The end-goal of a strategic planning process includes a set of clear objectives. It is these strategic initiatives that guide your bank or credit union moving into the next several years. However, poor objectives can just as easily kill a strategic plan and render your investment wasted.

What are poor objectives? What are the things your strategic planning team must avoid when it comes to objectives at its next session? Consider the following:

• Unclear objectives. You want up-front and easy-to-read language in your objectives. Now is not the time to wordsmith and impress everyone with your vocabulary. Your objective must be clear, driven by action verbs and book-ended by start and end dates.
• Un-led objectives. If a ship or plane start a journey without a seasoned captain, they are unlikely to make it very far. Your strategic planning objectives are the same. To succeed, they must have a leader. This could be a single leader or perhaps a small team of leaders, depending on the objective. Lack of leadership for your objective condemns it to failure before it can start. If no one leads it, no one is responsible for it and if no one is responsible for it no one will care.

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