This book is about Planning, one of the 10 Core Competency of Effective Leadership, and what it takes to become a more effective Leader and Follower tomorrow than you are today, thus becoming absolutely essential to any employer. In this book you'll find all the tactics, techniques, and tools employers expect you to know, but are not taught anywhere but here. This book will help you enhance your ability to plan, thus increasing your value added to any employer. Here you'll learn the basics of Planning (includes the 6 components of any good Plan of Action (POA); the best POA checklist to use when planning anything, the 4 most important planning tips (includes how to make changes after the POA is published, what are your assumed assumptions, how to deal with ambiguity, what Key Players need most, and the 6 steps of the Immediate Action process); what is the top 18 "Don't Forget Nothin" list that you'll be glad to have for your next project; how to conduct a Risk Assessment (includes the 9 things you can do to identify Risk, the 11 things you can do to mitigate Risk, and the 17 simple things you can do to Simplify); what are the Secrets to creating and using Contingency and Mitigation Plans (includes how to create and use a risk matrix, how to build consensus with your team (includes the 7 steps to build consensus within your team, what's the difference between collaboration and consensus, the 4 techniques to achieving team consensus, and the 9 questions to ask if you ever have a project in trouble); what a real Plan of Action looks like (includes a Time table and an Unresolved Issues List); how to Train to Excellence (includes the 8 steps to train to excellence, how to conduct an After Action Review, the 5 steps of the Adult Training Model, the power of Role Playing, how to identify and train collective tasks, how to create Terminal and Enabling Learning Objectives, how to determine your proficiency cycle, how and why you should create an Organization and Functions Manual, when to train your members, how to measure the success of a project, how to prepare and use a survey, how to use subjective and objective measurements, and finally, how to manage a budget (includes how to create, manage, prioritize a budget, manage requisitions, and use unfinanced requirements). If you're looking for a better way to enhance your professional career, this is the book for you. Stop wishing you had a better career and do something about it. Put an Executive Coach on your team today