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What the advisors with whom we work struggle most with is creating and executing a plan that supports their objectives. They don’t lack great ideas, creative thinking or unfulfilled desires, but the actual steps to take – the work to be done and the assignment of who will do it – are often a big void.
The old adage “the longest journey begins with a single step” is accurate, but if you don’t have a roadmap, don’t know what the journey looks like, haven’t a clue what you need to bring, and don’t have a clear idea of how far you are from your destination, you’ll be walking in circles!
Advisors would never begin to invest a client’s money without understanding the client’s goals, objectives, limitations, and current situation, but often in their own business planning they move toward meeting business goals with no real plan for what will happen, first, last and in between. This final step in the S.H.I.F.T. Model for Success™ is where the map gets created that allows the advisor to clearly see what they need to do.
For those of you who have been following the series, you will recall that at the first stage you established a clear desired outcome of what you want to accomplish. At stage two, you identified the obstacles that have stood, or may stand, in your way and then categorized them into the things that you “can control,” “can’t control but can influence” and “can’t control.” At the next stage, I asked you to look at the human factor and consider the impact of your own emotions and biases, as well as those of other stakeholders involved in the process.
Most recently, at the fourth stage, you created a criteria list and identified the alternatives that might allow you to accomplish your desired outcome. At this final stage, you will review that list and, with an eye on each factor you’ve considered to date, decide which alternative you will choose. There may not be a single “right” answer; in fact there could be several ways to accomplish what you want to do. The important thing is to pick a path and an approach, so that you have something to focus on.
You now must create a clear outline of where you are going, what needs to happen at each step, who will do it, the expected budget for that step, the obstacles you might face at the step. You will also set deadlines.
When we think about the typical approach to getting things done, we think of “To-Do Lists.” If I ask a group of people to raise their hands if they make a “To-Do List,” more often than not everyone in the room raises their hands. We love our to-do’s, especially when we can cross an item off and say it is done!
