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November 18 - November 30, 2025
You do this not by asking How? but by asking What if ? What would be different for you, your family, your friends, your team, your clients, and your community? By asking What if ?, you give yourself permission to entertain the possibility and begin to connect with the benefits.
If the question of what if ? is the visioning question, then the question of how is the planning question.
The final shift needed in your thinking to create an effective vision is to move from probable to given. This shift happens naturally as you begin to implement the planned actions. Given is a powerful state of mind where any question of doubt is gone and, mentally, you are already standing in the end results.
There are three time horizons that you’ll want to focus your vision on: 1. Long-term aspirations 2. Mid-term goals, about three years into the future 3. 12 Weeks (covered in the next chapter)
What is most important to you physically, spiritually, mentally, relationally, financially, professionally, and personally?
How much time freedom do you want? What income do you desire? Write everything you can think of on a sheet of paper; leave nothing off the page.
The more specific you are at this stage, the easier it will be to create your 12 week goals and your plan.
While vision is generally an intensely personal exercise, a manager can often take specific actions that will help their direct reports to more effectively leverage their visions.
Vision is the best starting point for all effective performance-based coaching relationships, because vision creates ownership.
This is a critical step, because without it the goals and plans they develop will be yours, not theirs.
Review the visions of your team in individual one-on-one sessions.
Questions That Uncover the Degree of Ownership Why are the elements of your vision important to you? What will you be able to do if you reach your vision that you cannot do now? What will be different for you, your family, your friends, your peers, your clients, your community, if you reach that goal? Are you willing to commit to the actions needed to reach your vision? Who have you shared your vision with? How often have you looked at your vision since you wrote it? What actions do you have to take to make progress on your vision and reach your 12 week goal? What risks or barriers exist that
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When an individual is reluctant to take the necessary actions required to accomplish a goal, it is an indication that they own their current comfort more than they own the future described in their vision. In these cases, people have a couple of choices: They can either lower their expectations in life, or find the courage and discipline to execute the plan tactics consistently.
As a leader, it’s important that you establish a team vision for your company, division, or group.
This is best accomplished by having each team member first work through their individual visions, then come together as a group to create a common team vision.
Pitfall 1: You don’t take the power of vision seriously.
Pitfall 2: The vision isn’t meaningful to you.
Pitfall 3: Your vision is too small.
Pitfall 4: You don’t connect your vision to your daily actions.
Success Tip 1: Share it with others.
Success Tip 2: Stay in touch with your vision.
Success Tip 3: Live with intention.
Before you create a 12 week plan, you must define and commit to your vision.
Planning enables you to allocate your time and resources to your highest-value opportunities, it increases your odds of successfully hitting your goals, it helps you to coordinate your team, and it creates a competitive advantage.
In spite of the proven benefits of working from a plan, not everyone does so. One reason for this is that many people have a bias for taking action.
View planning as the first step of action. Planning is not inaction, planning is action before a task is completed.
That’s why to increase your odds of success, one of the most powerful things you can do is to create, and work from, a written plan.
Operating in the 12 Week Year execution cycle creates an increased premium on the value of time.
Another benefit of 12 week planning is a fiercely consistent focus on the few vital actions that drive your results.
In 12 weeks, you only focus on the minimum number of actions that are most important to hit your goal.
Typical annual plans tell you what has to be achieved but they don’t specify how. When the how is not clearly defined you lose a sense of scope and can easily take on more than you can physically execute.
A Good Plan Fosters Solid Execution
If you are working to lose weight, your tactics might include limit calorie intake to 1,200 per day and do 20 minutes of cardio three times per week. Note that these tactics start with a verb, and are complete sentences.
Criteria 1: Make them specific and measurable.
Criteria 2: State them positively.
For example, rather than focusing on a 2 percent error rate, you would target a 98 percent accuracy rate.
Criteria 3: Ensure they are a realistic stretch.
Criteria 4: Assign accountability.
Individual accountability for each goal and tactic is critical! Everyone’s challenge is no one’s challenge.
Criteria 5: Be time-bound.
In addition to the previous criteria, each tactic should start with a verb, be a complete sentence, and be executable as written in the week that it is due.
Once you’ve decided on your 12 week goal, record it. 12 Week Goal(s) ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ The best 12 week goals are realistic but enough of a stretch that they will call on you to deliver your very best. Why is your 12 week goal important to you? If you hit it, what will be different? ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________
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The fewer goals and weekly actions there are, the easier the plan will be to execute.
As George Patton once said, “A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”
What actions will you struggle with?
What will you do to overcome those struggles?
Team Application As a team leader, having your team engaged with the 12 Week Year can be transformational.
The first step is to ask them to read The 12 Week Year, and have them work through the vision and planning templates.
After they have created their vision and plan, schedule an individual sit-down with each person on your team to review their 12 week goals and plans. The purpose of this meeting is to refine their plan and to establish your role in helping them reach their 12 week goal.
Make appropriate suggestions for changing their goal if necessary, but make sure that the goal remains theirs, not yours, if you want them to own it.
