Your coaching clients need a strategic plan. And if they don’t have one, or if their plan is inadequate, you should begin each coaching engagement by developing one.
Why?
Because you and your coaching clients need a roadmap to help both of you know that you’re making progress.
Without one, you’ll be at the mercy of your clients’ subjective sense of how things are going; with one, you can return back to clearly defined metrics to remind both of you whether or not the relationship is working.
This is so critical that it’s standard-issue in every coaching client I engage with. In fact, it’s the very first thing we tackle together, a core component of my onboarding process.
Of course, a strategic plan is about more than just proving to your clients your worth. It’s vital to helping them achieve success in business. If they want to get anywhere, with or without you, they need one–and a good one!
What’s a Strategic Plan?
A strategic plan is an evolving, written document that sets forth the vision, mission, and values of a company; long- and short-range goals; and KPIs to measure progress so that the team moves together as one.
We use and recommend Verne Harnish’s 1-Page Strategic Plan (1PSP) as the basis for this work. (Be sure to read Harnish’s Mastering the Rockefeller Habits before you start implementing this tool.) This fantastic at-a-glance document will help you and your clients have an immediate sense of direction and purpose.
A strategic plan is an evolving, written document that sets forth the vision, mission, and values of a company; long- and short-range goals; and KPI's to measure progress so that the team moves together as one.
Create the Strategic Plan with Your Clients’ Teams
To implement, hold a day-long workshop with your coaching clients and their teams. Use this session to completely fill in the 1PSP. Review the 1PSP with them, define terms, facilitate a conversation around each point, then fill in the document.
Use the Strategic Plan in Your Coaching
With the 1PSP in hand, now you can execute on it by using its KPIs in your weekly coaching sessions. Make sure your coaching clients are on track to hit each of their targets. Celebrate their accomplishments. Hold them accountable for any failures. Reflect, re-work, and re-tool as necessary.
Do a two- to four-hour session quarterly with your client and their core leadership team, just to check and make sure all the basics are still the same. Update as required — though often, if you’ve done your job right, these sessions are exciting opportunities for everyone to reflect on how far they’ve come with the help of your coaching!
Strategic planning is the backbone of any successful business. Be sure to utilize it in your coaching!
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