Leadership: Make The Plan

Leadership is a learned acumen; a learned behavior. There will be a select few who are born with this skill, but, unless these folks are influenced by family, trusted advisors, and friends on how to develop and continually improve their innate skill, it will be left to chance. This lack of influence creates what I call “accidental” leaders. I’ll cover my thoughts on that in another blog article later, so stay tuned!

How do leaders become more intentional and strategic about development and exercising their leadership? It comes down to this: make the plan.

What’s The Plan?

Great question! Most people don’t evaluate this enough, in my opinion. It’s not easy looking inside yourself, through the mirror (or fog), and focusing on one or two things a year that may need improvement. Doing this type of focus isn’t admitting something is wrong per se; it’s realizing something isn’t working and needs attention.

In a way, it’s like making an appointment to have your car in for service, then trying to decide if you really want to take it in.

I did this recently, and the realization came with two focus points:

1.  My laptop has a LOT of tabs open, which slows the processor’s speed down, drains my battery faster, and I want this to be better.
2.  My desk in my home office has a LOT of stacked papers on it, so I can’t work at my desk without focusing on the papers all over.

Most people might look at these two points and think, “Well, you’ve managed these for this long (yeah, let’s put a date on that!), you’ve managed to make it work, so why waste time and make changes?”

Instead of making a plan that will, yes, take time to put together and take positive action (I’ll cover this in another blog, too), they let life and all its circumstances make the choices for them. This creates negative action, or what I’ll call the bandaid.

The problem(s) was(were) patched, not changed.

How To Make The Plan

1. 1.  What IS the actual problem? Is it a real problem to solve, or just something to complain about? Once you decide which this is, solutions are easier to make.
   2.  Make solutions easy. If you have to create a Powerpoint, Venn diagram, or tape some picture to your wall, tape other pictures around it and connect them all back to the middle with thread to solve your problem(s), you’re over-thinking it. That’s not necessarily wrong, but it will take longer to come up with a plan you can stick with.
   3.  Make accountability around your choice. You found the answer, and yes, it’s going to be painful for a bit, but, by putting these two ideas around your solution, it will be easier to get it done:
      •   Create action steps to support the solution;
      •   Tell someone close to you and ask them to hold your feet to the fire to get it done.

Conclusion

Solutions to problems aren’t always easy or cheap. Either it takes money to solve (i.e., hiring a coach, using a new software, etc.), or it takes time from your schedule to get done (which then takes away time spent not getting paid to solve your problem(s)).

Ask yourself this: IF you do solve your problem(s) — actually solve it/them — what will you GAIN?

1. 1. •  You’re more self-confidence because you got it done.
      •  Sense of accomplishment. Again, you got it done. New challenge…teach someone else.
      •  You can redirect your attention to family, self-improvement (i.e., working out, taking an online course, etc.), or working IN your business vs. ON it.

The next time you look at your problem(s), look at them differently. Don’t choose the bandaid. Choose to SOLVE it. The book, “Atomic Habits” by James Clear, is a great book! I’ve learned how to get rid of old habits by stacking new habits on top of the old ones. You can learn this, too. Follow this link for more info on the book: https://a.co/d/0mUUrzh

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