How to Use Corporate Secrets to Manage “You, Inc.”

“The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.” —Maureen Dowd, New York Times columnist

Big companies start out as small businesses; the most successful ones do all the right things that help them grow. When I was a junior trader on Wall Street, I learned a lot of those corporate “secrets” without realizing it. My five-year plan always got done in two years. At the time, I didn’t understand why; now I do. It was the “power” of planning, focus, and accountability.

There is a lot we can learn about guiding our careers from how companies operate. You can take the same strategies used to grow multi-billion dollar corporations and use them for the benefit of You, Inc. You are, after all, the owner of your own life, right? No matter whether you’re climbing the executive ladder or charting your personal life, here’s how to use some of these corporate secrets and strategies to plot your course forward (or upward, as the case may be!).

Here’s a simple look at five key strategic questions:
• Vision: What career are you growing?
• Mission: What’s the end result of this career?
• Goals – What results will you measure that define career success?
• Strategies – How will you grow your career?
• Plans – What is the work you have to do to reach your goals?

Your company probably uses a similar set of processes to achieve and monitor results and reach its long-term goals. The strategic questions we looked at above are adapted from the One Page Business & Performance Management System®, a resource used by executives and companies globally. You can use these questions to create a plan for your personal life, a five-year career plan, or to provide a framework around a team that you manage.

Why is it important? Well, consider this: If you don’t have your own vision, you may end up in someone else’s career! A common focus ensures that your staff knows what’s expected of them and that you’re all on the same page to meet objectives.

My experience as an executive and now coach is that too many people start their careers with a very loose plan for the future only to find – when they finally take some time to rest — that they are working at a company they don’t like, in a position they don’t fully enjoy. A 2007 survey by The Conference Board suggests that
Americans are growing increasingly unhappy with their jobs; less than half of those surveyed said they were satisfied with their jobs, down from 61 percent just twenty years ago.

Unfortunately, most folks don’t get the value of planning. Not the time savings, expense savings, nor the money-producing results of planning. Ultimately, “pain” is what leads someone to give into taking the time out to plan. When you don’t like the results you’re getting, it’s time to do what you’ve been putting off.

Here is a simple way to look at the planning process:
• Assess where you are right now.
• Create your plan.
• Execute what you created.
• Monitor what you create and tweak it where necessary.
• Create a “lessons learned” form for each completed action plan.

Planning doesn’t have to be a chore. In fact, it can be an adventure you take with your team. You can create a living breathing plan to help you keep focused on your goals and accountable to yourself (and others) on just one-page

Remember, you’re in charge of You, Inc., and really—who better to take charge?

©2009 Maria Marsala, Strategic Business Coach at Elevating Your Business. We provide insightful input to high-achieving women business owners get lasting results. Specializing in boosting the productivity, profitability and performance of their companies simpler, easier, and faster! Will you be next? Visit www.ElevatingYourBusiness.com today and take our free Business Tuneup.