Why Strategic Planning Can Make or Break Your Company
There are a lot of ways to get strategic planning done and done well. Each company is a little different. Below are three basic methods to develop your strategy. At Lion Leadership, we encourage you to pick what will work for you and for your team uniquely.
#1 - Top-Down Planning
If you are the owner/founder of a company with 3-45 employees you should go with a top-down plan, especially if this is the first formal plan your company has had. A top-down company plan looks very much like an organizational leader sitting down by themselves, or with a coach, and/or with a few smart advisors to create a framing statement (the what, how, and why of the organization), operational values, strategic goals, and metrics. Yet even with a top-down plan, you can’t 100% have your way. Successful companies rarely are dictatorships. Micromanagement, no matter how well intentioned, never wins. You will need to involve the opinions of others on the actions your company will take to achieve your goals.
#2 - Bottom-Up Planning
Another option is to involve all company members into the planning process from the very beginning. Collectively designed framing statements, operational values, and strategic goals are amazingly engaging. And, sometimes, with accredited industries, government agencies, franchise operations, and public companies, it is a requirement. Yet, what does this look like? Typically, it looks like a lot of surveying, focus groups, and off-site retreats with facilitated exercises to build a consensus of what the company does, how it does it, how it will do it in the future, and why.
This process is intense and cumbersome, and for most creative, growing companies in the digital age, it may not be ideal. What if you, the owner/founder or COO, does not like what the group emerges with? What if top management disagrees with the action items recommended by the new hires? It’s a true conundrum because, in this instance, top management has asked for a lot of opinions, and then find themselves in a position to not take those opinions – offending the very people the organization is working hard to engage.
This is why, at Lion Leadership, where we work so closely with creative, growing companies and owner/founders of those companies, we recommend a meet-in-the-middle approach.
#3 - Middle-Planning
This approach requires some “middle management magic.” While it is best done with a 3rd party professional, this is something that you can assign to COO or another respected member of your company. The advantage of a 3rd party is that no voices get hushed or brushed off due to the imbalance in power and authority that is inherently present in a hierarchical organization. Moreover, with a 3rd party professional, opinions do not get overlooked due to the daily judgments that various personalities bring to the table.
The ideal setting for middle-planning involves a 3rd party 1) walking top management through the top-down process, then 2) walking a second layer, and possibly a third layer, of management through a bottom-up process that will bring forth new, innovative, and powerful ideas, then 3) facilitating a middle-ground that lines up new ideas with the guardrails initially set by top management.
We wish you the very best of luck with your 2023 strategic plan. If you would like to be matched with a coach to help you create your best strategic plan, email us info@lionleadership.com.
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