Elevate Your Business Success Using The S.T.R.A.T.E.G.Y. Method
Before I left corporate to pursue my own consulting practice, I was responsible for the management and delivery of over 100 leadership development courses globally for The Boeing Company. That role taught me the importance of having a rock solid strategic plan, one that factored in the values of the organization, success metrics, a clear resource and personnel allocation plan, while ensuring that we would meet our goals.
The process I used then - The S.T.R.A.T.E.G.Y. method - is the same one I use for my own business and with my clients. In all the years I’ve used it, I’ve only made one change, and that’s to factor in my own life goals and ensure that the business I’ve built supports my one big life.
One of the hallmarks of a mature and thriving business is a well-defined and documented strategy that takes into account the impact you want to make in the world. As you’re reading this you may think that’s obvious, but according to a Bridges Business Consulting study, while 80% of leaders feel their company is good at crafting strategy, only 44% feel they’re good at implementation. Furthering the challenge, only 2% of leaders are confident they’ll achieve 80–100% of their strategic objectives.
To help simplify this process and give you a framework to reevaluate your strategy, I’m going to deep dive into the S.T.R.A.T.E.G.Y. method, my proven approach to ensure you have a clearly articulated strategy, an implementation that will actually work, and the tools to hold yourself accountable.
State of Your Business
Numbers and data provide valuable insights that guide necessary changes in your business. By taking the time to analyze your revenue sources, financial performance, and overall progress, you gain a clear understanding of where your business thrives and where improvements are needed. It’s also an invitation to reflect on what’s working for you, as the CEO, as well as your team. Much like the President of the United States gives an annual address to the nation, this is your opportunity to sit down and showcase the strengths, acknowledge the challenges, eliminate what’s not working, and identify a path forward.
It’s also your opportunity to see how any impact initiatives you’re working toward are coming along and where you can make the necessary adjustments to ensure you hit your big impact goals.
Thrive In Life
If you’re anything like me, you began your entrepreneurial journey to live life on your own terms. I wanted time freedom after spending years playing a constant game of Tetris with my family’s life. It was exhausting.
This part of the process is the one I added after I left corporate life for good. I didn’t want to play Tetris anymore, and this step is your chance to take stock of what has shifted in your life, what pressing needs exist that require your attention and/or resources, and ensure that the business you’re growing supports that.
The phrase work smarter, not harder often feels trite, but there’s a lot of truth in it. When we redefine success, understand what these big nebulous terms like freedom, flexibility, and fulfillment mean to us, and reconnect with our deeper motivations, we ensure the business is working FOR us, rather than us just being tetrominoes looking for the perfect fit.
Revisit Your Business Design
Over the years, I have witnessed many entrepreneurs experience burnout, and in truth, I’ve bumped up against it several times. Each time, it’s been an important opportunity to reevaluate my business model and the overall design of the business.
I often ask myself questions like:
Will these offers, at this price point, get me to my revenue goal?
At what cost? Think holistically here - time, energy, effort, and dollars.
Can I serve more people or make the impact I really want if something shifts?
Does the way I’m serving clients still feel good?
Of all the pieces of this puzzle, this is the one I think can have the most impact and create the most momentum as you drive your business forward.
Aim High
Setting ambitious goals is the jet fuel that propels the business. Over the last six months, you’ve seen me talk a lot about impact. I’d invite you to think big here. While revenue and profit objectives are important, they’re not the sole markers of success. The idea of the quadruple bottom line has been gaining popularity in recent years, and I think it gives us an excellent framework to think about how our businesses can be both profitable and purposeful. Here are the 4 parts:
Profit - these are your baseline metrics and profitability is essential to running a healthy business. In fact, if you’re not running a financially sustainable business, the other pieces won’t work well.
People - this is the approach your business takes when addressing social injustice, ethics, pay equality, discrimination… It’s the human side of the business.
Planet - the focus here is on environmental sustainability and decreasing our footprint on the earth.
Purpose - this is all about the motivation behind your business. How does your business actively seek to improve human lives and do good in the world?
Setting your business goals with this framework in mind creates a strong competitive advantage, especially when you’re authentic in your approach and transparent in your efforts.
Tailoring Your Marketing and Sales Strategies
Having big goals is great, but at the end of the day, we have to have effective marketing and sales strategies and practices in place if we want to get traction. This involves the constant evaluation and growth of your target market, cultivating relationships with your audience, converting prospects into paying clients without a bunch of garbage high-pressure sales, and delivering an exceptional customer experience.
How can you proactively break down your marketing and sales process into actionable steps, so you can consistently move people through your pipeline?
Engineering Weekly Plans
The planner in me thrives on actual plans. In order for me to effectively run my business, delegate to the team, and spend my time where it’s most needed, I need to reverse engineer my weekly plan from the larger initiatives.
I tend to operate on a 90 day cycle because it’s easier for me to break down those big goals into quarterly, monthly, and weekly focus areas. When I do that, it enables me to take consistent action without overwhelm. No longer do you have to start your week wondering, “What the heck do I need to do this week?” Your weekly plans are already in place to keep you on track
Get Moving
This is where the rubber meets the road. Everything up til now has been strategizing, aligning, and planning, but in order to avoid being part of the 44% I mentioned above, you have to take action.
Having an accountability partner, coach, and/or mentor (or all three!) provides the accountability you need to stay on track. Having weekly check-in dates and support from your inner circle and board of directors can significantly enhance your productivity and ensure you reach your goals.
Your CEO Time
I’m obsessed with CEO Time. This is a dedicated chunk of time on your calendar each week where you can truly take a step back from the doing and get a solid, strategic look at your business.
Having this time on my calendar every Monday morning has been transformational. I’m able to get the lay of the land, figure out if something’s not working before it becomes a problem, and course correct. It also gets me in the right headspace to show up boldly and with confidence, because it’s in this dedicated time block that I review my weekly plan, shift where needed, and then take purposeful action.
This process, from start to finish, takes time, but every second of it is worthwhile. It’s not something you have to do every week or month. I do a deep dive on my strategy at least twice a year, often just before the new year and in May/June.
If you’re not sure where to start, I’d love to chat. Don’t wait to get clear on your strategic plan, ensure your goals are purposeful and actionable, and have a business that allows you to make the impact you truly want!
