In your quest to shift to become CEO of your company, your success hinders on having a strong plan.

Do you have a solid, strategic plan yet?

If not, this is your personal nudge to create a plan that is proactive, purposeful, and highly strategic. It’s GREAT if you already have a plan. Continue reading to incorporate these key elements if they’re missing.

A strategic plan is a deliberate approach to your life and business. Your plan is filled with action steps to help you to turn your hopes and dreams into real, tangible outcomes and accomplishments. Your strategic plan concretizes your business vision, mission and goals. It describes the attainable approach you, and your team will use to meet the objectives of your business. Your plan contains achievable action steps which have been clearly communicated to the team so team members are ready to take action at any given moment. If for some reason you are unable to act on the plan, someone from your team is empowered and informed to take the ball and run with it in your absence.

It is smart to develop and maintain a strategic plan for your business. Bear in mind, your plan is a living, breathing record that you review often, adjust accordingly and monitor to evaluate the results of your efforts. While you’re in transition you can expect to make lots of changes — often. Give yourself permission to remain flexible and fluid without getting bogged down by change itself.

Build your strategic plan around your vision, mission, and goals of your business. Write them down. If these critical elements are floating around in your head, your team cannot move your plan forward in your absence. Adding these key ingredients to the mix will truly help you to stay on course because you’ll have a solid blueprint for running your business.

How’s your strategic plan looking now?

Where are your opportunities to adjust your plan of action?

What actions can you take to move your plan forward?

The start of a new year is an excellent time to develop, revisit or renew your strategic plan. Start with your business vision, mission and goals. When the strategies surface and you identify milestones, embrace each and every one as part of your plan of action. Remember you’re in transition and it’s perfectly fine to approach the learning curve and embrace new opportunities to grow.

I look forward to hearing more about strategic plan of action as you move from Entrepreneur to CEO.