Executives execute. An executive position shows that one has had success of planning and acting, as knowledge without action tied to results is meaningless data. Once the executive has found out “What needs to be done?”, then one can start planning action steps. Coming up with an action plan is not just stating what the plan is, the more important steps are to ask questions that lead you to the proper answers.

“Does what I want to do fit within the organization’s culture and values?” “What results will show up in the short term and what results will show up in the long term?” “What are the deadlines and how much time will I have?” are all questions that can help guide to what actions should be in the action plan.

Following these steps does not guarantee an effective plan will be successful 100% of the time; however, not following these steps will render a decision wrong and ineffective. The goal is to eliminate any variables that can render any decision to be considered as weak or ill-guided.

Actions plans are sometimes written as commitments, when they should be intentions. I “will” do this and we “will” do that. Unfortunately, the business environment a corporation thrives in can change yearly and even quarterly. The plan needs to be revised often. New successes will create new opportunities and so will failures. Every action in the business can change the environment in the future. Following an action plan built last year that has not changed can result in your competitors being more effective by a plan that has adapted and been altered with the environment and the market.

There needs to be a feedback system in place for everyone to sit down and analyze the plan, halfway through and near the end of the plan. What are the successes? What are the failures? What can we do differently next time? The executive needs to find out what parts of the action plan are alive and which ones are not; integrating a checkup into an action plan helps tighten the plan further.

Once the action plan has had the right questions asked, written down in statements and the checkup systems are in place, the last piece of the action plan is the executive’s time management. One can’t manage time, but they can manage how they use their time. All actions need time to be carried out, and an executive’s time needs to be driven around the action plan. An executive that has no control of time allocation towards their project will not only drive up frustration with herself and the team, but the plan will fail because the right things are not getting done. Once failure is realized during one of the checkups, it is already too late and a new plan must be drafted.

In conclusion, asking questions, writing a plan, building a checkup system and managing time properly help create the backbone for a strong action plan. “What needs to be done?” drills down what action plans to begin, and the action plans then turn into action and the responsibility to execute.