Strategy is Key

How many times have you heard that strategy is important? 

I bet a heap of times!

And even though you know it’s important, it’s the first thing to get neglected or let go of when you get busy.

It’s easy to get caught up with all the day-to-day activities - dealing with challenges, resolving problems, providing for your clients, etc.

And at some point, you bring your head up from being stuck in the weeds and putting out fires all day long and you realise that you are going in an unknown direction, or not the direction you were hoping for.

This is where I need to remind you that one of the essentials for business success is revisiting your strategy on a regular basis.

So what does that look like? First, you allocate some time every month or quarter to review your strategy. And then, each time you have that strategy review slot, you need to ask yourself several simple questions.

Let’s dive into those now. 

Q1: What is my long-term business vision?

So this is where you ask yourself where you’re going. What is your North Star? What’s the end goal for your business?

Asking yourself this question regularly will enable you to see whether anything has changed since you started your business. If it has, then you’ll need to reconsider your daily actions so that they’re aligned with the results you want to achieve. If it hasn’t, you’d simply double-check your actions in terms of whether they’re taking you towards that end goal of yours.

Q2: What legacy do I want to leave behind?

The answer to this question will tell you what the thing that drives you and your business is - the thing that fuels you to keep turning up every day. 

Establishing this kind of emotional connection with your business is what will ultimately help you keep moving and keep growing when tough times arise. It’s so much easier to do something when you’re driven, motivated and on a mission to achieve right!?

Q3: What’s my 5-year plan?

When you can answer this question, then congratulations, you know where you’re headed! And when you do, your decision-making process will be easier, and quicker.

You’ll have clarity about how many clients you roughly need so that you can generate the revenue you want for your biz. Hence, you’ll know how many more proposals you need to send within a month/quarter/year. You’ll also know what your team needs to look like so you are able to operate on that level. It brings so much clarity to the table.

OK, so that’s almost all of it. You’ve revisited your strategy i.e. your where and your why.

What I want you to do next, is to go back to your how. You can only plot out your ‘how to execute’ after you’ve got your strategy in place.

So, now you think about:

• The things that are working and that you’ll keep doing,
• The things that aren’t getting you results, which you’ll stop doing, and
• The things that you want to keep doing, but need to delegate.

Having this kind of process that you repeatedly do on a regular basis is the only way that you’ll keep focused and on track.

Remember: strategy comes first, execution comes second.

Josh 'Strategy is Key' Stone

PS: If you’re interested, here are 4 ways I can help you right now:

1. Join the Leaders In Engineering community designed specifically for leaders and business owners

It’s our Facebook community where leaders and business owners are learning the strategies and leadership skills to step up and thrive right now – Click Here to join 

2. Download our FREE PDF guide – “How To Build A High Performing & Highly Profitable Engineering Team”

Learn the skills to get the most out of the people around you. Build a high performing team that generates incredible profits and allows you to have more fun and to spend more time with the people you love – Click Here 

3. Book in a Catch Up

This session is designed for you and I to touch base, to get to know each other a little better and to really look at where you are now, where you want to be and then we’ll make a plan together for how to get you there! – Click Here 

4. Work With Us

Join our training program designed to help you focus on the core areas of growing your team, your business and yourself in the process. Together we'll work on winning work, business development & client relationships. We'll look at strategies for team performance, project performance as well as your leadership skills to motivate and get the most from the people around you. We'll also focus on your growth as a leader, effective delegation to those around you and only focusing on the strategic activities that move the needle and make the biggest difference. - Just send me an email at [email protected] with the word “PROGRAM” and I’ll get you some more information.