The Blueprint

Step 4PLAN: Design Your Leadership Model

“All models are wrong but some are useful.”

—George Box, British statistician

Most leaders have a plan for the key business initiatives they want to accomplish: a plan for talent acquisition, a plan for business development, a plan for increasing sales, and so on. Of course they do. It’s common sense. You wouldn’t start a new company without a business plan. You’d be ill-advised to launch a product without a marketing plan. And you’d be hard-pressed to find an organization that doesn’t create three-year or five-year plans, as well as clearly articulated quarterly targets for what will be accomplished along the way. Planning is woven into the fabric of the corporate world (and into the academic, nonprofit, and civic landscapes) for a reason. To get things done, you need a path to follow.

But, despite the ubiquity of plans and planning in the business landscape, if you ask most leaders what their plan for advancing their own leadership is, they usually say, “Um, er, well, I don’t know.” Because they don’t have one. And they haven’t thought about creating a structured way to move their personal leadership forward, even though they’ve got a plan for everything else.

I’ve asked many leaders what their plan for elevating their leadership is and they often stutter and stumble to answer. I’m sympathetic. For most, it’s unchartered territory. ...