The Inner Biz Leader(TM) Virtual Business Planning Retreat

Our second section, and the first hour of the retreat, focuses on developing your vision for the next year.

This lecture invites you to start developing your vision for the next year, and poses you with some questions to consider as a leader or business owner.

You will want to download the separate Creating Your Vision Worksheet which will be the first activity for this hour.

For those that are more auditory in learning, you may wish to download the separate Audio on Vision.

This lecture includes some resources you may be interested in further referring to around vision.

This module is an individual exercise geared to support you in reflecting, thinking, and writing, about your vision for the next 12 months.

Creating a powerful vision is a central part of business success. In this module you will start to explore what your vision is for the next year.As you listen to the audio you may want to take some notes about your own vision for the coming year.

This is an At the Desk Video where I walk you through three ways to continue to expand, and deepen, your vision for the coming year.

Now that you have an initial vision, you will be invited to further refine this by creating a Vision Timeline and an Activity Roadmap for the next year. This video takes you through the next two activities in this hour.

In this lesson, you will be building onto the vision you have just created by identifying key activities in your Vision Timeline or Vision Roadmap.

What are the activities, tasks and actions which will support you in moving from A to B?

This lesson has you focus in on the Activity Roadmap(TM). You will take the activities you have identified in your Vision Timeline and put them into a framework of monthly activities. You will create clarity around you key business goals and activities every month, along with additional details and resources required. There is space on the Activity Roadmap(TM) for you to track your results as you move through the year.

This section looks at the heart of the business planning process - goals and resourcing. The first module in this section takes a look at where we are going in the next hour.

You will want to download the Top Five Goals Worksheet and also listen into the Audio - Prioritizing Your Goals.

By the end of part 1 you will have identified your top five goals which you want to place attention around this year.

This audio provides you with some questions to reflect on as you consider how to prioritize your top 3-5 goals for the coming year.

Part 2 of our Goals Section, takes a look at the SMART-E framework for goal setting. Now that you have your top five goals for this coming year (or 3 years, 5 years, 10 years), you are invited to further refine these into SMART-E Goals.

You will want to download the SMART-E Goal Worksheet and use these five pages to draft out your SMART-E Goals for the year.

By the end of part 2 you will have five SMART-E goals that are specific, measurable, realistic, timebound and EXCITING for the coming year.

Building onto the top five SMART-E goals you have created, this module explores the One Page Plan, getting you to create this one pager, that is at the heart of any planning process. This module is accompanied by the One Page downloadable plan.

By the end of this module you will have started to complete your One Page Plan.

The one page plan is the most central document for the retreat. It captures, on one page, your top 5 goals for the year. Throughout the program we will be building upon this.

This lecture, part 4 of the goals section, turns your attention to WHO can help you in reaching your goals. Partnering and Collaboration are critical to success for business owners and leaders today. The video provides you with several questions to consider as you think about upcoming partnerships for the next year.

Your activity is also to make a list of the Top 20 people who will support you as you execute your plan.

You may also want to listen to the accompanying Partnering and Collaboration audio which also includes these questions.

By the end of part 4 Goals you will have identified your Top 20 Contacts, and top three relationships you want to place attention around this year.

This retreat activity is geared to get you thinking about, and identifying, twenty people who can support you in moving towards your Top Five Goals for the next year.

This audio covers a number of questions as you consider partnering and collaboration, two area critical to success for business owners and leaders today. It will support you in creating your Top 20 list of key relationships for the coming year.

Part 5 of the goals section turns your attention to WHAT do you need to be successful this coming year. Your activity is to add on resources you require to your One Page plan.

This lecture wraps up our look at goals and provides you with one more opportunity to refine your One Page Plan.

A short introduction to the Strengths section with Jenn.

In Section 5, we turn our attention to your "Inner Business Leadership", your own leadership foundations. This is the first of four sections that focus on yourself as a leader or business owner.

The What Make You Unique lecture explores what Strengths are, and why they are important in today's business context.

The activity this hour provides you with the opportunity to discover, or revisit, your strengths as a leader or business owner. You are invited to undertake the StrengthsFinder 2.0 (book needed), Entrepreneurial StrengthsFinder (book needed) or the VIA Strengths Profile (online).

By the end of this section, you will have a much clearer sense of what your strengths are.

Another downloadable resource in this section is a Baker's Dozen Plus Leadership Books (15 in total) which you may find interesting for your own personal and professional development. We touch on many of these throughout the retreat.

A short introduction with Jennifer to the Values section.

The second part of our look at your Inner Biz Leadership is the focus around Values. In this section you will be exploring your own individual values.

As leaders and business owners we operate in organizational contexts. As important as it is to know our own personal values, we also need to consider the organizational values which exist, as well as team values.

This lecture explores organizational and team values and you are invited to reflect on what these are in your context, and how aligned they are with your individual values. You will build onto the Values Worksheet started in part 1.

This worksheet gets you thinking about your organizational, team and individual values. It also includes an individual values exercise to support you in getting clear about your top five values and how you are leading from them in your work.

The SWOT is a traditional strategic planning tool which can provide us with important insights around our internal Strengths and Weaknesses as well as our external opportunities and threats. In this section you will have the opportunity to explore these four areas.

You will also want to download the SWOT Worksheet.

The SWOT will be incorporated into our next Section - the Ecosystem.

This worksheet is the focus of this next section as you explore your internal and external terrain. We will be building upon this in the next section - Your Unique Ecosystem.

This section explores the Ecosystem, bringing together our strengths, values and what we take a "stand" for as leaders.

The section is divided into two parts - the first part looking at these first three areas.

You will need to download the Ecosystem Worksheet for your activity this hour.

This worksheet accompanies the Inner Biz Leader Section 8 Bringing It All Together: Your Unique Ecosystem. You will use it for parts 1 and 2 of the section.

This section further looks at defining your ecosystem, focusing in on the opportunities that are ahead of you this year.

In section 9 we turn our attention towards getting into action. This is broken down into four lectures and focus areas:

• Focus
• Experimentation
• Momentum and
• Celebration

You will want to download the Getting Into Action worksheet for this section.

Managing Interruptions are a key challenge for leaders and business owners today and get in the way of focus. This audio explores several strategies for managing interruptions.

Delegating effectively is one of the major areas new business owners and leaders struggle with. It is a major focus point of the work I undertake with leaders. In this audio I share several tips around delegating effectively.

Experimentation is key in getting into action. This lecture provides you with some questions to consider as you move forward with your plan.

Creating Momentum is a key part of getting into action. This lecture poses several quesions for you to consider as you start moving into action with your plans.

How do you want to celebrate as you hit milestones along the way?

You did it! After hours of focus and reflection it is time to wrap up the retreat.