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(E18) Why leaders struggle with annual planning
Episode 18 • 29th April 2024 • Leaders with impact • Lee Griffith
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In this episode I’m exploring the challenges organisations can face when leaders can’t align personal and organisational priorities. I share the reasons why the annual planning process can feel like groundhog day. I discuss the problems caused by poor personal planning and what this means for your different stakeholders. And I share the three foundations all leaders need to have in place to deliver their plans with the right impact.

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Transcripts

Lee Griffith:

How are your leaders approaching the new

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financial year? Are they taking a hit and hope approach but like

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I play pool, or do they have a carefully considered plan with

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clear line of sight back to organizational strategy. I'm Lee

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Griffith, communication strategist, executive coach and

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all around champion of leaders who shun the old school

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stereotypes. I'm here to help you get clear on your strategy,

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implement some self leadership, and connect with those who serve

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through your communications. If you want to focus on the impact

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you're having as leader looking for a free consultation call

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with me, where we'll explore how you can fine tune your

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performance in order to deliver improved organizational results,

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visit Sundayskies.com. For details. In this episode, I'm

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exploring the challenges organizations can face when

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leaders can't align personal and organizational priorities. I

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share the reasons why the annual planning process can feel like

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Groundhog Day, I discussed the problems caused by poor personal

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planning and what this means your different stakeholders. And

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I share the free foundations all leaders need to have in place to

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deliver with the right impact. Enjoy. Today, I want to talk

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about how leaders plan for the year ahead. You might be saying

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it's April, why are we talking about this now, Lee, but a lot

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of organizations in the UK at least especially in the public

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sector, where I do a lot of work, have financial years that

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run from April to March. So we're starting a new financial

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year is a new operational Year, New Year for appraisals,

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training cycles. PDPs, all that jazz. It's a big old reset for

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an organization. And I'm gonna be honest with you, I quite like

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the fact that this happens in April. Firstly, who wants to be

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doing end of year accounts a new year planning in the run up to

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Christmas? You could only imagine the state of

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organizational plans once someone's had a few baby showers

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at the works party. And I bet you those plans would be way

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more fun. But you know who wants to juggle returns with gift

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wrapping. And sorry for those whose reality that actually is I

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do apologize and I do feel for you. Secondly, I see January

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March as like the warm up act for the year. We test a few

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those intentions, New Year's resolutions, whatever you call,

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see what lands see what doesn't land. We fully embrace a

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hibernation mode as winter takes hold. And then we emerge with

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the spring balloons in April ready to take on the air. And

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one of the things I've noticed over the years when I've worked

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in corporate and now talking to clients and friends and family,

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we get to this new financial year and suddenly go oh, what

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are we going to do? Let's be honest, the plumbing cycle is

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usually in our sake, excuse my French. It's like a weird game

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of Monopoly where you don't have the rules, the bank is a bit hit

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and miss. And you're just randomly throwing the dice

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hoping that you hit the right number. Now technically, it

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shouldn't be so hard because most organizations have spent

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loads of time and loads of energy developing an

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organizational strategy. That's the document that's going to

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transform your organization over the next 235 years. In theory,

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your annual plan is a year's delivery of that strategy at

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whatever stage of it you're in. But then organizations don't

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take into account the left field guidance or the changes to the

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external operating environment that has very little regard or

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knowledge of your strategy. They don't think of the internal

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shifts that have been happening over the past year past two

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years, which your strategy perhaps needs to reflect on and

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adapt to. And the third issue is the senior leadership team not

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having the time the space or sometimes the skills to

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translate the strategy into meaningful action. This is one

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of the biggest mistakes I see at this time of the year. And it's

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why I want to tackle it in this episode. Because whilst are it

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to say they have clarity around organizational strategy, maybe

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there has a plan on the page that's gone up around the

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organization. If we toilet doors got it, perhaps there's the

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headlines or straplines that are trotted out in all central

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communications and people can recite it whenever they're

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called upon to do. You might have all of that in place. But

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then what you find is there's normally a lack of clarity in

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the detail that sits beneath it. That translation of strategy

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into delivery through the lens of individual director

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contributions and so often This is because individual directors

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don't have a clear vision for themselves around what their

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teams need to do to deliver organizational strategy. And

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they struggle to connect back with the wider objectives and

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targets. And instead, they focus their annual plans around

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personal projects are priorities, which they magically

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might link to the organizational strategy. But in the main, they

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don't really allow in, and they're not pushing the

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organization at the pace that's required. And this causes big

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problems for organizations which I see time and time again. So

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directors and by default, their teams become overloaded with

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priorities with projects competing with organizational

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demands. Instead of providing clarity and providing a laser

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like focus on the few things that can be done well, and will

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deliver the big ask, you find that they don't have the

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resources that they're going to need to deliver that ask because

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they haven't properly considered and cost the work. And so it's

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too late down the line before they realize that a key priority

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isn't going to be delivered on time or budget, because it's

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never been worked through. And confusion starts to appear

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because there's leaders, they can't clearly and confidently

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communicate and manage people's expectations for the year ahead.

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What you find is with a combination of these problems, a

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knock on effect is created, which makes it much harder to

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recover from. If we think about it from different stakeholders

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point of view. If your executive team or individuals within it

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don't have that clarity to connect their priorities with

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organizational strategy, then the board isn't going to be

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bought in or they're not going to understand how the big

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organizational priorities are being met, which leads to

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challenging conversations, extra scrutiny, and a whole load more

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work to satisfy them. That instantly increases the pressure

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felt for Chief Exec downwards and can create quite a hostile

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environment in formal and informal board meetings, even

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got the team or the teams who report into that or those

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directors, they aren't going to be aligned in the actions that

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they should be taking. And you'll find that they're either

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focusing on the wrong things or feeling overwhelmed with too

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many confusing and conflicting demands. That builds resentment.

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It erodes trust in the executive team, and it has a ripple effect

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down into the organization. As they pass that pressure and pain

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on if you look at it from a system partners point of view,

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particularly in sectors where you need to work collaboratively

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with neighboring or complementary organizations,

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because you've got common aims and goals to serve a particular

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group or population of people, these partners

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will feel frustrated that work isn't joined up and that your

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organization isn't committed or focused enough. And that means

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you as an organization might get extra scrutiny or less support

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for the things that you need them for. And then as a peer

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group, if execs aren't clear in their personal vision and

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strategy and can't align it with organizational direction, then

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as an exec team, it's really hard to do that peer challenge,

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hold each other to account, you start to get me thinking instead

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of Team thinking, especially when it comes to self

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preservation with the board who are being more challenging of

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y'all. I had a conversation recently with a new director,

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who I'm going to call Dave, for the purposes of this podcast.

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And Dave felt he was failing in his role because he was

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struggling to get the board off his back about what was being

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done this year to improve performance and move them as an

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organization into the top percentile, which was a big

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strategic goal for them all. Dave also felt like he couldn't

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rely on his team. They weren't delivering. And he was having to

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do lots of hand holding instead of focusing on the big issues

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that only he could sort out which, ironically, if he was

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able to do would eventually help move the dial. So internal

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pressures from the board, chaos and confusion amongst the team,

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a lack of support from the rest of the Exec. He was feeling it

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from all sides to the extent that Dave was even taking all

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this pressure home with him. He was working late into the

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evening missing spending time with his family, not sleeping

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because the to do list was ever present. And he was waking up

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with things that you had to do emails he had send, which then

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didn't create the right conditions when he Get back into

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work the next day tired, irritated, frustrated, you see

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where I'm going with this? In the conversations I have with

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leaders around delivering organizational priorities,

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they'll often admit to not having a clear personal plan.

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Technically, yes, they've submitted something that looks

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like a plan. But it's probably as useful as an inflatable

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dartboard, because they haven't got the foundations in place.

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They don't have a clear vision or strategy for their area or

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areas of responsibility, which is aligned to deliver an

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organizational strategy. They don't have the right conditions

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of self leadership in place. They don't know what or how to

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manage themselves. And they haven't had the right

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conversations with colleagues and partners, and so don't

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understand the interdependencies at play and how that will impact

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on things. Now, you'd be forgiven for thinking that, as

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execs they have one job to do, which is to strategically lead

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the organization, and they're being paid big bucks to do that.

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So how on earth do we get into this annual planning malarkey?

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That goes so wrong for organizations? And how do they

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repeat these issues year on year, but actually, it's quite

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easy to see how this can happen. So think about it, how many

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directors that you know have been appointed primarily for

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their expert knowledge and skills. Yet, they're great at

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finance, HR, operations, whatever it might be, they've

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come up through that professional route with a very

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narrow focus. And, you know, that has absolutely allowed them

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to fly. They've been promoted and promoted because of those

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specialists knowledge and skills that they have. But it doesn't

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necessarily prepare them to represent a whole organization,

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which suddenly opens up like an umbrella. You've probably heard

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me say before, definitely, if you listen to the how to lead

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podcast, that exec recruitment still seems to value the

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specialist over the generalist. There's very few who test how

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someone is going to represent an organization, if they can

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translate organizational strategy. For example, I've been

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on stakeholder panels before recruiting execs and people have

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struggled with questions around how they'll take people with

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them. And yet they've still been hired because their specialist

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knowledge was exemplary. And I'm not going to tell you how those

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situations ended up. Nor would I start a conversation here about

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this being the reason why the same old faces are recruited

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time and time again, that isn't the time of lace, that might be

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another episode. And then we have my bugbear of the so called

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soft skills. And I have to say it like that, because I resent

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and detest that phrase. But I can't think of a suitable

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alternative. That doesn't sound like corporate BS. But I'm

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talking about relationship building communications,

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empathy, influence, being able to earn trust and build

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connection to mobilize hundreds, if not 1000s of people. It's not

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something you get taught in director induction. I mean, is

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there even a thing is Director induction? Or do people just do

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a whole load of meet and greets, again, another topic perhaps, is

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really vulnerable for someone to admit that they don't know how

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to do this stuff, especially when the weight of expectation

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is on new directors like Dave. And so these issues never really

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get tackled. They never learned the people skills, they're

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allowed to maintain more of a specialist focus instead of

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representing the organization as a whole. That gets dumped with

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the strategy with the Chief Exec. And it becomes this

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vicious cycle, where new directors become the old hats

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who have to show the way for others who joined the team. What

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are they actually teach in them? Bad practice perpetuates.

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Organizations need to look at how they're supporting and

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onboarding new execs and leaders through the lens of delivering

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their vision and strategy. But leaders need to take personal

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responsibility as well. And I'd say In summary, you always need

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to be reflecting, am I clear and providing clarity to others on

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how my personal strategy is delivering organizational

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priorities? Have I created the right conditions to lead well?

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And is my communications and engagement approach a helping or

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hindering hand at what I'm trying to achieve? These are the

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three foundations to impactful leadership, and will make the

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difference between success and failure. And without these

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foundations in place, it's really hard for leaders to take

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organizational priorities and strategy and translate it, to

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take their teams with them to understand how to focus on the

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things that matter most instead of pet projects. I'm pleased to

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report that Dave did the work. He booked on one to one

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intensive strategy day with me and followed up with some

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coaching. And bringing awareness to the challenges he was facing.

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He started to get this fresh clarity around his priorities,

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new messaging to communicate those with his board and his

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team, and a plan of action he could take forward that would

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enable him to show up at work and home in a way that didn't

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compromise who he was. I spoken to many leaders who feel stuck

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in situations like Dave's. And as I say, at this time of year,

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it can feel particularly hard to do that reset if the pressure is

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on to deliver plans when you can't see the wood for the

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trees. If it's something you're seen as a problem in your

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organization, let's have a chat about how I can support you.

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Visit Sundayskies.com to get in touch. If you enjoyed the

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episode, please leave a review on Apple podcasts and let me

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know what you thought on LinkedIn. You can find me at Lee

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Griffith. I'll be back with the next episode in two weeks time.

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So in the meantime, sign up to my newsletter at Sundayskies.com

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for monthly insights on how else you can lead with impact. Until

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next time.

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