Best Practices for Annual Planning
Gravitas community has become such a simple yet whole network of systems, processes, and
best practices for strategic planning that help CEOs and team leaders, on a worldwide basis, to
achieve enormous growth thru agile, scaleable, and practical strategic planning. According to
one of our senior statesmen, Ron Huntington; a CEO needs and an organization needs to do the
following steps for annual planning:
The need for a plan.
A CEO must need to have a proper plan for his business, his team, and his organization
that will serve you through the next 12 to 24 months. A properly drawn plan will help in
getting advantage of unforeseen but possible opportunities and in avoiding unforeseen
yet possible dangers to the business.
Why annual planning is so important?
Planning is important to live a happy life. It's not just about business, e.g., a pilot needs
planning to reach a destination, an engineer needs planning to make something, even a
tour is also planned. If you don't have a plan then you are not living, instead, you are
dying slowly and business is just like this. If a CEO or an organization wants to reach the
desired destination then they need to do some planning about where do you want to
go? What will be your path? How do you think you will reach there? How much time
should be taken? And what needs to be done if a mistake has been committed? In this
prevailing period of coronavirus, a CEO needs to have a flight plan for his organization
and a team that is on board with that plan, and that plan is aligned with the desired
results. The plan doesn't need to be perfect; it just needs to be perfectly aligned with
the destination or desired outcomes of the CEO and organization.
What is the best time to do annual planning?
Time near to last quarter of the fiscal year is the best time to do annual planning for an
organization as, during this time, we know what has been done and what needs to be
done to get top-line revenues, positive cash flows, optimizing profitability, reduce of gap
wholes, and the necessity to thrive during and after all the waves of this virus.
What should be the mindset of a CEO at this point in time for annual planning?
The CEO must have a clear vision about where he wants to take his organization, what
he wants to achieve? He must have a clear vision for the coming 1-3 or 5-10 years of his
organization. He should also have a draft financial plan for the next 1-3 years of his
organization; the draft plan should cover everything thing from no. of customers, no. of
units sold, gross profit, no. of employees, SKUs, and FTEs to the overhead structure. He
must also take a good observance of his team members on the presidential level as well
as departmental level; do all the employees are on board with his vision and dynamic
plan? The appointment of the right people in the right seats in an organization can lead
to the best possible outcome of proper dynamic planning.
Things that a leadership team should practice while doing annual planning
A CEO along with his team members should be able to read each other's opinions and
thoughts about all procedures and plans. For this, a CEO should do surveys through such
platforms as Survey Monkey to get anonymous ideas and responses related to any
consideration within planning. With an average of 20 questions, a CEO can get enough
insight into the thoughts and mindsets of his employees. It's like a SWOT analysis;
through this survey employees of an organization should be talked about all the
opportunities that they have missed during the current or last period and all the
achievements that they have made along with all loopholes and threats. Through such
surveys, a CEO or coach can get sufficient in-depth knowledge to make a perfectly
aligned and dynamic plan.
What are the expected outcomes? And what should be the actions of the CEO against these
outcomes?
There should not be any ambiguity left in the expected performance demanded by the
team members and employees and all the employees should be top of their games.
Everyone should have a clear expectation of the outcome required from a certain
process and the outcome must be regularly checked on a weekly, monthly, and
quarterly basis so as if there is any fluctuation from the desired and expected result
then a counteraction can be done within time. Clear expectations of the outcomes along
with effective meeting rhythms can help a CEO to make efficient and effective actions
against unexpected outcomes. The possible actions that a CEO can make are following:
If the current plan is working nicely but a little bit of improvement is needed
then think about how to improve that specific part of the plan
Is there any need to improve the path of the plan? If yes, then consider other
best options of paths for your destined place.
Is there any need for a coach? A coach with a willing leadership team can create
a tremendous difference in the outcomes and quality of the result of an
organization.
The Coaching Authority is located in Northern Indiana and is a world-class leader in the areas of
business and management consulting, business coaching and training, youth leadership, and
leadership development. Founded by Patrick Frazier, the company is dedicated to helping
organizations and individuals manage strategic change, innovation, cultural transition, and goal
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For more information visit: http://coachingauthority.net/