Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and Gola gving.
Speaker 1: This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Speaker 1: Paul Fellavledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode five seventy four. January has a strange energy
Speaker 2: to it. Calendars flip in, boxes fill up, and suddenly
Speaker 2: everyone is talking about strategy, vision and big plans. And
Speaker 2: somewhere in that noise, leaders start feeling pressure to build
Speaker 2: the perfect business plan for this year. Fifty pages charts, forecasts, appendices,
Speaker 2: and a binder that looks impressive on a shelf but
Speaker 2: never gets opened again. Today, I want to give you
Speaker 2: something that actually works. A two page business plan, not
Speaker 2: a shortcut, not a watered down version, but a sharp,
Speaker 2: usable plan that you will actually read, revisit, and execute.
Speaker 2: I've written business plans in conference rooms and command posts
Speaker 2: and at my kitchen table late at night. The ones
Speaker 2: that failed all had one thing in common. They were
Speaker 2: too complicated to use when things got busy. The ones
Speaker 2: that worked were simple enough to guide decisions when pressure
Speaker 2: showed up. Think about the cockpit for a moment. Pilots
Speaker 2: do not rely on a three inch thick manual. During takeoff,
Speaker 2: they use a checklist short focused in design for real conditions.
Speaker 2: Your business plan should work in the same way. Page
Speaker 2: one is clarity. If you skip this page or rush it,
Speaker 2: the rest falls apart. At the top of page one
Speaker 2: is your mission, not a slogan, not a paragraph full
Speaker 2: of buzzwords. One clear sentence that answers why your organization
Speaker 2: exists in who it serves. If your team cannot repeat
Speaker 2: it without looking it up, it's not clear enough. Below
Speaker 2: that is your one year objective, not ten goals. One
Speaker 2: outcome that matters most this year revenue, target, service, expansion, stability,
Speaker 2: after growth, rebuilding, culture. Pick the hill that you're trying
Speaker 2: to take. Then list your top priorities. This is where
Speaker 2: leaders get uncomfortable because you only get a few lines.
Speaker 2: If everything is important, nothing is. These priorities should directly
Speaker 2: support that one year objective. If a task does not
Speaker 2: connect to them, it is a distraction. In finish page
Speaker 2: one with success metrics numbers, you will track monthly, simple, visible,
Speaker 2: and honest. If you don't measure it, then you're just guessing.
Speaker 2: Page two is execution, and this is where plans usually
Speaker 2: fall apart. Start with ownership. Every priority gets a name
Speaker 2: next to it, not a department, not a committee, a person.
Speaker 2: Leadership means someone owns the outcome. Next comes resources, time, money, equipment,
Speaker 2: or authority required. Writing this down forces you to confront
Speaker 2: reality instead of optimism, then risks. This is not pessimism,
Speaker 2: this is professionalism. What could derail this plan? Staffing, cash flow,
Speaker 2: regulation changes, burnout, market shifts. Name them early so they
Speaker 2: do not surprise you later. And finally, communication cadence. How
Speaker 2: often will this plan be reviewed? Monthly? Leadership meeting, quarterly reset,
Speaker 2: a weekly dashboard. A plan that has not talked about
Speaker 2: dies quietly. And that's it. Two pages. And here's the
Speaker 2: hard truth. The power of this plan is not in
Speaker 2: how smart it sounds. It's in how often it gets used.
Speaker 2: I've watched leaders spend weeks crafting a perfect document and
Speaker 2: then zero minutes executing it. I've also watched leaders scribble
Speaker 2: a tight plan like this and move an entire organization forward.
Speaker 2: This fits perfectly into a leadership reset. January is not
Speaker 2: about starting over, It's about getting aligned. A two page
Speaker 2: plan forces alignment, It exposes confusion, It creates focus, and
Speaker 2: if you want to level this up, do one more thing.
Speaker 2: Share it with your leadership team, your board, or your
Speaker 2: key people. Invite questions, Clarity, survive scrutiny, Confusion hides from it.
Speaker 2: Leadership is not about producing impressed of paperwork. It is
Speaker 2: about making clear decisions and following through. This plan gives
Speaker 2: you a compass and a clock, direction and urgency on
Speaker 2: paper that you can actually use. So before this week ends,
Speaker 2: sit down for seven focus minutes at a time and
Speaker 2: build upon this one page one day, page two the next.
Speaker 2: Then put it where you can see it. This is
Speaker 2: how plans stop being theory and start becoming results. So
Speaker 2: as you step into this new year, I want you
Speaker 2: to remember this. The best plan is the one that
Speaker 2: shows up in your daily decisions. Keep it clear, keep
Speaker 2: it visible, and keep it honest. That is leadership that works.
Speaker 2: And if you need help with any of this stuff.
Speaker 2: Paulfalavlido dot com click on free stuff. We have over
Speaker 2: twenty five free leadership documents in just about every category
Speaker 2: that you can download today that will help you in
Speaker 2: every way that you need in your leadership journey. This
Speaker 2: has been the seven minute Leadership Podcast and I thank
Speaker 2: you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul fell of Alito Podcasts. Visit paulfellowalito dot com.