Before Your Strategic Plan…check your passion meter

This is the month that people want to start a new. It is the time when all want to start talking about tactics to reach their goals.

Whoa! Hold on. I have a few other questions before you start down that path.

• Where is your passion?
• Meaning, what are you passionate about?
• Are you still passionate about your product or service that you offer?
• Are you still passionate about the business you are in?
• Are you still passionate about the industry you are in?

Passions change. They evolve or go into a totally different direction. That’s something normal and must be acknowledged before any strategic planning.

Before I’m hired to help organizations, I want the powers-to-be to take a look at what they are passionate about. I want to make sure that they are not acting like hamsters running on the wheel just for the sake of exercise (money or because we’ve always done it this way are sample exercise wheels). I want to know if they really want to spend all that time and money going in a direction that they are still passionate about.

If you aren’t passionate about your product or service as much as you were when you first started or joined the company, this is the time to ask why. This is the time to take another look at your product and service and begin to rub off any tarnished feelings you may have about the product and service. Is the core or purpose of the product/service still a passion for you? Does it just need a little tweaking to reignite the passion and fit with the new market trends? Do you need to take the product/service on a different journey?

I ask you. Has your passion changed? Does that mean you need to define a new product/service? Can you tweak the product/service to get excited about the business again?

This is the beginning of the Business Architecture. Decide what you are passionate about and if this is the business you still want to be part of. Don’t let fear either stagnate you into doing nothing or push you in a direction to keep up with competition when you really don’t care about this anymore.

Start with step one…what and where is your passion. Without it, you will fail or worse yet…stagnate. It’s ok to change…as long as the change works with your passion.