Strategic Planning

A Strategic Plan is any process used to create a longer-term plan for the future success of your business. Having a strategic plan ensures your company is focused on the right things at the right time to achieve whatever goals necessary to make your future vision a reality.

 

Here are some of the key tools and services your SHE-Suite Integrator may provide to make sure your strategic plan is aligned to your future vision:

Build + Maintain Business Blueprint - 

The Business Blueprint is a requirement of working with a C-Suite Integrator. Your Blueprint is the roadmap your Integrator will use to not only determine if you are heading in the right direction, but to keep your focus and the focus of the team on the right things. 

 

Once the Business Blueprint is completed, your C-Suite Integrator will review this with you and your team on a quarterly basis and make any updates necessary. 

Annual + Quarterly Planning - 

Creating an annual or quarterly plan is not difficult. But it can be challenging to make sure you have the right actions and the right goals set to advance you towards your future vision. 

 

Your C-Suite Integrator will facilitate strategic planning with you and any members of your leadership team once each quarter. These quarterly planning sessions follow our Strategic Growth Planning process and include a review of your past performance, goal setting, and assignment of accountability. 

Annual / Quarterly Budget + Forecast - 

If we had a nickel for every time a client asked, “Can I afford to do this?” or when a team member asks “Is there a budget for this project?” we might have a nice little nest egg going. 

 

We realize that managing finances may not be super fun – especially for visionary types. And there is often a gap between what your accountant provides and what you really need to know about your financial performance. 

 

Your C-Suite Integrator will work with your bookkeeper, accountant, or CFO to devise a simple budget and a financial forecast that makes it easy for you to make decisions on your financial investment. 

Implement Quarterly Goals - 

In some cases, your C-Suite Integrator may take accountability for one or more of your quarterly goals. This means she would champion those particular goals and physically make sure it is achieved by deadline.

Accountability

If we could pinpoint one reason that goals don’t get met, it would overwhelmingly point to lack of accountability. Ensuring each team member knows exactly what role they play in achieving your future vision, visually tracking their progress, and ensuring that each task or goal has a clear owner makes a tremendous difference in performance. 

Regular team meetings - 

Your C-Suite Integrator will facilitate regular meetings with your leadership team. The purpose of these team meetings is to ensure that everyone stays focused and on the same page with regard to the quarterly goals. 

 

The unique structure and agenda of our team meetings keeps teams efficient and on track. The focus is on ensuring (through metrics) that the business is headed in the right direction, that team members are held accountable for their responsibilities, that everyone understands their piece of the puzzle, and that any issues or roadblocks are removed to keep moving forward. 

Performance Metrics - 

Performance Metrics are where you, as the visionary, can tell at a glance whether your company is headed in the right direction.

 

Your performance metrics will use a custom and unique combination of both “leading indicators” and “lagging indicators.” 

 

With leading indicators, the idea is to identify which actions in your business lead to positive outcomes. If we see that these actions are happening on a regular basis, we know that you are going places. 

 

On the flip side, we also help you look at past performance (lagging indicators) in order to make decisions about what you’d like to maintain or do differently. 

 

As with everything else we do, we make sure that each metric on your dashboard has a team member assigned for accountability.

Same Page Meetings - 

Your C-Suite Integrator is not an executive assistant or an order taker. Your SHE-Suite Integrator is a partner in your business. We excel at bringing teams together to execute on big ideas. Our role is to take the leading, managing, and holding people accountable off your plate to give you space to develop new ideas, solve big problems, and influence the culture of your brand. 

 

The way we stay connected to your vision is through regular same page meetings. In these meetings, the two of us can discuss issues, concerns, ideas, or disconnects to be sure we show up daily coming from the same place. 

Systems / processes

Part of empowering your employees or other team members and holding them accountable is to have clear systems and processes for major functions of the business. This might be customer service, fulfillment, marketing or technology. Not only does this create order from chaos, but it increases efficiency, reduces confusion and misunderstanding, and improves inter-team and cross-functional communication. 

Set up and maintain company dashboards - 

How much easier would it be for you to make decisions if you had one-click access to everything they need to know to understand what’s happening in your business at any given time?

 

Your C-Suite Integrator will set up a one-click Company Dashboard tool for you and your team to access the business strategy, budget, performance metrics, quarterly goals / priorities, and team tasks and workload. 

Project Management Coach - 

Efficiency and accountability are at their best when systems and processes are in place to make it easy for each person to see their tasks, priorities, and workflow. 

 

Your C-Suite Integrator can help set up a project management system for your teams and coach them how to use it to manage tasks, workflow, and accountability. 

 

Team building / management

Each person on your team understanding their role in the achievement of your vision is critical to your success. Not only does each function in your business require accountability, but each person needs to understand how their accountability is being measured. 

Right person / right seat - 

Your C-Suite Integrator uses a special process to analyze the functions required to keep your day-to-day business operating smoothly + achieve the quarterly goals. Do you have the right people sitting in the right seats? Through this process, it will be crystal clear where there are gaps on your team so you know exactly who you need to hire or fire next.  

Accountability charts - 

Having your team’s roles and responsibilities charted out by function not only helps you find the gaps in your team, but it keeps new and current team members accountable to their role in helping you reach your future vision. Your C-Suite Integrator helps you maintain your accountability chart so your team is clear on who does what.  

Hiring - 

When you and your C-Suite Integrator have identified a gap in your team and you are ready to hire, your Integrator can introduce you to outsourced recruiting assistance or we might review and provide input on any internally written job descriptions.