Feeling stuck waiting for your company or manager to define your strategic goals for the year? In her February 22 “Your Best Next Move” video, Bobbie LaPorte explains why it’s so important not to delay while you wait for clear direction. Instead, focus on what you DO know, and take action now. Your team needs direction, and you need to build momentum to keep moving forward.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT OF “YOUR BEST NEXT MOVE: Don’t Wait! Take Action to Build Momentum”
Hi everyone, Bobbie LaPorte here again with my weekly tip for your Best Next Move – where I help you have more agency in your work, acknowledge your capacity to act, and see what you can do right now.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been talking with leaders like you about their plans for 2021. Many of my clients start their fiscal year in February, so they are in the thick of their annual strategic planning process. When I ask what they want to achieve – for themselves and their teams this year – the answer I often hear is: “I need to wait until I see what the company’s plan is, what my boss’s goals are; then I can develop a plan for myself and my team”.
Look – I understand that your goals need to be aligned with the company’s and those of your manager, but that doesn’t mean you have to be held hostage to an often long, drawn-out planning and decision-making process.
And I understand that this is a fact of corporate life – I get it. But at the same time, it doesn’t mean that your progress and that of your team must come to a screeching halt.
And here’s one critical reason why.
In these times of change, complexity, and unrelenting uncertainty, decision-making now is very different. Timelines have forever changed; leaders like you must now face the reality of needing to make decisions when there is little or no clear path forward.
With the pace at which things are moving and changing in our world, we need to recognize that the cost of delay is much greater now than it was before.
And yet, as a leader, you still must develop the ability to think about your next move, and not wait for everything to be clearly defined and laid out for you.
So, here’s my tip:
whether you are working on the strategic plan for your function; or on how you will build capacity in your team; or even how you will work on your own professional development goals – start with the fundamentals you do know.
There are some basic goals you know you have to meet; some ideas you already have about investing in your team’s growth; specific areas of development you want to work on for yourself. Just pick one or two things you know you can put in place and GET STARTED. Move, take action, decide. Even when the “bigger picture” of how this fits into your organization becomes clear…. you know there is a pretty good chance it will change, right?
So, don’t wait. Act. Because your team needs direction; because you need to create momentum; and because every decision is a good one – until it’s not.
Remember: I want 2021 to be a year of momentum for you, one of possibility thinking where you take advantage of the agency we sometimes forget we have.
That’s my tip for this week. I’ll see you next Monday; take care of yourselves!