Action Plan Template for Managers

Action Plan Template for Managers

Anyone who has had any experience in project management can tell you that successfully leading a team requires an in-depth understanding of interpersonal communication, planning, and resource allocation. Without the use of external tools, this is almost impossible. The most successful project managers generally have a system for leading a team successfully on any project. One of the easiest methods that anyone can learn how to use is the action plan. A well thought out action plan will allow you to put on paper a list of all of the things that need to get done, who is working on these things, the resources needed for these things, and the priority of them as well. Having all of this at your fingertips is essential when you are working together with others on a project. It will help to eliminate wasted time that could otherwise be used working on productive items of the project that is normally spent in meetings.

You do not have to design your own action plan if there are many action plan templates for managers out there. In this article, you’re going to discuss one particular action plan template spreadsheet that has helped a number of people in their project management careers. So let’s get started on how to use one of these.

How to Use This Action Plan Template for Managers spreadsheet

The very first thing that you need to do is make sure that you have Microsoft Excel installed on your computer. A lot of computers will come with this preinstalled but double-check before you move forward. Once you are certain that you have required software go ahead and open it up. Go online and download the action plan template for managers Excel. Once you have downloaded the template open it with Microsoft Excel.

Now the template is open let’s take a look and see what all it offers us. It may seem overwhelming at first because there are several sections however there is a well-thought-out organization to it that makes it very intuitive and easy to understand. The very first section will have a list of possible action items and goals that you can work on. You want to go ahead and make a list yourself of all of the steps that you need to be completed in order to successfully finish your project. Mark down all of the primary goals of the project and then assign the action items to each goal that they support.

After you have all of your goals and action items listed out, figure out who on the team is responsible for each item. Of course, you probably have already delegated each task as the successful project manager that you are but if you haven’t done this stuff already then get to it. Once you have divvied up all of the items that need to get done enter into the cells on the spreadsheet where it says responsible the name of the person that you have designated for the task.
The next row is going to have the value or priority of the task. These will be very important to properly notate. There are three levels that you can choose from: low, medium, and high. Once you assign the proper designation to each and every task you’ll be ready to move on to the next step. This is a great column because it will allow you to know where to focus their efforts especially if there ends up being any kind of problems that prevent you from doing every single item in the timeframe that you initially wanted. It’s important to be efficient whenever you are running into a time crunch.

Following the priority assessment of the charter move on to its current status as well as the start and end dates of these tasks. Enter when you would like each item to begin being worked on by your team as well as the expected deadline you would like to have the task completed by. This is important because it will give you and your team a great high-level overview of the timeline of each task and how each one is related to each other on the project’s timeline as a whole. In addition, the project status of each item will allow you to easily remember what has been completed as well as what is still yet to be done. Many managers report that their team members are more motivated once they see that items are being crossed off of the list. It is kind of funny how people like to mark things off of a checklist but if that is what motivates people then who are we to argue.

The final section before additional notes on each item. Ask your teammates if there are any notes that need to be added to them and then go through each task yourself and decide if there are any things you would like to have spelled out clearly for each person who is responsible for their tasks. This may not seem like an important section at first but it can often eliminate needless errors that can occur on projects whenever there are so many moving parts it is impossible to keep track of everything.

That’s it we have now completed your action plan template for managers and you are ready to print it out. Go ahead and click on the print button in the top left corner of your screen. It will open up your print options screen. Check out the preview to make sure that everything looks okay. If there is anything that looks off it is fairly easy to change. Click on the options and preferences button. Change anything that needs to be changed and then go ahead and print it. Before you close your spreadsheet it would be wise to make a copy of it on your computer. Click the save icon and title it appropriately. This will allow you to continuously update the future with ease as well as share it electronically to your colleagues through email.

Additional Tips on Action Plan Template for Managers excel

There are a ton of template options out there for action plan templates for managers spreadsheet. If you feel that this is not exactly the right fit for your project then try searching for additional options on the site. There will surely be something that fits your needs appropriately. At the end of the day, a successful project is all about the organization and leadership team that leads it. Do not let your project get away from you because of a lack of organization ever again. Finding and using an action plan template for managers spreadsheet is too simple to let this happen.