How to Set Business Goal and Strategize Your Actions?

By Yuri Amadin

Dealing and helping hundreds of business owners for the last 5 years really insisted me to see the bigger picture of things. Each industry is different and that in coaching and training them, I need to see the context of the problems and work with my clients to solve each of them to achieve their goals.

In this article, I want to share with you on how I investigated problems in the companies, getting clarity of both their current condition and their goal. From here, I will share with you on how I strategize actions to facilitate them in creating their business plan.

As a business coach, I had to face many problems from different industries. My professional and educational background many times are not the same with my clients;therefore, I had to work like a reporter where I had to play dumb and dig deep into heart of the matter. Now, this is a good idea, because I will not make any assumptions and be able to see the problem from different point of views, I can ask questions that have never been asked before, which will trigger fresh creative solutions to their problems. Another thing that I did was I shared solutions that I discovered from my other clients to that particular business. The goal here is to see and explore on whether we can use the solutions from other businesses and industry to be the new solution that can be implemented at that time.

Here are the steps to do it and as a business owner, manager or CEO, you can use the same format:

1. In the meeting, first you should start with what I called a WIFLE (What I Feel Like Expressing). Basically the goal here is for each member to spit out whats on their thoughts and feelings about anything, either business or personal. This way, by the time you start the meeting, everyone will be focus on the issue. Also important to, turn off the cellphone. Make sure the WIFLE for each person is not more than 2-3 minutes max. Moderator needs to jot down notes on WIFLE that is important to the issues.
2. Then, you should present the overview of whats the agenda of that meeting, ask for full participation and for each member to fully engaged on the issue. From here, you job is to ask an open ended questions to the audience and start listening well and jot down notes.
3. That first question job is to reveal the present situation that the business is currently experiencing. The situation should cover the outcome that the business is currently getting, the actions that are happening as well as the attitude of the people doing the business.
4. Once you have clarity on the present situation, then your next question is an open ended questions about what the desired situation that the business would like to have. It’s important that the question is open ended and not close ended (yes and no answers). Open ended questios will force the members to elaborate the situation. Make notes and and repeat to them on what they say, to make sure that you get the information right.
5. Now that you have clarity on whats the present situation and the desired situation of the business. It is now time to explore your internal and external resources. You need to ask questions on what internal resources that the business currently have, that can be assets to be used to achieve the goal. Next question is about what external resources that business currently doesn’t have that the business need to have in order to achieve the goals. This external resources can be the need of new training to upgrade skills, new technology, new people, etc.
6. Once you jot down notes and have the inventory of both internal and external resources, next question is to ask about what attitude that are required to be implemented and enforced to make sure that the implementation of the plan can be executed perfectly. What systems that you can come up to make sure that every one is in the same page and will be congruent to the agreed attitude. What I usually did was to make sure that every one will call out one another if they violate the agreed attitude. Thats why leading by example and congruency is important here.
7. The last question is to explore what specific techniques and solution that you can brainstorm with the members of the team. Ask for 4 questions on this, what has been working in the past, what has not been working in the past, whats missing that made them not working and whats the next solution that is appropriate? Close your meeting with the WIFLE to get the feedback of the meeting and set dates to hold them accountable at the next meetings with right KPIs and Persons In charge.

There you have it, the context on how to set your goal and strategize your actions. Remember that the wrap up and actions plan of that meeting can be your business plan. Business plan can be broken down from yearly, quarterly, monthly, and weekly. This way your plan is always fresh and updated.

To get a tailor made solution for you, I invite you to request a 10 minute consultation with me via phone or Skype, by emailing Coach Yuri at bisnisgerilya@gmail.com with subject line ‘10 minute Consultation’.