Influence and Impact

CHAPTER 7Build Your Personal Strategic Plan™: Set Your Course to Increased Influence and Impact

 

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

—Rumi

At an organizational level, future capability planning is a logical, essential step in a strategic planning process. Once an organization identifies the mission and the strategy it is going to pursue to be successful, it needs to figure out how to bridge the operational and organizational gaps between its aspirational objectives and current reality, as required by that strategy.

For you as an individual, Personal Strategic Planning (PSP) is about thinking through the critical changes to your priorities, tone, and behavior that you discovered to be misaligned in Part 2. You'll start by identifying your mission and values, and then move on to identify your strategic priorities. Finally, you will create a set of specific plans or initiatives to take on the work needed in the way needed, to increase your influence and impact.

Most people should have a Personal Strategic Plan. It sets the direction for career growth (or personal growth, in some cases). This is not an inflexible structure, however. One should always be flexible, particularly if interesting opportunities come along. But a plan is generally useful in keeping you on track under normal circumstances.

Michael Ignatieff ...