3 Reasons Why Strategic Planning Can Make or Break Your Company

Few companies can articulate their framing statement well, with meaningful energy, conviction, and drive. Yet it is these companies, who well communicate their exact purpose, who have the strongest core. Below are three reasons why every member of your team should be able to state the what, how, and why of your organizational mission on demand when asked.

#1 – Clarity

Without clarity in mission and intentionally laid out steps designed to directly achieve it, businesses can drift with market tides, trends, and technological advancements into directions never intended. This leads directly to confusion of personnel, leadership, investors, and eventually the marketplace.

“Intention” is a word that deserves some unpacking. While haphazard luck, connection, and moments of genius are often the marinade for innovation, intention in driving business goals is typically the best predictor of success.

Imagine a person wanting to get fit and healthy. They will need a clear intention to get healthy, to exercise, and to right their diet. Have you ever known a person or an athlete to get into top shape by accident? Maybe it can happen. Yet science consistently shows that those with strong, intentional goals are more often successful at reaching them.

Companies, too, should not expect to grow their business or to make it better without a clear blueprint to get to the final, more desirable, and more functional, product.

#2 - Engagement

Employee engagement has been the focus of many researchers. For decades, managers and academics have tried to figure out how to “engage” employees so that they can perform at their very best. Afterall, the more engaged employees are, the better they will perform, the better the company’s bottom line will look and feel, and the happier a founder/owner will be.

Figuring out a way to enhance employee engagement has been top of mind for most everyone who tracks in the field of management, leadership, and organizational behavior, and it’s been this way for years. Want to know the most important way to engage an employee? It is to align your organizational mission with their individual purpose.

This call requires a business owner to know what their organizational mission is and to have the skill of explaining it easily and succinctly when asked. This also requires an employee to know their purpose in this life and to assess whether their engagement in the company is a match. Without a clear strategic plan, you should not expect employees to be engaged or to stay.

#3 - Alignment

When businesses can clearly articulate the roadmap they will use to achieve their goals, and when they can plug employees into those action steps in meaningful ways, we can start talking about the benefits of having an aligned organization. Can you imagine an organization that maximizes the input of their people by lining them up in positions that capitalize on their personal mission in lieu of the company’s clearly stated goals? It would be quite a machine to have a company that smart organizationally speaking; goals would be accomplished by engaged employees all day, every day.

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 along, email us at info@lionleadership.com.