Write Down a Great Plan for Your Team
Leadership
February 7, 2018
Julie Peterson
Topics
Actions, Leadership, Management, strategic planning, TeamworkStrategic planning is one of the main elements of successful leadership. A great leader has organizational skills that enable them to predict all the things their business can do and narrow down big goals to achievable milestones.
But how do you write a great plan for your team? It’s easy when you do it for yourself – you just write the goals and steps towards them, and you understand why and how you need to accomplish. When writing for other people, things are a bit more complex.
We’ll lead you through specific steps that will help you write a great plan that will push every member of your team to a successful outcome.
Understand the Concept of a Project Management Plan
You’re not providing a strategic organizational plan for your team. You’re giving them something else: a project management plan. It’s consisted of four main elements:
- Scope management – it describes the nature of the project and the actions needed for meeting the goals.
- Schedule – a time frame for all team members to respect. It’s based on the project’s lifecycle.
- Resource management – the part where you describe the responsibility of the team members.
- Budgeting and cost management – the estimated cost of the project and the budget you have at your disposal.
If you’ve never written this type of plan before, you might need more time to organize the outline and write the content. If you don’t have that time, it’s okay to outsource the task to one of the top essay writing services.
Understand the Scope of the Project
This plan must communicate each stage and each team member’s role as an integral element of the project’s success. Approach the plan as the story of a project, which goes beyond dates and deadlines.
- What’s the major goal and what deadline does it come with?
- How will your team get to that goal by that deadline?
- What milestones do you have to reach towards the goal?
- Who’s in the team and what role does everyone have regarding that major goal?
Your plan has a purpose to educate your team on the project’s logistics, so it has to answer all above-listed questions.
Write an Outline
When you’re writing a plan as a leader, you have to adhere to the standards of proper writing. Your writing has to be strong, focused, and free of grammar, syntax, and spelling errors.
You’ll bother with the grammar later on. As for the elements of strength and focus, you have to think about them before you even start writing. That’s what the outline is for.
Start with a brainstorming session. What do you need to include in this plan? What goals do you need your team to achieve? How will you get there? How will you convey your ideas through writing?
The outline should identify all elements of the plan. Make sure it’s well-organized, so it keeps the attention of your team members. You don’t want to present a huge chunk of text that loses them from the very first sentence.
The outline will make the writing process much less challenging.
Make It Very, Very Clear
There should be absolutely no confusion in your plan. It needs specific milestones and goals, which are related to realistic deadlines and specific responsibilities.
- When you’re ready with the first draft, take some time off. After a day or two, you’ll be able to approach it with the eyes of a reader. Pretend you know nothing about this project. What questions would you have? Add information, so you won’t leave any of those questions unanswered.
Needless to say, you’ll still stay flexible about editing the plan.
If you notice that your team members have questions, answer them. If necessary, add points in the plan to make it clearer for them.
Don’t forget the importance of courageous conversations that support the team’s actions throughout the way. Ask them what they are struggling with. Ask them for suggestions, so you’ll improve the plan together. Most of all, make sure to stay available for them at every stage towards that big goal.
Thank you. This was extremely helpful.
Nice article.
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