Your Ultimate Planning Day By Rebecca Miller

As business owners, our list of goals feels never ending but if we don’t dedicate the time for planning how we’re going to achieve any of them, then, ourselves and our team can feel like hamsters on a wheel.

So, what do we do about it? We start creating our futures in advance! Yes, in advance!

If you’ve followed my journey for some time now, you’ll know that planning is my secret sauce, my ultimate weapon, my go-to tool for achieving success in any facets of my life, especially my business. When we know what our big picture goal is, we can develop quarterly, weekly, and even daily steps that work towards achieving them.

Planning has played a massive part in the success of my businesses because we make it our core focus every single quarter. This is known as our Development Planning Days where we shut the doors of our medispas (yep, you read the correctly) for one day, every quarter, to plan how and when we’ll smash our next set of goals.

Our most recent planning day has just finished up and it’s safe to say I’m still smiling ear-to-ear with the success of it. I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you all about it and what actually goes down on development planning days.

I hope that this inspires you to consider your own planning days in the future and the kinds of value-packed activities you can include to leave your entire team feeling rewarded, fulfilled, and excited about the quarter ahead.

9:00am – Setting our intention for the day

Just like any other day, we begin our development planning day with setting our intention. Engaging in breath work, we bring everyone’s focus into that space to strengthen our connection between ourselves, each other, and the business.

Every decision we make as a business needs to align with our purpose, vision and mission and our planning days are no different. It’s integral that our team feel connected to these principles as this is not just about what we do but WHY we do it.

10:00am – It’s self-mastery time

When we empower the knowledge and experiences of our team, we’re creating an incredibly fulfilling work environment and culture for them. As much as today is about setting our goals as a business, we prioritise the continuous personal development of every team member in that room.

Giving back in this way is something I am incredibly passionate about which is why you’ll always find self-mastery lessons such as navigating limiting beliefs, ego, practicing gratitude and even personal finance in our development planning days.

This year was all about the ice bath and exposing the team to real-time stress and the ways we can manage it in that moment. When we jump into a freezing cold ice bath, our body immediately engages that fight or flight response because let’s face it, it’s freezing cold! It’s up to us to overcome that reflex and engaging in breathing techniques and taking control of our mindset to overcome the urge to launch right out of the bath in that moment. This is an incredibly powerful skill to channel in our everyday lives as we learn to change the story about how we deal with stressful situations.

12:00pm – Fueling our body

This quarter’s planning day took place in my home where I cooked up a storm of nutritious and delicious food to treat my team to during the day. As therapists, we know the integral role nutrition plays in the health of our gut, skin, and everything in between so I ensure we’re leading by example and fuelling our minds and bodies throughout the day accordingly.

1:00pm – Let the planning begin!

Planning is bringing the future into the present. Unless you are crystal clear on your goals as individuals and business at large, you’re not realising the maximum potential that lies within you. The planning stage of our day is where we really get down to business on where we’ve come and where we want to be.

Of course, this stage of the day is where we look at KPI’s but it’s important to acknowledge that they’re just one part of that individual’s story and presents us a multitude of opportunities to develop, nurture and celebrate them.

During this time, we look at our achievements as a business and the lessons that we’ve learnt along the way. We focus on our collective strengths, weaknesses, and trends we’re seeing in the marketplace that are opportunities for our business to flourish.

We have built a very curious culture that’s open to feedback, so this time of the day is a great opportunity to engage in the open and honest two-way communication about the plan that our team truly appreciates.

3:00pm – Designing our priorities

It’s now time for us to finalise the priorities of that plan and how we’re going to achieve them. Each team member gets five priorities from the plan that is then broken down into bite-sized goals to be achieved throughout the quarter.

For us, this entails actionable tasks in our daily huddles that contribute to a larger weekly goal that ticks off items on that quarterly priority. I find it incredibly effective to break down a large goal into smaller ones as not only does it make the overarching goal less intimidating but rewards you with wins throughout the quarter ahead!

This is an activity that you can undertake in your own business. Look at the large goal you want to achieve and consider the ways you can chip away at it every month, week, and day to get there.

4:00pm – Meditation and time for reflection

After the biggest chunk of our planning day, it’s time to quiet our mind and take a moment to reflect on the goals and priorities we have set for ourselves. This is an opportunity to practice gratitude, a fundamental element of fulfilment as individuals and as a member of our team. This planning day we did a exercise called “The gifts I see in you” The power of giving and receiving our team picked a fellow team member, they hold hands look into each other’s eyes and shared the gifts they see in them.. This is a powerful exercise because we never see ourselves how others see us. Lots of vulnerabilities, tears and emotion are felt in this exercise which was so warming and so much love was felt.

4:30pm – A letter to our future self

Our final activity of the day is our ‘letter to our future self’ where we each write a letter to the person, we are in three months’ time, as if we’ve achieved every single professional and personal goal on our list. It’s a truly empowering way to finish up our day and a favourite amongst the team. We receive our letter from last planning/ development day and our team are always blown away at what comes true in their letters.

5:00pm – Wrap up and celebrate!

After sharing our biggest learnings and takeaways from the day, another development planning day draws to an end. Tomorrow is day of smashing our new set of priorities and working as a team to end every day with success.

If you’re looking to take your business to the next level with a empowered connected culture and team I really encourage you to step into your leadership power and start development/ planning days with your team.

If you are a salon or clinic owner that needs help with your planning, let me know I can jump in and help you. Planning is my superpower! Together, let’s make 2022 your best year yet. Contact Rebecca at rebecca@zingcoach.com.au