You're halfway through the planning year. How are you progressing on your planned goals? Has anything slipped? Time to panic or celebrate? This month we'll look at how you've done executing your strategic plan, and what you can do if things aren't unfolding the way you like.

Checklist: Halfway There or Halfway No Where?
Go get your plan. Dust it off if necessary. Look at the intended goals and milestones. How are you doing? What percentage rate of completion do you have on those deliverables? Did you set a tracking method or metric to benchmark progress?

Did you set up reminders along the way to jog you to check back in with that plan you worked so hard to create? (Note: Readers tell us that is what we're for, and what these newsletters do for them, which always makes us feel good, but feel free to take charge of your own destiny in addition to support from us.)

Here's a quick checklist to help you make sense of where you are:

1. Create a measurement and tracking mechanism of some kind that reminds you to check in on this plan. (Check out our scorecard.)
2. Make a copy of the goal sheet and write actual percentages of completion next to each.
3. To help you determine those percentages, take a look at the actual time line and divide it into a year as the 100% total.
4. It's okay to record a slipped goal in negative percentages. (It will irritate you and call attention to slipped dates instead of simply saying "Well, it was a 90 day goal, but that really turned into 180 days, so we'll call it 100% complete since the year isn't up.")
5. If all your time lines have slipped, please read the "Course Correction" article below.
6. If slipped dates are getting new dates, don't erase the old ones, record the new ones with the old ones. Then it becomes very easy to see how and where changes occurred.
7. If you're making steady progress, celebrate. (Really. Call attention to it and acknowledge it.)
8. If all your goals have changed, please read the "When Goals Change" article.
9. If you cannot find your strategic plan, subscribe to our software tool immediately.
10. Make note of added goals to the plan.
11. If you re-prioritize goals, don't erase the old numbers on the list, create a second column of the new priority so you can make note of what changed.
12. Pick the top five most important goals and focus on those for the next 90 days.

Course Correction
Don't let your strategic plan become a cliche like a New Year's Resolution. A plane does not take off from San Francisco and land in New York without constant course and heading corrections. Planes are "off course" nearly the whole time of the flight. You don't see the pilots crying about how "off course" they are and becoming so depressed by the process they just stop flying. Course correction is part of the job, and running your business is no different. Here are some tips to getting back on course.

• Determine where you're at.
• Determine where you intend to be.
• Still want to get there?
• Plot the best course from where you're at.
• Go. Take action.
• Repeat as often as necessary.

Destinations may change, routes of travel may change as you skirt "storms," but Points A and B must be on the map before you start drawing a line between them. Don't get caught up in any useless drama about being off course. It is wasted emotional energy that will drain the vitality you need to make the changes necessary.

However, pay close attention to when you're going out of your way. Log it. Pay attention to those "natural forces" that are getting you off track. To use the plane analogy a bit more, ... jet fuel is expensive. No matter what you do in your business consumes resources that cost you.

Being slightly off course and being way off course makes a huge difference in resource consumption. This is where management should take over for leadership. If you're constantly flying right into a headwind, it may be time to chart a different route that may not be so tough and "fuel consuming" as the one you're on. It is perfectly fine to look for more efficient ways to get to where you want to go, but if you're not logging progress and consumption in some way, ... how will you know it's "better," or if "better" even exists?

We'd love to know how you are doing. Drop us a line if you get the chance. See you next month!

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