Planning for Success: A Guide to Strategic, Annual, and Quarterly Planning

Mary Skop (00:01.452)
Welcome back to Confessions of a Terrible Leader. I am your friendly neighborhood podcast producer, Mary Skop here with our fearless leader today, Layci Nelson, president, founder, all the things of Transcend Leadership Collective. Layci once again, welcome back to your very own show.

Layci Nelson (00:19.637)
Thank you, Mary, thank you. Feels good to be back. Feels good to be here.

Mary Skop (00:24.832)
Excellent. So today we have entered a very special season, a very special time of year, known around here as planning season, also known around here as it's time for SQA, which stands for strategic planning, quarterly planning, and annual planning. Each of these does indeed present a unique component of planning. So we're just going to do rapid fire here. Layci.

Layci Nelson (00:45.599)
Yes.

Mary Skop (00:53.24)
tell us a little bit about each component and let's go ahead and start with strategic planning. What is it? What's the scope? What can we expect when we enter into strategic planning?

Layci Nelson (01:04.577)
Absolutely. Okay. Well, strategic planning is the starting point. So when an organization says, we want you to come in and work with us to facilitate our annual planning session or help us to clarify priorities or the first thing I'm going to say is when's the last time you updated your strategic plan and can I see it? And so that is the starting clarification point.

Mary Skop (01:26.158)
Hmm.

Layci Nelson (01:31.905)
because you cannot plan around something that you, when you haven't done the work to get all of the ducks in a row, everybody aligned, what that strategic plan does is it re, it creates, we just have a one, literally your strategic plan is on like a one page document when we're done, because those big 40 page plans.

Mary Skop (01:51.246)
Mm.

Layci Nelson (01:56.523)
First of all, I really don't think they're relevant anymore because things change so fast. So that if you are laying out this big elaborate tenure exactly how we're gonna get their plan, it's actually not serving you or your people very well because it's going, those steps are likely gonna be obsolete within two years of forming the plan because of how fast everything changes and technology, right?

Mary Skop (02:20.462)
Sure. Yes. Yes.

Layci Nelson (02:24.787)
Okay, so that said, what do we do with this? What's on this one pager? It actually is the, we call it the true north for the north star, the guiding star for your organization. So on there are your core values. On there is the, we take you through a process of identifying core values and making sure if you have them, we litmus test them through a couple exercises, making sure that they're relevant, that they're real, that they're not.

simply aspirational or pay to play. Like you feel like you're supposed to have them, but they're actually true and unique to the organization and they're authentic. So we run through that. Then we do kind of an inverse look at what is your mission and vision. And we ask it in a different way. We ask, what is it that you do and how do you deliver that or how do you do it?

And it facilitates a discussion again, the whole leadership team is involved with this process. So it really makes sure that everyone has an aligned in-depth understanding of what the core delivery, what the core services, what are you all about? It sounds like upfront, that should be simple, but actually we oftentimes end up spending some time here with organizations to make sure that everyone on the leadership team is fully aligned.

Mary Skop (03:50.166)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Layci Nelson (03:50.427)
with what they're doing and how the service is delivered. We may say here at Transcend, I mean, we help people with leadership and communication, but that is not what it says on our plan. It's much more articulated with how we do it, what are the methodologies, and it also gets, begins to remind us all of the why as well. So we go through that process. And then we do do some long-term vision casting.

Mary Skop (04:12.49)
Yeah.

Layci Nelson (04:20.799)
because that is important, but it's not where we want, we're not gonna work out tons of detail in that. We're gonna pick a timeframe, usually no more than 10 years out, especially right now. Although we do have some unique cases. We had one organization that planned for the next hundred years. They had a reason for it. Yeah, but.

Mary Skop (04:42.018)
That sure, that's amazing.

Layci Nelson (04:43.861)
They cast that vision and it was all about a belief in their methodology that was so firm that they wanted it to exist in a hundred years, right? So that was pretty bold. Right? It was great. It was great. They actually rallied, it was a nonprofit. They rallied around it. They were really all for it. But this, most organizations pick about a, you know, a 10 year frame. And then you set,

Mary Skop (04:49.879)
for 100 years. Okay. Wow. Lord grant me that confidence. Sorry. Continue.

I love it.

Layci Nelson (05:12.013)
a what is it that is going to really set you on this, it should feel like slightly terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time when you say it out loud. It should be a bit audacious, absolutely. And it is this goal around the impact that you wanna have as an organization. For some people, it's a number like people served or

Mary Skop (05:20.955)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Layci Nelson (05:40.897)
For some people, it's a bottom line. Like we're really hitting a goal to get to this amount of revenue in alignment with what they've just stated above, right? And so first, there's no wrong one. The key is to get to the one that resonates with everyone that is part of that leadership team, because you all have to stand behind it when you leave the room.

Mary Skop (05:51.832)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Skop (05:59.534)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Skop (06:05.324)
Mm-hmm.

Layci Nelson (06:05.449)
And so it's really getting to what is this long-term vision. And it also is going to shape all of the things I just talked about, what you say yes to and what you say no to. Because really a healthy, thriving organization that begins to suffer typically doesn't suffer because of starvation, but indigestion. Meaning they're saying yes to everything. And that's that.

Mary Skop (06:26.719)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Layci Nelson (06:32.425)
You can't say yes to everything because with every yes, there's a no for opportunity cost, right? So it's getting extreme clarity on what are the right things to say yes to, what are the right things to say no to, to move us closer to where we wanna go. And if organizations, if everyone in the leadership team isn't unified, there's no way that people out in the rest of the organization can speak to that.

Mary Skop (06:37.024)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Mary Skop (06:50.712)
Sure.

Layci Nelson (07:02.265)
One of the things that a strategic plan does extremely well is it brings to the surface and smokes out right away where you have a lack of clarity. And any organization, if we were to walk into an organization and ask three people on the floor, are your organization's main priorities this year? Almost every organization is

Mary Skop (07:14.67)
Mm.

Layci Nelson (07:29.931)
they're not gonna be alive. The people aren't gonna have the same answers. And what this does is it gets everybody rowing in the same direction with the same language, with the same way of understanding what a win looks like and how do you know? How do you know if you hit your goal? Measurability is also important. So that is, we then also ask or we take everybody through on the leadership team this process of what makes you unique? What makes you stand out?

Mary Skop (07:32.704)
Yeah, yeah.

Mary Skop (07:40.898)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Skop (07:57.966)
you

Layci Nelson (07:59.675)
And if you're an organization that is a service-based organization and you say customer service, I'm gonna say, no, everybody says that, tell me more. Like what about your customer service? So it's digging really deep into those layers of, so for example, our response, Mary, you are part of this beautiful, brilliant, what makes us unique.

Mary Skop (08:10.028)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mary Skop (08:16.685)
Yeah.

Mary Skop (08:26.19)
you

Layci Nelson (08:26.241)
As we were working through our own planning process, we really do value. We have white glove customer service, and we deliver an excellent product. When we show up and train, we have a requirement for, we track every single week what our average workshop rating is, and then we know if it falls below a certain level, we've

Mary Skop (08:36.963)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Skop (08:50.424)
Mm-hmm.

Layci Nelson (08:54.207)
We need to immediately address it. Well, how do we, so we started digging into how do we have those high numbers? What makes us, because we get great scores, we wanna continue to do that. What keeps us high? Engaged people are people that are learning and applying. And we recognized one of the things that makes us unique is, as you put it in your beautiful artful way, we break the fourth wall.

Mary Skop (08:56.482)
Right.

Mary Skop (09:02.69)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Skop (09:19.315)
Yeah.

Layci Nelson (09:22.047)
That is a really, that goes a lot deeper than saying, well, we always are providing engaging training or we have white glove customer service. So anyone familiar with.

Mary Skop (09:30.691)
Mm-hmm.

Layci Nelson (09:38.983)
the theater world or performance world, breaking the fourth wall. Mary, I've been talking nonstop. What's breaking the fourth wall?

Mary Skop (09:49.606)
Sure. So yes, it is helpful if you are, if you have some familiarity with the theater, music, any arts performance world. But breaking the fourth wall is really describing that magical moment when the performer is so deeply engaged and so just, guess you could say so incredibly aligned and in the zone, all of those things so focused in expressing the work that

It's like whatever barrier, whatever imaginary barrier there is between the performer and the audience, that's broken. And it's like the audience becomes a part of the performance. They are a participant. And it's just one of the most like vibrant, alive feelings like you could experience.

Layci Nelson (10:37.921)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Skop (10:38.024)
instead of feeling like, I'm just here sitting here, just passively taking in information. Something special happens that fourth wall gets broken. You become a part of it.

Layci Nelson (10:50.891)
That is what we shoot for every single time. So that is a very vibrant way to explain what sets us apart, what makes us unique. Now, the other thing we need to say is that this strategic plan is not public facing. So you're not creating a document that the whole world needs to understand. You are creating a document that your team needs to be bought into. You understand, and it guides your work.

Mary Skop (10:52.64)
Yes.

Layci Nelson (11:20.693)
I mean, we probably talk about ours more than most people because, well, it's part of what we do and I don't talk about our clients' strategic plans because that's confidential. and all that. And so another example of really thinking it through and getting a layer deeper as you're building your strategic plan and what sets you apart, what makes you unique, what do you say yes to, what do you say no to?

Mary Skop (11:28.152)
Yes. Privacy and all that. Yes.

Layci Nelson (11:46.721)
Another piece is, I mean, we could say something like, write, we always incorporate cutting edge methodologies and we stay up to date. We do all those things. We capture that actually in part of our 10 year vision explanation. But we go a step further in that, in really linking it to our, what are we all about foundationally, the why. We, every piece of curriculum that we write,

Mary Skop (11:59.214)
You

Mary Skop (12:02.594)
Mm-hmm.

Layci Nelson (12:15.701)
that we create, co-create with organizations, we are guiding it through the perspective and the lens of what impact is it going to have on the everyday work life of the least influential employee in the company. And that goes a long way towards avoiding some of the, or at least bringing hyper awareness to some of the unhealthy patterns.

Mary Skop (12:31.693)
Mm-hmm.

Layci Nelson (12:44.349)
that can happen in an organization where the people that work the front lines or boots on the ground feel like they're, what are they even doing? Does anyone even care I work here? So all that to say, we love strategic planning because it sets the direction for the organization. It sets you on your way to the true north. And then we take it a step.

Mary Skop (12:44.44)
Mm-hmm.

Layci Nelson (13:11.413)
further with the implementation process, which starts to get into the annual planning and the next phase.

Mary Skop (13:16.088)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Skop (13:19.692)
Yes, exactly. So, so everything you're describing is it's all about laying down a incredibly strong and clear foundation for any organization. And if they don't have that, it doesn't really make.

Layci Nelson (13:32.193)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Skop (13:36.882)
moving into something like quarterly or annual planning, it doesn't really make that accessible. Like you have to have those foundational elements in place. So let's say I've got my foundational elements in place, we've done the strategic planning, I am ready to move into quarterly slash annual. So can you sum that up for us, please?

Layci Nelson (13:54.369)
Excellent. Well, I sure can. So when we do strategic planning with an organization for the first time, they actually also get an annual plan at the end of the process. So we take it to, we don't just say, here's your strategic plan by, we say, here's the strategic plan you've co-created and we're actually going to leave by the time we're done, you're gonna have an annual plan that you're gonna start working towards.

Mary Skop (14:07.478)
Nice.

Right.

Layci Nelson (14:23.329)
And then in that process of that annual plan, it's picking the most important goals for the year, making sure that they're in alignment with everything that you just laid out. And then it's getting a real firm, solid understanding of who's accountable to what. And every single piece of the plan has a name next to it of someone on that leadership team that isn't necessarily, they're not responsible for

Mary Skop (14:47.843)
Mm-hmm.

Layci Nelson (14:53.089)
doing all the work by all by themselves to drive that outcome. But what they are committing to is saying, I'm essentially going to be the project manager that doesn't let this drop. And if we do pause it, or we do decide we're going to go in a different direction, it's done with intention, not just what so often happens. we have this one initiative once and then we don't really know what happened. And that's not good for morale, by the way, that is really not good for morale for anyone. So

Mary Skop (15:10.03)
You

Mary Skop (15:17.09)
Right. No, no. Right.

Layci Nelson (15:22.593)
We set you up and then each department then will be encouraged, hey, take this to your teams and everyone on your team should have something that they know that they're contributing towards for the larger good. It gets the entire company into alignment and rowing in the same direction. And that annual plan, most leaders, when we walk into a leadership team and it's our first,

few sessions with them, getting to know them. They wildly overestimate, and I'm not, this isn't hyperbole, they wildly overestimate the amount of clarity that they're providing for their teams. They think everybody is on the same page. They think that everyone knows what the most important priorities are for the year.

Mary Skop (16:00.042)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mary Skop (16:07.33)
Yeah.

Layci Nelson (16:18.815)
But from experience, I can tell you that they oftentimes are not speaking a language that their people understand. And even around the table, when we start unpacking things, they're not in alignment. And so with that leadership team. So this is a really critical tool to get everybody on board with.

Mary Skop (16:32.428)
Mm-hmm.

Layci Nelson (16:40.971)
First of all, the buy-in factor, because you're co-creating this with the leadership team. If it's one person in a room by themselves and then they're dumping it on people, that is not the way to do effective planning. It just becomes this top-down, no one feels like they're actually part of it. It's just something that's done to them. And engagement and commitment is super low. And no wonder they don't remember anything. They weren't part of it, right?

Mary Skop (16:53.76)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Skop (17:06.198)
Right. Yeah.

Layci Nelson (17:09.445)
Once you get that annual plan in place, and we're setting revenue goals, we're doing the traditional stuff like revenue goals, profit margin goals, measurables, but we're also going, what are those priorities that you set up for the company? What are you going to do this year to move yourself in that direction? And how are you going to know it worked? So we get really granular, like brass tacks around how do we implement? And then there's tools we introduce, like we build out with the

Mary Skop (17:14.221)
Yeah.

Layci Nelson (17:38.303)
with the organization, you're gonna walk away with a scorecard so everybody knows every single week where you're at with those important metrics that how healthy are we or do we need to like have some intervention in an area before it's too late or before it's, you we can't turn it around. You're also gonna walk out with understanding what are the...

the ways that we're going to hold each other accountable in a way that feels very mutual, like mutual accountability, mutual transparency. And we introduce a goal tracker system and we introduce a, we really dive into the difference between a tactical and a strategic meeting. If you're having strategy meetings every week with your people, you're driving them nuts. You're not supposed to have weekly strategy meetings, but so often,

Mary Skop (18:23.808)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Skop (18:28.706)
No.

Mary Skop (18:32.288)
Right.

Layci Nelson (18:34.593)
Or what happens is you never differentiate between a strategic and a tactical meeting. And the meetings just feel really mushy. And people are like, why are we here? Every time we walk away with something different, we're supposed to be doing, this is so confusing. We really bring clarity to the process and give outlines of like, this is what you do when to avoid unintentionally. No one wakes up in the morning and is like,

Mary Skop (18:40.992)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Layci Nelson (19:02.485)
love to light money on fire today and confuse my team and tell them to focus on things that aren't what we really need to focus on. But we so often as leaders do that without taking the time, it's totally an accident, but we have to take the time to really work through what are the most important things and articulating it in a way that everybody in the whole organization is on.

Mary Skop (19:09.952)
Right. Yeah.

Mary Skop (19:17.56)
Yeah.

Layci Nelson (19:31.553)
board with it. So that happens in the strategic planning process. And then, like I said, when you hire us to strategically plan and when or if you do it for yourself, you shouldn't be done until you have your annual plan. Like take it through to that next step. Implementation is often where everything falls apart. And then then we have our regular cadences, right? You're having weekly tactical meetings where you're checking in.

Mary Skop (19:44.898)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mary Skop (19:51.48)
sure.

Mary Skop (19:57.038)
Mm-hmm.

Layci Nelson (19:59.945)
Your talk is very structured, walk you through how to do that. You're making sure it's the brass tacks. Are we getting stuff done? But you're not rehashing strategy in those meetings.

Mary Skop (20:06.093)
Yeah.

Mary Skop (20:09.933)
Right.

Layci Nelson (20:11.649)
and you keep them to a limited time. Strategy rehashing or development is once a quarter. And that's where we get into quarterly planning. So, all right, Mary, what has not been clear? I have been talking, talking, talking.

Mary Skop (20:19.821)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Skop (20:26.539)
No, I feel like we've done a good job extrapolating all the information of strategic versus annual versus quarterly. And, but really we can, we can reiterate that, you know, strategic lays all the foundations. And if you do your planning with transcend, we literally walk you through all of that there. You will leave with extreme clarity. You have your next steps.

You have all the things in order and we don't just like leave you. We check back in and, and of course, like how you choose to engage with us in the future is up to you. But if you are new to strategic planning or any of that, please feel free to reach out to us. and I will drop.

Layci Nelson (21:00.321)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Skop (21:13.758)
I can drop a scheduling link in the show notes. In fact, I will drop a scheduling link in the show notes. That's a promise. so if you have any, just if you're curious, just reach out. Don't leave planning to chance. Nothing's gonna, it's just, you're gonna be spinning your wheels. Nothing's gonna happen. And you deserve your big dreams to come true. So yes.

Layci Nelson (21:18.177)
Ha

Layci Nelson (21:36.097)
That's right, that's right. And ideally, you wanna have your strategic plan done before the first quarter of, or your annual plan before the first quarter. Now, organizations that are like, hey, we actually have all that stuff in line that you talked about in the strategic plan. Well, that's awesome. Then I'm just gonna read it over and then we can facilitate annual planning for you. Or maybe you have part of it, but you don't have all of it.

Mary Skop (21:46.668)
That would be great. Yes.

Mary Skop (21:59.31)
sure.

Layci Nelson (22:02.749)
So there is ways that we're not going to say you have to start completely over, chuck all the work you've done. It's let's look at what you have. Let's see where you have gaps. We'll fill those gaps and then we will work towards that a really awesome annual planning session. we all we so there's a lot of ways to I was going to say skin the cat, but that's so gross. What's another way to say that?

Mary Skop (22:06.732)
Right. Right.

Mary Skop (22:27.526)
It is, we can, offer a fully customizable experience. No cats involved. No, no harming of any cats in this process. That's for sure. yes, a completely customizable approach. so yeah, we can work with you wherever you are in the process. We'll get you to where you want to be. So yes.

Layci Nelson (22:34.719)
go, that's way better. No harming of any cats in this process.

Layci Nelson (22:52.959)
Yes. Yes. And it's for people that have never been through it and then experience it. Mary, if you could just speak to, so when you came on our team, this was new to you. This was not something that you had been through before. Can you just give from your perspective as someone who's a team member, what this whole

Mary Skop (23:07.821)
yeah. Nope.

Mary Skop (23:17.71)
Sure.

Layci Nelson (23:20.097)
process, the strategic, the annual, the quarterly, and then our weekly check-ins. How has that impacted you as a team member who's responsible for some pretty big outcomes on this team?

Mary Skop (23:32.782)
Yes, so my first experience with was a quarterly planning session when I first came aboard Transcend Leadership Collective and it is true that I had never experienced anything like that before. It's become something I've really learned to lean on.

it's, know, when we get to the end of a quarter, it's really not, even if you're really organized, it's not unusual to feel a little like I'm kind of floating in space when you get to the end of a quarter. so, knowing that there's always the quarterly planning session to look forward to, gives me a lot of. certainly confidence that we're going to have a great reset. We're going to really get back on track with,

Layci Nelson (24:03.585)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Skop (24:23.948)
refining the vision, the goals, our weekly planning, I'm sorry, not planning sessions, really, our weekly tactical, yeah, tacticals, those are also, those are not superfluous. Those are extremely important. We engage with the scorecard every single week, update all of our various deliverables. So I never feel like

Layci Nelson (24:33.611)
Tacticals.

Mary Skop (24:53.218)
There's something, well, let me restart that by saying I always have a direction and everybody on the team always has a direction. And that's just invaluable. Like less floating in space, the better. And annual, so because we do all these foundational things, by the time we come around to our annual meeting,

Layci Nelson (25:00.641)
Mm-hmm.

Layci Nelson (25:11.253)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mary Skop (25:20.874)
It is not overwhelming. doesn't feel like, gosh, here's the annual. It's going to take us 10 years. No, because we've already put in those, you know, foundational steps and annual is just, okay, let's revisit who we are. You know, we kind of come at it like big picture, just kind of refining that. So if you have all of those steps in place planning,

Layci Nelson (25:24.513)
Mm-hmm.

Layci Nelson (25:37.331)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Skop (25:47.732)
it can be very effective and it doesn't have to be overwhelming. And more importantly, it's not a waste of time. Because yeah, time is money. It really is. Yeah.

Layci Nelson (25:51.329)
Mm-hmm.

Layci Nelson (25:56.701)
Mm, yes. Yes, it is, literally. Literally. the... is excellent. I just love to let our clients know we implement all this in house. This isn't just something we teach and then we don't practice. I...

Mary Skop (26:19.475)
that would be so bad.

Layci Nelson (26:20.969)
It would be so bad. We run the organization. I run the organization this way. And I myself am included in the transparency of I've got numbers I'm accountable to and my whole team knows what they are. And that also, yes, also goes a long way for building trust and building that just sometimes you can feel as a leader of the organization, like no one...

Mary Skop (26:30.818)
Right. Yep, we do.

Layci Nelson (26:50.373)
even knows what I do. Like, do they think I'm just hanging out, you know, sipping my coffee and partying all day? or, and, and while it is true, no one will ever fully understand the seat until they're in it. It's kind of like having kids, right? Like you don't get it till you've had them, no matter how many books you read, no, no matter how many books you read, how many friends you've seen have kids, like you're just never ready. You don't know what it's like. Same thing for leading an organization.

Mary Skop (26:52.106)
Yeah.

Mary Skop (26:58.053)
Right.

Mary Skop (27:03.616)
Yeah. Yep. Nope. Nope. And having pets is not the same. Sorry. Nope. Yeah. No, you're never ready. Yeah. For sure. Right.

Layci Nelson (27:19.787)
However, it does really take a lot of the loneliness feeling out of it of being like, no one knows what I'm doing. so, yeah, I get rooted on just like I root them on and because I'm sharing. And so that is extremely valuable for all of us, for all of us. And it makes sure that it maintains alignment, right?

Mary Skop (27:31.151)
Isolation.

Mary Skop (27:37.901)
Yeah.

Mary Skop (27:43.608)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Layci Nelson (27:50.077)
Okay, we've talked a long time about this, Mary. We have, I could still keep going, but we don't wanna bore everyone. It's...

Mary Skop (27:51.79)
Yeah, about planning for sure. Well, I know. No, you've got yourselves a 101 in what we do for strategic quarterly and annual planning. so again, if you're curious, don't hesitate to reach out. Layci, I thank you for your time. Appreciate.

Layci Nelson (28:02.144)
Yes.

Layci Nelson (28:13.237)
Thank you.

Mary Skop (28:14.316)
you breaking it down for our wonderful listeners. And we appreciate you listeners very much. We're going to sign things off here. Feel free to leave us a review. It's very helpful if you leave us a review on iTunes. That's it. It really helps with the reach of the podcast, which we are delighted to deliver to you at no cost. And Layci, would you see us out with our beloved mantra?

Layci Nelson (28:36.129)
Yes.

Layci Nelson (28:41.309)
Absolutely. Until next time, go manage like a leader.