Strategic plan...part 2

Ok, so last Saturday I talked a little about the strategic plan, and the components of one of the ways to go about setting one up. We've covered Strengths and Weaknesses, so now let's move on to Opportunities!

In the business world, Opportunities are new products or new markets that can be maximized by using your strengths. For the sake of this conversation, Opportunities are the things that you have identified as viable, based on your strengths and weaknesses. What areas can best play up your strengths and play down your weaknesses? This is not the place for your self imposed constraints. Open it up. Sky's the limit. If a strength is getting people to open up to you and talk about their lives, one opportunity might be "life coach" another one might be "talk show host". Now there are those people who will tell you that "talk show host" is not a very realistic opportunity. That does not matter for this part of the exercise. We'll winnow it down later. Right now just honestly look at your strengths and weaknesses and make a list of where they might lead. The ones that you feel the most passionate about will make themselves apparent as you build thelist. After you have a good sized list, go ahead and line out the ones that don't resonate with you , and circle the ones that do. Keep doing that until you get the list down to 5.

When the list is down to 5, start on the threats. What are the external forces that will work to prevent you from doing any of the things that are on the list. Make a list for each of the 5 opportunities. This will tell you two things: 1. the most "viable" idea of the 5, as well as the obstacles that you will have to overcome to get there. Each of the threats will result in one or more action items.

If you feel like the exercise was good, and a direction has been set, start doing the action items that come out of the threats. If not - well, maybe it will serve to provide a look into opportunities that you hadn't thougth about before.

Strategic Plan for Life...

In the world of business, the strategic plan is a time-honored tool for getting from where you ARE to where you want to BE. Now, there are any number of ways that you can go about doing this. One of the tools that is often used in this particular endeavor is called a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. The exercise consists of doing a candid and thorough documented analysis of 4 categories. What are we really good at? What are we NOT good at? How can we leverage our strengths in the marketplace and finally what obstacles stand between us and where we want to be. Sounds simple, and at the highest level, it is. The challenge is getting into fine enough detail that the plan is actually workable and functional. This is where, I believe, most companies fall down.

So why am I talking about this? What does an operational strategic plan have to do with you and me? Well, here's my thought...

What if you sat down and did your own, personal SWOT analysis? Could be for career advancement, could be for home finances, could be for getting your marriage back on track - could be for all of thee above. Give it a shot. Sit down for 30 minutes (time yourself) and start with STRENGTHS. What do you do really well? Where do you shine? After you have spent 30 minutes working on your list, have someone who knows you, who you like and respect do the same thing for you - have them focus on YOU. Many times we don't recognize our own strengths, but someone else can spot them with laser focus. A spouse, significant other or very close friend can fill this role well. Don't be embarrassed about asking - or about the results. This is not random gratuitous praise (although that's not bad either) it is working on focusing your attention on what you are really good at. As you identify what you are really good at, it will start to give some clarity on where you might want to end up. Oftentimes the things that we are really good at are things that we really enjoy. Strengths are FUN!

Now comes a less fun, less comfortable part; WEAKNESSES. Interestingly when I talk about weaknesses, I am not necessarily talking about things you need to improve...it may end up being things that you want to avoid. Do the same exercise with weaknesses that you did with Strengths - although you may want to separate the them by a couple of days - that way you can live with your strengths list and build on it. So with weaknesses, what do you NOT like to do, what are you not particularly good at? For example; I'm a great starter. I have good ideas and I start with great intentions. That's one of my strengths. One of my weaknesses is follow-through. I have a lot of started projects...fewer finished ones. So I know that is something that I need to pay attention to. It is something of a roadblock that I need to either deal with or delegate.

Working on your weaknesses is a lot less fun that working on your strengths is. The important thing is that you go through the exercise without getting angry or defensive. You may or may not want to have someone else go through your weaknesses. If you have a tendency of taking things very personally, don't jeopardize a relationship by asking your new girlfriend to list all of your weaknesses -it might not end well.

I will go through opportunities, threats and then tie it all together in the next post....so stay tuned.