Businesses and organizations of all types are known to create business plans at least annually. These are shared with various leaders, divisions and departments with all focused on achieving them. They are reviewed with regularity and hopefully, they are achieved. .
This is all good and the norm. However, the same approach definitely applies to individuals wanting to move up a ladder in their personal careers. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to get the same determination and focus. This becomes a missed opportunity. This is especially the case when we are in a time of low unemployment which provides individuals with a comfortable sense of job security. Feeling secure is what we all want and yet, what is overlooked is the opportunity that can accompany it. Such times are also the most ideal ones for us to 
determine where we want to be in our jobs or careers at the end of a year. In other words, create our personal business plan around the goals we have. Such a plan allows us to actually look to the future and where we would like to go in order to enhance our career … including the added income this often represents. I experience more and more individuals actually thinking about this and creating their plan to achieve it. This is actually exciting and the right way to start.
Consider the advantages of making your plan. They include:
- Providing someone with a sense of direction in terms of goals
- Provides something on which we can continually focus as a measure to how we’re doing
- Helps us to recognize obstacles and thus, the ability to make a needed change to stay our course
- Provides the guidelines for our decision making as we progress through the year
Terrific! The plan is in place and unfortunately this is where progress stops and too often. The second KEY element of realizing the desired success in one’s plan is the execution of it. Execution is a concept easy to talk about howe
ver, more challenging to actually follow through on and therein lies a potential stumbling block. Once you convert your plan into specific actions and behaviors you have a plan you can manage and measure. Here are some attributes leading to successful execution:
- Having a sharpened focus by informing us of what we need to do in order to successfully execute the plan.
- Provides a roadmap of what we need to learn and master in order to enhance the competence our advancing will require.
- Builds our passion for what we want to achieve and the associated enthusiasm for doing what is needed to what is needed.
Be warned. There are some real factors that tend to interfere with true progress and the achievement of our intended success. These include:
One’s personal resistance to change because it often takes us to a zone of discomfort. Whereas the status quo might make us feel more relaxed it does not move us in our desired direction. Giving into this becomes a big factor in personal plans being abandoned.- Feeling there is a lack of needed resources that will enable us to move upward in our planned direction. Giving into this feeling without exploring what’s possible and how to acquire what we need is to basically abandoned our personal plan and the related goal.
- Experiencing the personal politics that can be pervasive in so many office environments can be enough to derail a personal growth and success plan. This is where our commitment to where we intend to go is so important so that we are willing and able to withstand the opinions and resistance of others around us.
Execution is essential to the equation of success. Just as a new year’s resolution requires a committed plan, the goals we have for our own success do as well. And yet, without the determination to execute in a specific and meaningful manner, our plans and the related success it can bring become nice ideas.
It’s now August … early in the second half of 2019. With 5 months remaining there is still adequate time to make serious progress in getting to where you want to personally be. Maybe you’ll take out your plan, dust if off and jump into full-fledged execution. That’s all it takes! Execute today and win tomorrow.
Mike Dorman
