Professional Success Starts with a 4-Step Plan

When I took this video, I did not know it would be one of the last trips I would take to New York as the VP of Corporate Operations at 7-Eleven.

It was an exciting time. Sember Cole and I had just completed board tours with the executive team from 7-Eleven. In the weeks leading up to this tour, our teams spent hours remerchandising stories, coaching store staff, and reviewing sales results to ensure we had a great story to tell.

The first win might be small.

If you had asked Sembe or me 20 years earlier whether we would be in New York, leading a tour for all of the VPs of Operations at 7-Eleven, we would have thought you were crazy. Back then, we were just two recently graduated black guys from Virginia, looking to learn the convenience store business and be seen as individuals worthy of getting our first promotion.

Even if you had asked us 13 years ago, when we were both Market Managers, he running D.C., and me Baltimore, we would not have believed that both of us would rise so high within the company. At the time, we had never seen two black men serving as Zone Leaders at 7-Eleven simultaneously.

Unexpected obstacles will occur.

You never know where your career will lead you. Back when I shot this video, I believed that I would end my career at 7-Eleven. Fate had another plan.

Now, instead of leading a 1000-store zone, I coach and consult business owners. I take the experiences and lessons I learned over my career and use them to advise founders, CEO, and senior leaders on how to build strategy, lead effectively, and grow their businesses.

4-Step Planning Process

I learned a lot over my years with 7-Eleven. One of the most important things that I learned was the 4-step planning process. The 4-Step planning process mirrors the scientific method. Its power is in its simplicity. To execute a 4-step you:

1. Define your current situation.

2. Build a hypothesis on how things could be better (typically a statement of if I do "x", then "y" will happen).

3. Write down the steps you will take.

4. You set a date to complete verification.

Learn from experience

Over my career, I learned different names for this process, but the foundation is the same. If you want to change your current situation, first you have to define it. Then you have to think about how it could be better. Then you take action. Finally, you evaluate if the action worked. If it did, mission complete, you win. If not, you learn from that experience and try again.

Within my coaching and consulting business, I help business leaders and owners execute the 4-step process. If you are curious to learn more about how I help leaders grow I have 3 options for you

1) Book a call with me

2) Visit my website and read more about my services

3) Purchase the Finding Fulfillment at Work Workshop recording, just $50

The Finding Fulfillment at Work Workshop provides a high-level overview of the

• Power6 Leader program I use to help emerging leaders grow their leadership skills

• Saboteur Assessment that I use to help people identify negative thought patterns, and develop resilience skills

• A hybrid goal-setting approach of using OKR and SMART goals to map our paths to success