The ABCDE Of Effective Planning

The ABCDE Of Effective Planning

By Richard Brody

Nearly every individual who ascends to a position of leadership at least gives lip service to the need for effective planning, only those who become true leaders commit to the needed process to achieve this. The ABCDE requires: analyze; budget wisely; creativity; delegate responsibilties carefully; and executing one's plan in a proactive and meaningful manner. Anyone unwilling or unable to commit to prioritizing effective planning not only hinders but often mortally wounds his potential effectiveness. Think of effectiveness as getting it done in a productive, efficient and meaningful manner!

1. Analyze what your organization needs, requires, and where it presently is and where it wants to be. There is often a fine line and a needed balance between procrastination and careful review. However, those that procrastinate never lead because their unwarranted delays generally exacerbate difficulties and make challenges and obstacles more difficult and costly to address properly. Positive analysis is using wisdom and judgment to review alternatives, and expeditiously decide the best approach.

2. While it is nice to say you will plan, unless a leader learns to budget wisely, his approach will lack an essential component that is extremely relevant to the realities of achievement. A budget can either be a leader's friend or enemy, and wise leaders use these instruments in conjunction with their plan and agenda.

3. Effective leaders realize and understand that they can never afford to bore their constituents, but must rather continuously seek ways to motivate and increase involvement and commitment of others. This seeks what is often referred to as a willingness to think outside the box, but in practice means being open minded enough to consider alternatives without prior bias or prejudice. There are almost always more than one way to achieve goals, and wise leaders understand that this often requires creativity and enhancing the appeal and message to better attract others to listen and care more.

4. How many times have you heard someone discuss how important it is for a leader to delegate responsibilities and duties to others? However, this must be done carefully, because only when one first identifies and locates the right individuals, then trains and qualifies them, and then fully explains what the goals and commitment he is seeking, does delegating achieve its desired results. The potential is only achieved when there is a simultaneous commitment to support these individuals and back their missions consistently!

5. Nothing meaningful will ever occur unless someone executes his plan. It is never enough to just talk the talk, but effectiveness and impact requires a willingness and ability to walk the walk, too!

Anyone can talk about planning, but only when we effectively plan and carry it out to fruition, do we accomplish and reap the potential benefits and goals that we seek. Those that commit to the process are nearly always the most capable leaders.

Richard has owned businesses, been a COO, CEO, and Director of Development, as well as a consultant. He has professionally run events, consulted to over a thousand leaders, and conducted personal development seminars, for over 30 years. Rich has written three books and well over a thousand articles. His company, PLAN2LEAD, LLC has an informative website http://plan2lead.net and Plan2lead can also be followed on Facebook http://Facebook.com/Plan2lead
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All Leaders Make Mistakes, But Great Ones Admit And Correct Them

 

By Richard Brody

Far too many individuals view those in positions of leadership as either super - humans, often expecting or anticipating perfection from these people. However, the reality is that they are merely human with the same flaws, imperfections, insecurities, challenges and concerns that the rest of us have. True leaders will always make some mistakes, because only those that do nothing avoid making errors (although even they make errors of omission or procrastination), and in order to be a real leader, one must make timely decisions and take timely action. Therefore, it is not that a great leader will be mistake - free, but rather he admits them and immediately takes action to address and correct them.

1. One of the basic rules of effective leadership is never about perfection or even believing that one can be perfect (although the great ones will always strive for the best result possible), but rather how one handles things that might go wrong (or at least not as desired or wanted), and reacts and leads others to move on in a constructive, meaningful manner. Far too many individuals who ascend to positions of leadership behave in a thin - skinned manner, often overreacting when they are challenged by others, or by negative circumstances. Great leadership is about addressing needs, motivating others, and providing value to their constituents, and other stakeholders. True leaders remain above the fray, making certain that their egos are kept under control, and that they remain capable of understanding that is both possible and probable that at one point or another, they will be prone to making some mistakes.

2. True leaders keep their heads when others often lose theirs! They realize that they are not always right, although they pursue gathering as much information, knowledge, learning and wisdom as they can, so that their level of expertise is far above most others. A great leader creates a plan based on his vision for his organization, creating meaningful goals, an action plan, and attempts to motivate others to share his vision. These plans must be comprehensive in nature, always examining multiple possibilities and/ or contingencies, and creating a number of backup plans to address the "what if's." By doing so, they realistically address that what one hopes for may not always be achieved on the first attempt, and one of the signs of greatness is maintaining the persistence and patience to pursue goals, rather than prioritizing their own vanity.

Leaders make mistakes, as do all of us. It is the great ones that address them promptly and remain on track to accomplish the overall goals in a productive manner.

Richard has owned businesses, been a COO, CEO, and Director of Development, as well as a consultant. He has professionally run events, consulted to over a thousand leaders, and conducted personal development seminars, for over 30 years. Rich has written three books and well over a thousand articles. His company, PLAN2LEAD, LLC has an informative website http://plan2lead.net and Plan2lead can also be followed on Facebook http://Facebook.com/Plan2lead
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