Your weekly email with quick, well researched and impactful advice; easily actionable tools and resources; helping you, as a deeply aware and conscious leader, business owner & entrepreneur; outwardly Live, Lead and do Business from a more meaningful and purposeful space.

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Good morning Reader

This week’s advice: Making Your Strategy, an Actionable Reality

How can you make your business, your department and or your team's strategy clear, transferable and translatable to all areas of your business, department each person in your team? By creating an Actionable Strategy. An Actionable Strategy, asks you to answer 5 questions. Take out a pen and paper:

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1️⃣ QUESTION 1: What is the Purpose of your business, team and or department? Why are you here? Why does your business, team and or department exist?

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2️⃣ QUESTION 2: What is the Vision of your business? That is, the long term goals? For your strategy to be actionable, it is important to translate the Vision into Long term goals. You do this by first of all enhancing this Question 2 to:

♻️ What do you Envision all aspects of your business, department and team to look like? That is, what are the long term goals for the finances, the sales, the marketing, the advertising, the personal, the operations and all other aspects that make the business.

♻️ Next step is to put dates against each of the long term goals. That is, what do you mean by Long-Term? is it in 2 years? Or 5 years? Or 10 years? Put a date to each of the goals you are focused on before moving to Question 3.

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3️⃣ QUESTION 3: Now that we know your long term goals + the timeline, the next question becomes, What are the actual Activities that we need to engage in, in each year, quarter, month, week or day, to be able to achieve each of these long term goals in x number of years. These are what we call Mission Activities. Answering this question in detail, gives you a 'To Do' list which has each activity matched with a deadline or timeline.

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4️⃣ QUESTION 4: What are your Values? That is, how are we going to embody them in all that we do? It is not about having the values printed and posted in your space, and or memorized, but actually embodying them. This speaks to the way that you do what you do. The way in which you do what you do, cultivates your culture, your character and personality of your Brand.

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5️⃣ QUESTION 5: How do I create a document that I can share with everyone, one that we can also use as a monitoring and evaluation + performance evaluation matrix? Put together an Implementation plan. This is how:

♻️ Create a table

♻️ List all the mission activities in Column 1.

♻️ Next to each mission activity, place the time that it is supposed to be completed by.

♻️ Next to each timeline, place the ideal resources needed to accomplish this task by this designated time.

♻️ Once you have the ideal resources, then list the resources you currently have, so you can at least start the activities. Note: The journey is to be resourceful with the resources you currently have. Instead of waiting until you have all the resources to begin. If you are to seek funding and support, or are needing to use your profit to re-finance your business, the gap you see between the ideal resources you need and the resources you currently have, will help you see what financial, talent, infrastructure etc...support you need as you go along.

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Making time to answer all the 5 questions above, creates an implementation plan, which over time, you can use as a real time monitoring and evaluation tool, an audit, pivot and growth tool for your organization.

Next is an example of how I used this process and gained from its benefits in a real life example. Before that, here is how I can support you as you work through your own:

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​Transitioning from an 8 to 5 full time job to Running your own Business​ 🌻This eBook provides you with a process to follow as you strategically prepare to transition from your own full time job to starting your own business. It is borne out of my own 12 month exit preparations from a full time job to running my own consultancy and business.

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​Consultation for your Small Business​ 🌻The Consultation Outcomes are: (i) Clarification of the business’ Purpose, Vision and Values (ii) Direction on how to expand your Purpose, Vision & Values into actual organizational activities, and (iii) Direction on creating an Implementation Plan. Click on the title above to begin.

​Consultation for your Medium Sized Business​ Does your business consists of 6-20 people, with an annual revenue base of up to 51-150k? If so, then this Consultation is for you. We will review and strengthen your current strategy, so you can start to roll it out seamlessly. Click on the title to begin.

​Large Organizations with +20 People​ In our work together, I will guide, support, and advise you in three key areas (i) Conscious Leadership Development & Coaching, (ii) People Management Skills & Employee Wellbeing, and (iii) Focused and Clear, Transparent & Actionable Strategies. Click on the title to learn more and connect.

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🔻 Real-Life Example

I used to work for Population Services International (PSI) as a Qualitative Research Expert. Research is my other love ❤️. One of the most successful things I did for myself and my team when I was there, was the ask the question:

1️⃣ Why are we here? And what is expected of us?

Our role was to carry out research studies that supported new and national public health programs and products; as well as to carry out monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for programs that were already in effect.

2️⃣ We knew the programs and products that were already running, making it easy to set up M&E activities over designated timelines specific to these programs. Most of the new programs, were established right at the beginning of the year, making it easy to also schedule most of them in, or at least leave room in the annual calendar for their inception.

3️⃣ Part of my role was as the 'communication bridge' between the research and program departments. It was important that we all worked in tangent with each other, so that we were all aligning to the organization's purpose.

4️⃣ Knowing the research, monitoring and evaluation activities that needed to be carried out for the year and or quarter, made it easy to know what needed to be completed by when, by whom and with what resources.

I took out a manilla folder (I am a visual person), and I did the following: In column one, I listed all the studies to be completed in order of when they needed to be completed by. I double checked these dates with the program departments.

In column 2, I listed the expected dates of completion. In column 3, I placed the required resources + resources we currently had in column 4. In the resources section, this included the other people I needed to work with, from the department administrator, the leader as well as other qualitative researchers to achieve the designated activities.

5️⃣ I placed this large manilla document on the wall behind me, so that everyone who walked into the office could also clearly see what needed to be achieved by when, by whom and how. This process, made working together as a team and department - clear, focused, easily translatable and transferable to everyone involved.

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📚 Supporting Research

👋🏼 Over To You

Okay my friend, that's it for this week. Re-look at all the resources I placed above on how I can support you at whatever stage you and your business are at, that is, at the thinking and building stage (eBook), at the starting and growing phase (small business), and or at the transformation and accelerated growth phase (medium and large).

All the links provided will take you to more information as needed. Should you require more information and or have a quick question regarding the material, just HIT REPLY to this email and I will be waiting to support you further. I personally respond to all your emails. In the meantime, stay tuned for next week's tips and advice.

With loving kindness, grace and gratitude

Your Coach Barbara ✨​​​​