5 Ways To Keep Your Strategic Plan On Track
Is your vision board collecting dust in the corner of your office?
Has your journal remained closed since your ‘new year, new me’ chicken scratch dump?
Did you pay a consultant a lot of money for strategic plan building activities that resulted in zero follow-through?
You’re not alone.
Only about 35% of small businesses have a formal growth plan that focuses on long-term goals.
When clients come to me, I am finding that most have sacrificed long-term thinking in order to overcome short-term challenges.
Meaning all the vision and goal setting that took a ton of time, and sometimes money, is not getting the results they need.
If this resonates with you, I’ll tell you why this is happening.
#1 – Implementing a Strategic Plan is new for you. There’s still a lack of understanding around its power when it comes to motivating your team, attracting customers, and guiding decisions.
#2 – You weren’t able to commit. The plan that felt good initially, made you feel boxed in and worried you were limiting your options for later so it got put away. Thinking of your strategic plan as the only route to success for a whole year can feel overwhelming. Especially when it seems the only thing that is constant is change.
#3 – A lack of accountability. You made the plan, and then it immediately sat on your Desktop collecting dust. You don’t have any mechanisms to revisit and repeat the plan throughout your organization in order to make it a north star for you and your team.
#4 – Shiny Object Syndrome. You throw the plan out the window when new opportunities, customer ideas or market trends fly by. Instead of sticking to your strategic plan, you pivot so often that no real progress happens.
Whatever the reason may be, the outcome remains the same.
Your vision is blurred and your goals are getting forgotten.
Congratulations – you’re a human!
Here’s some tips to get you and your team regrouped and moving forward:
5 Ways to Get Back on Track and Crush Your Goals:
✅ Stick with It – The first year of implementing a strategic plan is always the hardest. The new processes and systems can feel clunky at first, but will all feel worth it once you start seeing the results. Having a guide can help you stay on track when you feel like stopping.
✅ Think of Your Strategic Plan as a Compass, Not a Cage – You’re setting a destination, not locking yourself into a rigid path. A strategic plan isn’t meant to box you in—it’s meant to guide you by offering different routes to get you where you want to go. You have the flexibility and power to make decisions and changes to the course as you see fit.
✅ Break Your Strategic Plan Up into Chunks – A lot of business owners abandon their strategic plans because it feels like too much commitment, too soon. Instead, break your strategic plan into 90-day goals. Shorter cycles give you structure without the feeling of being overwhelmed. Twelve weeks is long enough to make real progress but short enough to feel adaptable. It also creates urgency, keeping you and your team engaged.
✅ Make Accountability a Habit – Strategic plans don’t execute themselves and sadly human brains aren’t wired to stay accountable to long term goals. These are ways we can train our brains to stay accountable:
- State the mission often and get buy-in from your team on specific goals.
- Keep score – set a specific time and format for tracking results.
- Review unfinished business – our brains naturally remember incomplete tasks better than completed ones, so regularly reviewing progress will provide a natural push to get the goal done.
✅ Stay Curious, Use your Strategic Plan to Filter, Not Stifle – When new opportunities arise, ask yourself if they align with your strategic plan. If they don’t, park them for later instead of derailing your progress. Your strategic plan should keep you focused on what matters most.
Regardless of the reason behind a cloudy vision, remember: you are the mission driver.
As the leader does, so does the team. Your Strategic Plan will become real and your goals will be met when you avoid shiny objects, reinforce, and repeat.
Takeaways:
- A strategic plan isn’t just a document—it’s a tool.
- If you fail at your Strategic Plan the first time, it’s not your fault – you might have missed some crucial components. Assess what happened, regroup, and try again because your growth depends on it.
- You control the vision, don’t let the vision control you.
Need help making that happen? That’s what I do. Let’s talk.
Here to help clean your glasses,
Laurie
