Take Control of Your Career (and Life) with a Personal Strategic Plan

In order to remain relevant and continue to thrive in the future, smart clubs focus on the strategic planning process to pave the way for their members' futures and their future members. It isn't surprising then that boards are looking for GM/COOs who have strategic planning experience.

Do you have experience creating a strategic plan for your club? If so, great! If not, take some time to create a personal strategic plan—it's a great way to become familiar with the process and you may even accomplish some personal goals that move you ahead strategically in your career and your life

Finally, organizations create strategic plans for a greater ROI; your personal strategic plan will provide greater ROE (Return On Energy).

To create your own personal strategic plan, follow the same steps as a club follows:

• Develop a personal mission statement
• Perform a personal SWOT analysis
• Create a personal strategic plan

1. Develop a personal mission statement.

Do you have a personal mission statement? Is it written down? Do you see it every day? Yogi Berra stated, "You've got to be careful if you don't know where you are going because you might not get there."

Your personal mission statement is a written description of the person you intend to be. It is an official statement that guides you in identifying goals and providing a path. It also makes decision making easier. This written statement should be placed in a location that you will see every day—just as clubs place mission statements in the board room. If you are looking for your next career move, a great location for your mission statement is at the top of your resume (instead of an objective).

Your personal mission statement should describe where you want to go, is achievable, and should last a decade to allow time for success. The mission statement should be written in first person, present tense. For example, my personal mission statement is "I use my technical skills, facilitation experience, and interpersonal relationships to promote quality of business and quality of life." Notice that "I" is first person, and "use" and "promote" are present tense.

2. Perform a personal SWOT analysis.

Once you have developed your personal mission statement, the next step is to perform a personal SWOT analysis—another process that is used in club boardrooms. Use the SWOT analysis process to identify your Strengths and Weaknesses (which are internal); and Opportunities and Threats (which are external).

There are several great books available and information online to help you identify your strengths including a book originally published in 2001 but is still relevant today: Now, Discover Your Strengths by Buckingham and Clifton. Focusing on your strengths is truly where your greatest growth potential comes from, enhancing what you already do well. It is important to know your weaknesses and address them by improving or finding others within the organization that have strengths to compensate your weaknesses, but your strengths are what set you apart.

After brainstorming and recruiting others who you trust to assist in this process you should have enough information about yourself and your environment to start writing a strategic plan.

3. Create a personal strategic plan.

A personal strategic plan is an evolving document on which you list your primary goals and objectives within a specified amount of time. Think of it as your action plan. Review the SWOT analysis and focus on your most important strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats; and then create your plan. A typical format and an example are shown below.

Your personal strategic plan is dynamic and should be reviewed and updated on at least an annual basis, though I recommend reviewing it every 90 days. Once you have completed a goal, don’t delete it from your strategic plan, copy it to a list of accomplishments. This can be useful to share during your annual performance review as well as list on your resume. Recruiters want to see accomplishments on your résumé, not just a job description.

If you are interested in using a strategic plan worksheet, just email a request to Lisa Carroll.

Yes, the exercise of creating a personal mission statement, performing a SWOT analysis, and developing a strategic plan will be an investment of your time, but it will pay off in return on that investment. You will have gained experience in the process, and you will take charge of your career and personal growth. Consider this Will Rogers quote: "Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."