12 Tips on How to Lead and Succeed with a Strategic Plan

You're the boss, you have a strategic plan, and you're determined to implement it.

It's going to be extremely challenging.?

You’re not alone. Leaders at companies of all sizes, in all industries, and at different stages of maturity struggle with strategic plan execution.

Yet, with some basic adjustments, you can achieve your objectives and have more fun in the process. The outcomes will be positive, rewarding, and motivating.

Here are 12 tips -- and a scorecard -- on how to successfully lead and succeed with a strategic plan. They will help you break through resistance, ignite employee engagement, and trigger organizational alignment.

The first three tips focus on increasing awareness and ownership of the plan.?

1: Increase Awareness and Visibility of the Plan

The single most effective way to motivate people to achieve a common goal is to make sure they know what it is. Transparency is a fundamental characteristic of a great plan. The existence of a plan is one thing, but if key stakeholders and others responsible for carrying out the plan have limited visibility into it, they cannot be held accountable for it. Awareness and familiarity must reach beyond the board of directors and executive suite. Employees at every rank, vendors, and customers should possess knowledge of the plan and the role they play in it. Start socializing the plan as soon as you finish the scorecard at the end of this article.

2: Make It Easy to Understand

People are more likely to read the plan if they understand it and relate to it. Write the plan with content, language, and visualizations that make it easy to read all the way to the end. It should be simple, clear, and concise. It should inspire. Then initiate and encourage open discourse about the plan, and answer questions with clarity and commitment. When people comprehend the plan, relate to it, and believe in it, they will be ready to follow it.

3: Make it Easy to Play Back

Another effective way to motivate people to achieve a common goal is to make sure they can play it back. The easier it is to vocalize, the more often they will say it, the more real it becomes. The language of the plan and its key elements become part of the company's culture and lexicon. Board directors, executives, employees, and vendors should be able to state the company's vision or mission with ease and confidence. No one should have to search the company's website to find it. People in leadership positions should also have conversational mastery of the company's goals, objectives, key results, and key strategies. Direct reports cannot be held responsible if leaders cannot articulate those key elements of the plan and what their team is specifically responsible for achieving. The plan becomes a shared experience when everyone involved understands it and can play it back.

Board directors, executives, employees, and vendors should be able to state the company's vision or mission with ease and confidence.

The next two tips assert the importance of mastering the key elements of your company's strategic plan.

4: Align the Plan with the Company's Vision and Mission

"Strategic plans" conceived out of the context of a stated vision or mission are doomed. "Strategies" developed in "brainstorming" meetings that include a small set of executives, with little to no follow-through, do not constitute a strategic plan. What may seem obvious to those in the executive suite is habitually not to those outside of it. The plan must directly support the organization's stated vision and mission, in writing for others to see, for this is the way the vision will be realized.

5: Know the Difference Between Goals, Objectives, Key Results, and Strategies

Goals, Objectives, Key Results, Strategies -- these terms are frequently confused and often result in a jumbled list of to-do items. Knowing the differences and using them correctly will set you apart as a magnificent leader. In brief:

• Goals are long-term targets
• Objectives are stated as things you are going to accomplish in the short term that help you achieve your goals
• Key Results are stated as numbers; they are the measures of the Objective
• Strategies are stated as actions or verbs; they are how you are going to achieve the objectives and key results (OKRs).

For inspiration, check out Speed & Scale: An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now, by John Doerr. The book features dozens of Objectives and Key Results.

The next three tips reinforce the importance of accountability and rewards.?

6: Hold People and Teams Accountable

Accountability is one of the most fundamental features of a successful strategic plan. People and teams must be accountable for specific objectives, key results, and strategies. People and teams focus their time and resources more efficiently when they understand their role and how it fits into the overall plan and organization. Teams and cross-functional working groups develop a great sense of solidarity and accomplishment when they achieve success together. In the absence of accountability, dysfunction lurks.

7: Align Job Descriptions and Rewards with the Plan

Holding individuals accountable works best when their job descriptions and individual goals clearly support the key elements of the plan. Humans are wired to be motivated by purpose. Reward people and teams when they achieve key milestones in the plan. They'll feel part of something bigger.

Job descriptions and individual goals should clearly support the key elements of the plan.

8: Equip Staff with the Resources Needed to Meet the Objectives

Leaders are responsible for providing employees with the tools they need to carry out the plan. If leadership cannot equip people and teams with the necessary resources, then it's time to recalibrate expectations. This will test your mettle as a true leader.

The final four tips highlight the value of self-reflection and creativity.?

9: Maintain Focus

A strategic plan is a guide. It is customized for every organization. Refer to it on an appropriate cadence, both independently and in the company of others, to maintain focus as the fiscal year advances. Use it as inspiration for where to go next and as guideposts for making big decisions. When in doubt, refer to the strategic plan.

When in doubt, refer to the strategic plan.

10: Embrace Flexibility and Innovation

A strategic plan is big-picture, with aspirational objectives, stretch key results, and organizationally directional strategies. It's a framework for people and teams within the organization to reference when setting their own OKRs and the strategies they will pursue to achieve them. This is where you embrace innovation and flexibility. This is the flashpoint that separates leaders from legends.

11: Pause and Reflect

On occasion, take a quiet, solo timeout to review the strategic plan. Reflect on the plan from three angles:

• Achievements, Failures, and Gaps: This is a critical assessment of progress made on the plan, identification, and learning from failures, and re-establishing focus on gaps to end the year strong
• Self-reflection: Where are your strategic plan leadership strengths and weaknesses? Use the scorecard at the end of this article to score yourself on these 12 Tips to identify priority areas for improvement.
• Future planning: Leaders are always looking ahead -- next year, five years, ten years, maybe longer. What does this year's strategic plan, leadership, and execution indicate about how to plan for next year and execute better for all?

12: Demonstrate Respect and Gratitude

The plan is just a plan until other people make it come true.

The plan is just a plan until other people make it come true.?

In my work, every day I witness leaders struggle with strategic plan execution. But, with these tips, I can help you avoid becoming one of them and increase the odds of your success.

Take the first step right now -- download the 12 Tips Scorecard, score yourself, and identify where you need to prioritize improvement.

Download 12 Tips Scorecard