By Michael Gidlewski

Planning and goal-setting is the systematic process of designing your future with the most effective action steps to achieve the success you desire. In order for you to get the greatest return on your time, a plan is critical to your success. A plan requires you to think ahead about what you really want to achieve in the future. A well-defined plan properly executed is a critical success factor in your future both personally and professionally.

With such overwhelming evidence, why would all organizational leaders not insist on a continuous process of planning and development? Research shows, however, that very few organizations actually manage operations by a specific plan and strategy.

Why? Very simple … focus, leadership focus!

“There’s a current of thinking today which says that, because things are changing so rapidly, it’s impossible to have a strategy,” said writer and businessman Alvin Toffler. “All you need is to be agile and react to immediate change. That is wrong. It allows someone else to determine the constraints under which you’ll operate. Organizations with a strategy will set the terms of competition.”

You either control your own destiny or let outside forces control it for you. The importance of vision is that it gives you that control. The person on the assembly line’s future livelihood depends on the direction the company takes. If the company does not have vision, and the marketplace or some other outside force determines where the company is going, there may not be a company left. The person on the line, along with everyone else, will be out of a livelihood.

You can virtually guarantee your success in any endeavor if you know where you stand now, who you are, what you want, where you are going, how you will get there, and what you will do once you arrive. Motivational speaker Brian Tracy said that planning before you act will save you 10 to 1 in execution, thereby leveraging your effort, resources, and energy to produce results beyond your wildest expectations.

Planning is a future-oriented thought process that enables you to be as prepared as possible for whatever the future may bring.

On Wednesday, Dec. 5, I will be hosting The Swift Kick, a half-day program at Penn State Great Valley that will enable business owners, CEOs, and entrepreneurs to gain clarity, define their focus, and improve their results. Click here to register.

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Michael Gidlewski is President of West Chester-based Achievement Unlimited, Inc., as well as a growth catalyst and motivational speaker. He works with motivated business owners and entrepreneurs to clearly define the elements of what they dearly want their businesses and lives to look like, then helps them connect all the moving parts that make up those visions to consistent action and habits. Michael can be reached at 610-793-6609 or via e-mail at michael@achievable.com.

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