Plan to succeed

The latest results of the ongoing 14 -year monitor of workplace trends, the Leadership Employment and Direction (L.E.A.D.) Survey, reveals a major discrepancy between business owners and managers, and their staff, when it comes to the crucial matter of having a clear business plan.

83% of leaders and managers claim to have a business plan for 2014, but only 66% of employees believe their organisation has a plan.

CEO of LMA, Andrew Henderson said it was disturbing to discover that while almost all leaders, managers and employees recognised a plan was essential to secure the future of their organisations, one third of employees believed their organisations had started the new work year without one.

“In these uncertain economic times, failing to plan is in effect planning to fail,” he said. “The plan starts with leaders clearly identifying the vision and plan, clearly communicating the goals, direction and vision and then having the confidence in themselves as well as gaining the confidence of their people to execute the plan.”

“Leaders have to ‘walk the talk’ with their plans,” Mr Henderson continued. “Planning contributes to growth and success, which is borne out in the survey’s correlation between organisational growth status and the presence of a plan.”

The results highlight the need for all businesses to make sure they have a solid plan in place for the year to come, and the plan is adequately communicated to everyone involved in the business.