In their webcast last week, coaches Chris Cosper and Cathy McCullough shared the most common reason that CEOs fail to have successful annual planning sessions. In their preparation, they fail to consider the potential obstacles to success. They don’t ask what could potentially derail them or consider what (other than a list of Annual targets and priorities) they hope to get out of the investment of time with the team.
After looking at patterns from the hundreds of annual planning sessions our team has facilitated, Cathy and Chris identified three of the likely culprits that stand in the way of a great executive team annual planning session. Getting this session right is so important because it is the foundation for all of your quarterly plans and the weekly and daily execution for your whole company for the next year.
The way that our coaches help clients avoid these traps is by thorough preparation and what we refer to as a “SuperGreen” call to clarify the company’s unique situation and goals and look for blindspots that could get in the way during the session. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you prepare for annual planning to make sure that you’re not being blindsided by one of these 3 common issues that could stand in the way of a great session:
1. Unaddressed People Challenges
2. Significant or Hidden Barriers
3. Elephant in the Room is Ignored
If you are feeling stuck by any of these potential roadblocks, consider bringing in a facilitator to help you navigate the session successfully so you can still have a great session and a great year. For case studies on how our facilitators were able to head off each of these 3 reasons that annual planning can be derailed with our existing clients, please listen to the recording of our webcast.