Its that time of the year again where you have to start thinking about what you want to create for 2015 – its time to sit down and identify your objectives and goals- but where do you start from when there is so much you want to achieve?
An easy and very efficient model to use for your business plan for 2015 is the GROW model which stand for
- Goals
- Reality
- Options
- Way Forward
The GROW model for business is an easy yet powerful framework to use when putting together a business plan.
First – you have to start with the end in mind, your vision and your goals; this will help you build your map, to create the direction from where you are today to where you want to end up.
Okay then, lets begin!
Goals
A goal is what you agree to action. So… what is your goal that you are going to set for yourself? Start by making a list of your goals or wishes you have in mind for your business in 2015 to clearly establish your priorities.
- What would you like to accomplish?
- What would you like to see happen?
- How will you know when you have been successful with your goal?
- What does success look like? Or feel like?
- How important is it for you to achieve this business goal?
- Why do you want to achieve this business goal?
Once you have made your list, check it twice – are there any goals that stand out for you?
Once you have a very clear vision of what that looks like, you then have to assess the reality of your business goal, what are some of your limiting beliefs or habitual patterns that you find yourself repeating every year.
Focus on only one goal at a time, what I do is every year I set three big goals and create a plan for each one as to how I am going to achieve my goals, I create checkpoints for each one so that during the year I can check in to see how am I going and whether I am on track in achieving my goal. If not I reassess where I am at and what I need to do to catch up.
Reality
Once I am clear about my goals I examine the reality of achieving my goal to see if there is any resistance for me to achieve my goal. In this phase you will need to explore all of the challenges and roadblocks that present, this is the time that you spend some time to reflect and explore deeper to identify any potential blind spots. My trick is that I ask my co-workers for some feedback, three simple questions
- What am I doing very well?
- Where could I improve?
- If you were in my shoes how would you do it differently?
Reality is agreeing where you are now and what you have done to get there.
- What is or is not happening for you right now in your business?
- What opportunities must be addressed first?
- What obstacles have you faced?
- What prevents you from doing what you need to do?
- How has this situation affected your business?
- Why did you take that approach?
Options
Once I understand the reality of achieving my goals, and what are my obstacles I can start to work on the options, this is where my creativity kicks in as to the different ways I can explore action strategies on how to achieve my objectives. Identify how to overcome all of my possible obstacles. And… what support I require to assist me in achieving my business goals.
Options are all about the different ways you can reach your new goal you have agreed.
- What do you think about your options? Start listing your ideas.
- What is the best/worst thing about that option?
- If you didn’t have any restrictions or constraints what would you do?
- What other approaches might bring you success with this?
- What would your customer suggest?
- What other approaches might bring your success?
Way Forward
And… now for the final piece! This is where you identify the most important and specific steps you will take to achieve your objectives and write an action plan.
Way forward is all about ensuing you actually doing something or else your time and money has been wasted.
- When are you going to start?
- What actions are you going to take?
- Who will help you?
- How are you going to make sure you do it?
- On a scale of 1 – 10, how confident are you of achieving this?
- What could stop you moving forward? And how will you overcome it?
Commitment to yourself means staying loyal to what you said you were going to do and having a plan on how you are going to get to your destination will transform your vision/goal into reality!
