The sun, the moon, and the stars need to be in alignment.

Huh?

The sun, the moon, and the stars need to be in alignment.

Hang on before you press delete. I haven’t lost my mind. I am outlining what needs to happen before most people get on with what they need to get on with.

Tide needs to be correct, wind needs to come from a specific direction, at a particular velocity, and the weather needs to be just right.

Once again, looking for the perfect conditions before they set sail.

Before we go on, please don’t think I suggest you disregard the conditions or situations around you. However, what I am saying is there will probably never be a perfect time to get started.

Right now, many of the people, including businesses and teams that I work with, are in the middle of developing plans and strategies for 2022. We help them by providing a framework that will identify the ingredients that go into a plan of attack for a successful 2022.

But here is the thing.

I will not give them the plan or the information to develop one.

Why? Isn’t that my job?

Well, yes and no.

It is my job to help design the process needed to deliver on the success they can secure. It isn’t my job to over-ride the skill, experience, understanding, and insight they already have.

I have learned over my forty-year coaching career that most people know what to do but do not always do what they know.

Right now, I have some clients who will follow this path to some extent. They, like many others, will be working towards creating some sort of plan of attack for 2022.

Unfortunately, though, some will not start with what they think or believe should be their approach. For all sorts of reasons, they will not back their own judgment. They will not begin the process by getting their ideas, observations, and understanding down on paper.

Their starting point, and unfortunately for some, their finishing point, will be to look at what someone else is doing or has done.

This isn’t because they don’t trust themselves (or then again, maybe they don’t); it is just that in their way of thinking, someone else has done it differently/better, so let’s find out what they do.

No problem from me in looking to someone else’s success to help build your own, but never as a starting or a finishing point.

Do the right thing by yourself, the team, and the organisation for which the plan is being designed, and don’t just inherit someone else’s strategy or plan. You will never own it, and if you can’t or don’t own it, the people you lead, yourself included, will not be engaged by it. 

Therefore the chance of success is significantly reduced.

To create a truly successful plan, document and outline your ideas and beliefs as the number one priority. Once you have that down, you can then seek out what others have done. Take the time and make an effort to recognise, research, and understand the success that others have created and enjoyed.

But then, as tempting and alluring as it may be, don’t just do what they have done. Look at their plans, strategies and approach and start asking some very relevant and much-needed questions. 

Questions such as: 

How does this apply to our situation?
How does their competitive environment differ from ours?
What do we use?
When and how do we apply it?

Remember, their plan may or may not suit your environment, the team you lead, and/or your leadership. Just because it worked for them doesn’t mean it will work for you.

Know what to use, when to use it and why. And, more importantly, know what to leave behind.

The other important insight here is that by this time next year, there will be those still looking at other people’s ideas. They continue to find someone new, someone different etc., and so their plan never gets developed because they spend all of their time jumping from one person’s ideas to another. 

Don’t let that be you. Start and end with what you think is right. Then somewhere in the middle, look at what others are doing, but at the same time, don’t be baffled by brilliance.

Create, own and be engaged by what you feel will be correct and when that happens, watch as…

The Journey Continues!