The Power of Being Intentional

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I was recently on a coaching call with a member agency’s senior and junior partners. As part of our agenda, we discussed their 2025 annual planning process.

The senior partner admitted to having difficulty making planning a priority. A significant contributor to this challenge was his concern over his collective team's (in)ability to take on anything new. I suspect many of you share the same challenges and concerns, especially this time of year. I get it.

However, as I reminded them, planning doesn't have to involve introducing anything new. It should primarily focus on intentionally doing more of the things that have already proven successful.

Planning’s primary purpose should be to set specific goals and find the most effective and efficient activities to ensure those goals are hit. To that end, planning efforts should be about clearing the noise (shiny object syndrome, lack of role clarity, misaligned clients, etc.) that gets in the way of truly productive efforts.  

The first question of the planning process should be:

"What are we doing now that we should be doing less of or even stop doing altogether?"

When you start with this question, the answers create space to do more of the things that drive growth and results.  

You shouldn't end the planning process with a long list of all-encompassing activities; it should result in a shorter, more potent list of intentional activities. Maybe those activities will be new; maybe they won’t. But if they are new, the recovered bandwidth of this approach makes the successful implementation and execution of the new activities much more likely.

Examples of results may already exist 

This idea of being more intentional resonated with the senior partner, who has observed such behavior in the junior partner over the last couple of years. He commented that the junior partner has been much more intentional in the clients he pursues and the sales process he uses to pursue them.  

We even discussed the junior partner's production results. Year-to-date, he had already written about the same number of clients as last year, but his average revenue per new client has more than doubled. Just as important are the opportunities he walked away from because they weren’t a good fit.  

By the way, since that coaching call, he has had one of his largest wins yet, improving his results even more. 

Imagine if you could more than DOUBLE productivity in every aspect of your operations for the same effort you currently exert! That may be a stretch but being a more intentional organization will move you in that direction. 
 
Don't think of planning as an activity you can't make time for, which leads to activities you can't fit into your calendar. Instead, think of it as the investment it is--one that leads to intentional goals, supported by intentional behaviors, which drive intentional results. 
 
The result of being an intentional organization is, among many other upsides, that it becomes more enjoyable and easier to run.  

One more thought to consider  

If you're still struggling because of fourth quarter, consider adjusting your planning year. Many of our member agencies start their planning year on April 1st, giving themselves time to recover and catch their breath after year-end. It doesn’t really matter when the planning year starts if the resulting plan drives intentional efforts.  

Q4i and Goose can help    

We built an online platform called "Goose: Your Ultimate Wingman" to help you implement these growth ideas. In it, you will find the business tools you need to be a more intentional organization: tracking tools, training programs, peer community, access to coaching, and marketing assistance.   

To learn how Goose may help drive your growth, check out our website at Q4intel.com/goose. And, while there, be sure to download our suite of planning guides to guide your efforts for: Agency, Marketing, Producer, and Professional/Non-producer planning. Also feel free to connect with or contact me directly on LinkedIn.