It’s time to become small minded. Visionaries are big thinkers. Planners may make big plans but they think small. They take the grand scheme and turn it into smaller steps.

Planners are comprehensive thinkers whose skill sets include the ability to break schemes and visions into increments, and whose experience has shown them the necessity to be rational and realistic. Fantasy thinkers will soon get themselves into big trouble here, so practicality is the key word.

I want a big thinker to formulate vision, and I want that same big thinker to leave the planning process to people who can be real and realistic. Here are the seven key traits of an effective planner:

First, an effective planner can take a project apart and divide it into realistic tasks. These tasks can be assigned to a responsible party and given a realistic deadline. They understand that the greatest of structures is put up one piece at a time. And they can install warning points along the way to keep things on track and on schedule (i.e., reminders that certain things need to start, certain things need to end, certain tasks need to be completed).

 …