Entrepreneurs who commit to a regular strategic planning process go faster, achieve more, and make more money. While you can facilitate these planning sessions on your own, an independent facilitator has proven processes that make sure you have the best possible plan. In my 35 years of entrepreneurial experience, a facilitator can always help find a solution once you have truly faced up to the challenges in your business.
Do you want to learn more about strategic planning? Call me at +1 (604) 721-5732 or Contact Me.
Audio
Transcript
Hi Everyone. I’m Coach David J. Greer. Today I want to answer the question “Why would you want to hire a facilitator for strategic planning?”
The first question you have to ask yourself is “What do you want to do about strategic planning?” As I’m filming this it is a beautiful September day. I’ve got a whole number of clients that I’m facilitating for in the next couple of weeks. Because it is the end of the quarter.
I meet quarterly with my clients to work on their quarterly plans and then annually to work on their annual plan.
This is a natural time in the rhythm of the business for thinking about the strategic plan for the business. If you don’t want to have a strategic plan, if you don’t want to have clear cut goals, that’s okay. I’ve built businesses that way and I’ve been very successful. What I’ve discovered is that by having crystal clear goals for where you want to go in three years, four or five goals for this year, and four or five goals every quarter you’ll go faster, achieve more, and make more money.
I encourage entrepreneurs to seriously consider a strategic planning process. If you are a high growth company or very ambitious, you want to get into the tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue or assets under management, the only way to get there is having really strong strategic plans. To do that you need to get off site with your senior leadership team and come up with an analysis of your markets, really clear plans of how you are going to develop the next quarter, and what’s working and what’s not working.
You might think as an entrepreneur, a business owner, or a CEO, hey “I can do that myself.” The truth is you can. I’ve done that. I’ve done strategic planning at this level for at least a dozen years. A number of times I’ve done it myself. What I’ve discovered over time is that it doesn’t really work that well [facilitating my own team].
If you are wearing the facilitator’s hat, you have to really make sure that everyone is participating and taking part in the conversation. People might be reticent because you are the CEO or the business owner. It is very hard for people to know which hat you are wearing. Are you wearing the hat of the CEO and talking about the plan or are you wearing the hat of the facilitator? That can be really confusing to people and it can come up with plans that are far less than optimal.
Finally, even with the best of intentions what I’ve discovered is CEOs really struggle to sustain a process of strategic planning over a long period of time. To me that’s the magic of strategic planning is when you commit to the process and you make the process better and better, the plans better and better, and the execution of those plans better and better. To do that you have to sustain this process over a long period of time.
That’s where someone like me can come in. As a facilitator a big part of my role is making sure every quarter that everybody gets off site and into a room to actually do this plan. I also have proven processes that make this work. For example, before every quarterly or annual planning session I have a survey that I send out.
I work with the CEO to make sure that they do any employee survey or any other pre-work that will help them be more successful. In the session, I bring my 35-years of entrepreneurial experience plus my independence. I can ask the questions that no one else wants to ask to make sure that everyone is facing the brutal facts. What I know is that if you put the brutal facts out there, you can always find a way to solve them. The real challenge is when people are not prepared to actually face up to what the brutal facts are. As an outside facilitator I can make all of that happen. Whereas you as someone on the inside can really struggle with that.
These are reasons why I believe that hiring a facilitator for strategic planning can make you and your business much more successful. If you would like to talk to me about how I help entrepreneurs with strategic planning give me a call (+1 (604) 721-5732) or send me an email (david@coachdjgreer.com) and let’s set up a call. I would love to find a way to help you like I’ve helped others.
