems to help drive accountability, transparency, behavior, and alignment in your company. For extra clarity on functions within your business, we recommend taking your team through the Function Accountability Chart.

Remember accountability starts with you. Although it is important, it does not mean it is easy. Great things take work! We love helping companies build cultures where all employees are thriving; Accountability is one factor among many others that can help to create a healthy culture where both employees and the company thrive.

Kick Off Your 2014 Strategic Planning Now

Now is a great time to finalize your plans for 2014.

Like many companies, you are probably facing growth opportunities in several areas of your business. Yet, the economy is uncertain. Where should you focus your resources? How can you get your leadership team on one page to execute the vision efficiently?

In our experience, the following process has proven helpful:

1. Review your core values. Have they become a checklist for how you run your company?

2. Do you have the right people in the right roles on your team?

3. Where does your team see the growth opportunities?

4. What important feedback are you not getting from your team? From your customers?

We have found this fourth topic – internal and external feedback to be a critical area for growth. Having team alignment reduces the need to make assumptions that are not validated by the market.

The best strategic plans are focused and designed with execution in mind. They support team alignment and accountability. We have developed a facilitated process that creates a two page business plan that is readily implementable.

We have also developed a three week process that maximizes the time of the leadership team:

1. Week one – confidential interviews of leadership team. Develop ideas to validate with customer / external stakeholder survey

2. Week two – send out customer / external stakeholder survey.

3. Week three – compile and share feedback from the survey. Half day to full day offsite facilitated strategic planning session. The facilitation is helpful to allow the senior team to be present and engage in the session while not having to be distracted by the logistics of running it.

If you would like to talk more about the benefits of using this three week process and how it could help your organization please call Ethan Martin at 720-295-4888.

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