Part of my work is coaching executives and consultants in different organisations. In the first meeting where we work out the outcomes they are looking to achieve from the coaching program, the first question I ask is “Do you have a personal success strategic plan?” . However , most of them don’t know what a personal strategic plan is.
Any consulting practice would not focus on delivery without having a clear plan of what success looks like. How can a firm drive their efforts and activities without a strategic plan? What project would not have a clear understanding of their measures of success, their objectives, and what their mission is as an organisation?
Among those that I have undertaken a coaching program with, there are only a few people who have a personal strategic plan or a similar document. All too often executives and managers are driving the business plans but have no clear success plan in place for themselves.
Is there any consequence? Yes definitely. This lack of a personal success plan means that over time, this leads to their getting disengaged with their lot in life and within their organisations at some point in their career. They find it hard to answer questions like What do I really enjoy? Where can I make the biggest difference? What impact do I want to make in the areas that I can make the biggest difference?
Identifying the need to form a strategic plan for my clients, I often help them building one by asking them tough questions around their own life. This piece is critical to the coaching as it gives them the compass in life and work to align their activities, their careers, their effort and satisfaction to. This compass becomes their true north, their reason for being, their link to their mojo! It is the foundation between where they are and where they want to be which is critical to deliver high performance coaching and to make the necessary shifts towards their goals.
Everyone, definitely including consultants, needs a personal strategic plan that links their passion with what they do.
The personal strategic plan should cover a number of things such as:
- What is your vision for your life?
- What is the mission you wish to achieve?
- What is your last hours paragraph?
- What are your personal values?
- What is your life statement ie what do you stand for?
- Your five big projects personally and professionally in the areas of success you wish to achieve before you leave this earth?
- The key performance indicators, key initiatives and targets around each of these five key projects
This is a very challenging assignment for most people. It can be the first time you have really thought about these questions and what you are looking to achieve. Better late than never, I believe building your personal strategic plan is the stepping stone that brings more meaning and more happiness to your life.
The importance of a personal strategic plan is as much as that of a business strategic plan. Yourself is the first and foremost “organisation” you need to take care of and manage effectively. Before consulting anyone else, be a consultant for yourself first. Without your true north, how do align and recalibrate your compass that tells you where to go?
