What Is the likelihood your leadership team will accomplish their 2026 goals?

Some teams really nail the strategic planning = results thing. They really do. These teams are laser focused on what matters. They usually have years of experience doing the work of planning and they don’t get distracted.

But most teams aren’t quite that effective. Most teams (still good, just not great) achieve some version of the most important goal for the year and justify pushing or completely cancelling the remaining 60% of the goals.

The executive leadership teams that nail the goals have a few things in common:

• They are committed to the process of planning

• They work with a facilitator

• They talk about the goals each week

• They pick the right goals

For the next few articles I’ll focus on one of these for deeper discussion.

Let’s talk about practice

Practice is like going back to the gym every week even though you see zero results for 8 weeks. You have to have faith that what you are doing is valuable when that’s not clearly evident.

When it comes to planning, that means you have to give up 8 hours a quarter for a couple of years before you get good enough to find it indispensable. In corporate time, that’s a very large investment.

I tell my clients all the time, sometimes you are just getting in the reps for the sake of doing the work. Trust the process.

My first great job after college (and after a painful year as an auditor at Deloitte) was as the controller at Cooks of Crocus Hill.

That place was amazing. Even 25 year old me could feel that something was magical there.

I highly recommend working for a place that feels a little cult like if you get the chance.

Till this day, when I am coaching people interviewing for a new role, I tell them to ask: “What does your strategic planning process look like?”

And let this be the thing you spend the most time talking about. Especially if you are going into a key leadership position, this will predict your success more than anything else, I promise.

So why was Cooks magical?

Our planning meetings were the best part of the year. The founders instituted a process that fit the culture of the company. It felt natural and aligned to who we were and where the company was heading.

We met on a screen porch in Marine on St. Croix and our resident artist on the executive team took the time to sketch an image that captured the essence of each annual goal. It felt like a natural extension of who were.

The sessions were exhausting and fun. Some years they were emotionally gutting. Some team members left the company as a result of a session. No exaggerating- it happened one January when someone stepped up and said in the middle of a long and painful silence  “I think you are the problem.”

To this day, I’ve never left a planning session feeling so tightly and unquestionably attached to a goal.

I give the founders all the credit for that experience. They never questioned the process. In fact, one of our company values was “trust the process, even when it’s hard.”

Many of you are in the process of annual planning for 2026 right now. It’s either coming up or you’ve just completed it.

How do you feel about it?

Like really, what emotions come up when you think about the experience and the year ahead? That answer will tell you a lot about the likelihood of hitting the goals you have selected.

Live and leadWell,

~E

Please inquire about planning facilitation services for 2026. There's still time. And it's quite possibly the MOST important thing you'll do all year.