Inspired Leadership

Chapter 7A Simple Plan

It's vital to make every day count. I have done this, over the years, by counting every day.

So far, we have concentrated on finding a dream, and making that dream into a vision, and creating a way that your team can understand and contribute to it. But you don't have as long as you think to make your vision become reality, and you can't inspire the people who work with you unless they know where you're taking them. Unless you methodically break down that process into manageable, achievable tasks, it will remain forever out of reach, and you will always look back on your dream as the thing you would have liked to have done, before you lost your way and settled for 3%.

In this chapter I will take you through the planning process I use with all the companies I work with, which produces what I call the “1,000-day plan”, and how you show the people who work for you the value and meaning of their responsibilities to make the plan a success.

At the end of this chapter, you should be able to have a go at writing your own plan. It doesn't have to be for your business or department – I write a 1,000-day plan for myself, so that I make sure every day counts for what I want to achieve (writing this book was one of things on it). Hopefully, you will also know how to avoid some of the pitfalls of planning as I have seen it done in most businesses.

From Planning to ...