Strategic Plan Celebration | LAYC 99

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Welcome back.

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This is Isabel Alexander and episode 99 of the Lift As You Climb podcast.

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If you're watching on YouTube, you will see I am wearing my flannel shirt

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because as it's almost the end of this calendar year, it's actually a little

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chilly here this morning and so I'm getting Cozy and comfortable, so we

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can have this warm conversation with you as a review, recap of the last five

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or six episodes on strategic planning.

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And as promised, share with you some personal examples of the

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results, the experiences along the way, the great memories around

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the strategic planning process.

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As I said, and I really mean it, I did fall in love with the strategic

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planning process and especially with the results, and the results

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are multi pronged in many ways.

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Right now coming to my mind is how delightful it was to

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be able to share the plan.

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Initially, it was all from me, my ideas, my vision for what I wanted to see in

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growth for the company, but then realizing when I invited my team to take ownership

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and participate in creating the plan, carrying it out, measuring it, measuring

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results ,and accountable for the outcome it just created this incredible

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boost of energy in my organization.

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And seriously, from the beginning of implementing this teamwork attitude

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and involvement of not only my team, but stakeholders as well, and I'll

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share more about that in a moment.

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I saw substantial growth in my company year after year.

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And that resulted in us becoming an eight figure business and winning

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multiple business awards domestically and internationally, and creating

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a pretty cool legacy for me.

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. That's one of the aspects why I learned to fall in love with strategic planning

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was how it became less about me having to carry all the responsibility and

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more about me sharing the opportunity for growth with other people who

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contributed outside of the area of strengths and perspective that I had.

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And when I had that kind of buy in from my team, we just continued to

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have more fun, to become the best version of each of ourselves, and

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to continue to grow in our success.

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For example, in the section on rhythm in the book, Verne Harnisch

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talks about setting up a rhythm or a cadence of meetings with your staff.

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And we adopted and implemented the daily stand up.

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which was a quick, morning, energetic, really to the

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point update with each other.

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And because I did have people working on the team remotely from other parts

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of the world, it was also an amazing opportunity to engage them and have them

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feel like they were part of the team and have the team get to know them better.

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So it took a very short period of time, about 15 minutes every morning, same

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time people calling in back then on their VPNs, now it would be done over Zoom.

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So you can tell I've been doing this for a while because it was a predated Zoom, and

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we would discuss with each other a report.

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Actually, it wasn't a discussion.

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We were reporting to each other what we had accomplished since we last met,.

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what we are working on now; our priority for the day, and what we need help with.

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In that very brief energetic meeting, we had the opportunity to celebrate, to

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inform, and also to reach out and ask for the help of whoever else on the team

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could provide it or provide a suggestion to do it, and that became such a great

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team exercise for building cohesion and energy and connection that it did

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become part of the framework for my Lift As You Climb program, which I do for

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groups and larger corporations today.

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Another aspect of creating rhythm was to have themes for each quarter, which we

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used in a celebratory manner, and because my company was called Phancorp and that

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starts with a PH, we would have themes called the pHanatics or the pHantastics or

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other such great fun labels for what our theme was, our mantra was for the quarter.

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And at the end of the quarter we would celebrate.

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It might have been going to a hockey game, or going out for pizza, or doing

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some kind of arts and crafts celebration, or sometimes I would just cook for

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them all and we would sit around and have some personal time together.

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Wasn't always about business, of course, because we are whole people.

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Another aspect of what I felt was so fabulous about the celebration aspect of

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achieving the goals and working through those milestones was having my annual

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celebration, where I'd have a retreat.

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I'd host a retreat for my team.

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Now ,I understand that if you are a much smaller organization and you

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don't have enough people to do that, or perhaps you are a solopreneur,

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consider doing this with a mastermind group or a peer advisory group.

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Find a community of like minded entrepreneurs, business owners, and

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get together with them on a quarterly, annual, whatever the rhythm basis,

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and review your own plans and your progress so that you are presenting and

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accountable and have an opportunity to celebrate the milestones along the way.

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I think there are so many other ways that you can look at the opportunity

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to find unique, really specific to you, ways to continue to fire yourself

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up, energize yourself to stay on track, keep your commitments to the objectives

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that you have laid out, but celebrate.

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As entrepreneurs, we're often just really focused on what's the next

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goal, what's the next accomplishment.

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And when things aren't going smoothly, when you're not achieving what you

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hoped you had, or there's some momentary distraction or obstacle, there's a

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temptation to get all down on yourself and to feel very critical and maybe give

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up or let go, downgrade what the goal is.

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By pausing regularly and looking back at how far you've actually come, then it's so

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much easier to keep in perspective that, yes, there will be blips, and there will

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be things that you cannot foresee, but the fact is that you either go over them,

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around them, under them, or through them.

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Remember that you are only stalled, you are not stopped, if

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something comes along the way.

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And keep referring back to that strategic plan, knowing, okay, I got this, and

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I'm going to continue to go forward.

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But celebrate regularly so that you keep up with that energy and momentum.

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I mentioned this book before, but it's, it seems a perfect place to bring it up.

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When you're feeling like, oh my god, all I do is keep working,

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reaching for the carrot that keeps moving, a good thing would be to

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pause and cuddle up with a flannel shirt and read Dan Sullivan and Dr.

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Benjamin Hardy's book, The Gap and the Gain.

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As entrepreneurs, we fall into the gap too often.

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We don't always remember to look back and see the gain and celebrate that.

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Now, if you're looking for a little more reading, material over the winter

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season, then I also recommend that you read the book Raving Fans, and

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of course we'll link to both of those books in this, in the notes below.

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Raving Fans is an excellent short book and it's been around for a long time.

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It stood the test of time for sure as a business book recommending perspectives on

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how to involve everybody in your success, and it's not just about your team.

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which is the part I touched on briefly in the episode where we discuss stakeholders.

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It's understanding that you and your business are supported by and impacted

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by not only people who work for you, but the people who work with you and the

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people that support you and the people that are detracting in your life and

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having a perspective around creating raving fans to continue to support

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your strategic plan to be successful.

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It's a good strategy as well.

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I'll leave you on that note.

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I'm looking forward to being back to you very soon with episode 100

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as we bring 2023 to a close and look forward to a very exciting new year

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and how we continue to lift ourselves, build our own success ladders, and

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empower others to build theirs.

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Stay tuned.