Make sure everyone on the team knows the game plan.

It’s not enough to have a fantastic game plan. What good is it if not everyone knows about it? Each week, professional teams go over their plans for the upcoming game. The players have to fully understand the strategy, their assigned roles, and how they are expected to contribute. No matter how brilliant the game plan, it must be shared with the people who will execute it, or it’s meaningless. A player who shows up on Sunday without knowing it backwards and forwards puts a team at a tremendous disadvantage because he wouldn’t have a clue about the team’s strategy for beating the competition and what he is expected to contribute.

Everyone on your team has to know your organization’s game plan—the direction that the organization intends to take in the future, and any impending or needed changes in mission, organizational divisions, and policy. If employees are not let in on the game plan, they won’t be sure they are doing the right things and won’t know how to help their team reach its goals. A game plan can consist of any or all of these elements: the overall business strategy, the organization’s objectives, information about new products or services, and new initiatives or directions that might be in the making.

Leadership Questions

  How well have you communicated your organization’s game plan? What channels have you used?

  Who knows what this plan is about? If others do not know, what is the best way to share it? And when?

  Most importantly, do your employees know your plan?

  Would it really be a problem if others knew your business plan?