Excellence University Journal

Suggestions Regarding Effectively Balancing Planning With Executing

by Dr. Brian Higley

May 5th, 2007

A big question on many people’s minds is how to balance planning with getting the plan done.  Here are my thoughts on the matter:

It’s been my experience that successful leaders tend to lay down their strategy 1-4 times a year to avoid making teammates’ heads spin as they change directions every couple of weeks.  They then spend about 2-4 hours every 2-4 weeks on clarifying that strategy to their people and identifying any major barriers to executing the tactics necessary to fulfilling their strategic aims. 

My experience is that, if this process is done well, there is a lot of time left to focus on assisting key team members with executing their strategies.  Unfortunately, it’s also been my experience that this process is NOT often done very well (probably about 10% of the leaders my team knows does it at a consistently high level).”

Article Filed under: I. WATER (Team/Group Excellence)