August: Write the ”bones” of your business plan. While it is warm and the days are still long, spend some time in thought.  You are more likely to find a day or two now to plan than you are once school begins.  Sit outside and breathe some fresh air and think about what changes and improvements you are going to make.  Remember to add your personal life plans into your business picture.  All work and no play is unsustainable.

September: This is a great month for your strategic planning retreat.  This is the month you and your senior team get into the “nitty gritty” of what it will take to go to the next level, and set the metrics.  Remember to listen.  Listen in between the lines.  Be present to communication styles and to the “tone” and the energy of each person as they communicate with you and ech other.  Empower your leaders to make their plans in alignment with the company vision, and mission.

October-December: Ramp up.  The last quarter of the year is the best time to ramp up, if you have done your homework in August and September.  Don’t be caught around holiday time with people clueless about what they should be working on in 2012.  You and your team need to be ramping up to speed before the end of the year, so that in January, as your competitors are coming out of their holiday hangovers, you are full-speed ahead, because you have not bogged down and come to a halt during November and December.  (Notice what happens as soon as Halloween hits, and you will know exactly what I am talking about.  The path of least resistance is to start over-eating, over-drinking, over-doing, over-spending, and so on.)  This is a great time, and a great service to your employees, to bring on healthy new programs, and start envisioning 2012 with a “let’s start now” attitude.  This keeps your team engaged and excited throughout the holidays. It essentially gives them an extra quarter to accomplish their 2012 goals!  

Why not give your team a 15 month year to make it one for the records, and start your plan now, intead of waiting?! 

Tags: 2012, Best Practices, Business Plan, Business Planning, Employee Engagement, exectuive performance coach, Executive Coach, executive coaching, Goal Setting, Strategic Plan, SUstainable Business Practices

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 14th, 2011 at 3:55 pm and is filed under Best Practices, Engagement, Executive Coach, Executive Performance Coach, Executive pERFORMANCE cOACHING, Ideas, Inspiration, Leadership, Leadership Development, Management Consulting, Productivity, Teamwork, Uncategorized, executive coaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.