Planning is a key activity in any working group or organization, and it constitutes one of the principles of leadership. Once the task has been defined the first step in planning is to search for alternatives. More often than not this work is best done in consultation with others.
It is important to not only remain open, but indeed to actively encourage, new ideas or possibilities. You should aim to become a creative thinker yourself and learn how to simulate creative or innovative ideas in the group and in each individual.
No plan, however original, is perfect. always plan for foreseeable contingencies. Thus,
As a planner, you should be developing the necessary abilities for sharing decision making where feasible, creative imagination and foresight. To these should be added, of course, the necessary professional know. Ledge and technical skills required in your particular work.
Planning is the activity of bridging the gap mentally from where you and the group are now to where you want to be at some future moment in terms of accomplishing a task. The planning function is the response to the group’s need : “How are we going to achieve the task? But the “how” question soon leads you to ask also “who does what? And “when does it have to be done? “.
Usually if a plan proves to be inadequate, it is because either you as the leader or the group (or both) have not pressed home these questions until you have clear and define answers.
No one can ever make a perfect plan. You can not foresee every eventuality. Once thinking stops and committed action begins – the real “point-of-no-return” in decision making – there are bound to be some contingencies – things that happen by chance or through unforeseen causes which affect what you are doing. A good plan will make some provision for the contingent in human affairs.
Leadership Planning is essentially about devising a method for making or doing something or achieving an end. A leader without plans is not likely to be effective.
Nauka Shah, the author, is the founder of http://www.leadership-quality.com. A website dedicated to helping strategic leaders for his strategic leadership. She has written other leadership articles, press releases, leadership books, and has leadership videos on leadership development, motivation, self improvement, and organization development. Her mission is to help others all over the world succeed in their own business. To read more of her leadership articles and leadership tips visit her website at http://www.leadership-quality.com to learn how to develop leadership quality.
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