PLANNING

Dec

2021

Planning for the New Year

One holiday ended and we are rapidly approaching the New Year. This is the time people set a goal or a “resolution” and inevitably within weeks break that resolution. Last year during this time we had to get out of town because of the craziness of 2020 so my usual reflection didn’t not happen.

This year I will take time to reflect on the past year and prepare for the next both professionally and personally. I know this, I am the limiter to my success. If I don’t take time to plan a path of growth, I will limit the potential success I can have.

Last year around this time I shared a friend’s method of evaluating the year. This year can I share with you a personal growth plan? If you read to the end you will see a link to a page where you can get a free resource to help you think into your growth plan.

Vision

Purpose and vision can easily get confused. This is when we are asking what am I about right now? Purpose is our “why” behind all we do. For example, I do what I do to help leaders transform so they can be transformational agents at work, home, and in their communities. A vision statement for this purpose is what I am about for a period. For example, on a personal level my vision is to equip my children to be men who know and live out their purpose. This vision will change as they leave my home.

A professional vision specifically relates to your professional life. You may desire to get promoted to a new position or grow your business results to a certain level. Maybe you see an area you need to grow in professionally that you want to focus on. This vision is something that will keep you moving toward your professional goals.

Top 5 Values

At times with one on one clients I challenge them to determine their values. Knowing our top values serves as a filter for knowing what to say no to as we make decisions. Many tools exist that can help you determine your values. If you need help determining your top values let me know and I can provide a resource to assist in that process.

Top 3 Goals

This is where we get very specific. Look at the next thirty days and decide what are three specific, measurable, reachable, and stretching goals you want to accomplish both personally and professionally. Next look at three months and determine the same answer. Finally determine what the top three things you want to accomplish this next year are both personally and professionally.

Annual Personal Development Goals

This final section is broader and more focused on intentionally developing ourselves. In the book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership author and leadership expert John Maxwell’s first law is The Law of the Lid which states:

“Leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness.”

We are the lid on our business, leadership, and life. This final section helps us think intentionally about ways to raise our lid by increasing our awareness. One of the ways to accomplish this is learning from others. As you think into the year ahead what books will you read, people will you intentionally meet and learn from, and events will you attend to help you grow? This will provide a simple personal growth plan to maintain.

One Word

For a few years now I have decided on a word for the year. This may or may not be a beneficial exercise for you. I find it provides a simple purpose or vision for the next twelve months that I can easily remember. It could be courage, focus, trust, discipline, or any number of words. Don’t overthink this one. Let the word come to you. You will know it when it does.

I hope you have found this helpful. As I mentioned at the beginning if you want a resource to help you walk through this process go to https://bit.ly/WheelPGP to receive access to your free growth plan guide. Make the most intentional and purposeful year yet! Lead Well.

Dec

2020

Reflection and Planning for the New Year

I was listening to a friend and mentor of mine share his method of year end reflection and planning. I found it extremely helpful and wanted to share with you. Ray shared four “R’s” to use in looking back and planning for the future.

In each section I will provide the quadrant and then a few, but not all of the questions he suggests we ask ourselves. I hope you find this helpful.

Review

First, we review the past year. I have heard many ways this can be done. One person I know will look at his calendar and evaluate the use of his time. Using the calendar, if you or someone else keeps an accurate one for you, gives us an objective review to see trends in our life and the following questions Ray provides may help us in that review process:

What is life pushing up? – this may be a reoccurring theme you see from your life
What is life pushing out? – Things in your business or life are no longer needed or relevant
What is life trying to push me toward? – maybe there is a reoccurring opportunity

Remember

One of my mentors at the end of the year scrolls through his phone looking at all the pictures to remember what happened in the past year. This helps him reflect and celebrate what occurred. As we move out of review to remember here are some questions that may be helpful:

What is it that I need to celebrate?
Who do I need to honor?
Where do I need to breathe? – areas you need space and margin in your life

Release

Each year we have both good and bad experiences personally and professionally. We need to explore these and determine what we need to let go of. Maybe our calendar should be cleared of certain experiences or responsibilities. Possibly there is something we need to release emotionally. To help us determine what to release use these questions:

What thing do I need to release? – a physical thing
Who are the people I need to release? – relationships have a lifespan at times and if a relationship does not serve us, we need to let it go
What are the activities I need to release? – maybe some activities are not serving us well anymore
What commitments do I need to release? – look at what we need to say “no” to

Reset or Renew

This is the part where we are looking ahead. I remember playing my Nintendo Entertainment System as a kid and needing to press the reset button because of frustration. This is true for all of us. Especially after a year like 2020 we may have realized through forced shutdown that we need to set aside time to renew ourselves so we can lead ourselves and others from a healthy place. These are Ray’s questions that help us stay energized as we move ahead:

Is my focus in alignment with my purpose? – if you don’t know your purpose, get clarity there
What do I need to do to renew my energy physically, spiritually, and emotionally?
How do I need to renew my environment? – office, home

This can be a difficult, but necessary process. Maybe this helps you or you want to adjust it. If you need help thinking into your results then connect with me and let’s talk. Reflect on this year and move ahead to make next year even better. Lead Well.

Sep

2020

Planning or Stressing Ahead

I was talking with a small business owner about leadership challenges and during our conversation he brought up a phrase that I had never heard. Admittedly he had just thought of it while we were talking: stressing ahead.

We all have many thoughts going in our minds and multiple tasks we are responsible for. As we look at our week we can unconsciously fall into a mindset of stressing ahead instead of planning ahead.

Stressing Ahead

Leaders see all that needs to be done, but instead of planning ahead we assume a stressed mindset. Here are three signals that you may be stressing on top of or instead of planning.

Reactive

Leaders that are reactive live in the urgent and important arena. This is the area where we constantly react to the most urgent needs. When you hear a leader saying, “I’m constantly putting out fires,” then they are most likely leading reactively. There are seasons of this, but when this is the norm, you create an environment ripe for unnecessary stress.

Anxious

Sunday night comes and we start thinking of the week ahead. The leader who stresses ahead experiences a rising sense of worry and overwhelm. This sense may manifest in multiple anxious behaviors. Our thoughts impact our feelings which impact our behavior. A stressed and anxious leader creates the same in his or her team.

Focused on the Unimportant

“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things that are beyond the power of our will.” Epictetus

When we lead ourselves and others by focusing on what we cannot control or which is of little or lesser importance we raise our level of stress. If the issue facing us is minor and we focus on it longer than it deserves then we will turn something minor into a major issue and create a stressful environment. Can you control it? If the answer is no, then move ahead and quit worrying.

Planning Ahead

What can we do to stay out of the stress mode and in the planning mindset? Here are three ideas I hope will help.

Proactive

Leadership expert John Maxwell often says leaders see more before. Leaders who plan ahead see what needs to be done and create the margin to accomplish it. This proactive approach will help the busy leader see the busy task list and prepare both mentally and purposefully.

Strategic

The leader who has a planner’s mindset is strategic in his or her approach. They look at the time ahead of them and prioritize their schedule in a manner that helps them strategically move toward their goals. This strategic thinking prevents them from becoming reactive and allows room for the inevitable interruptions.

Calm and anticipation

Through strategic, proactive planning a leader can limit anxiety. Calm and positive anticipation replaces anxiety as the leader eagerly looks ahead to the plan he or she has set. Yes, work comes that we don’t want to do, but by being proactive and purposefully strategic we manage the unwanted work by completing it when it won’t drain us or delegating it to those who are better at it.

As a leader which do you tend to do: stress or plan ahead? What is one action step you can take today to plan and lead yourself and others more effectively? Need help thinking into that then contact me for a no cost thirty-minute thinking partner session. Lead well.

Mar

2020

Leading In A Stressful Home

We are behind closed doors in our house. Not because we are sick, but because we have three boys that will constantly interrupt us as we attempt to discuss a plan for the next month.

Both my wife and I work with mildly flexible schedules. Now we must navigate keeping three boys focused enough to accomplish their homework, work ourselves, and maintain a low stress home. This is what we were attempting to navigate during our conversation.

Our completely opposite personality styles became very apparent as we started the discussion. For those of you familiar with the Maxwell DISC Personality Indicator I use, I am on the exact opposite side of the spectrum. During this conversation I realized some ways I need to be a better leader for both our sake.

Maximize Each Other’s Strengths

I am a very task-oriented person. Combine that with a tendency to look at things black and white it creates tension with my relationship oriented spouse. At first this frustrated me, but when I created the structure my wife brought her strength of being able to think of the possible variables that could impact our kids.

After combining our strengths, we found a path that effectively provided both clear expectations and a plan for our children while leaving room for flexibility. In this flexibility we can adjust to each child’s unique personality.

Be Aware of Weaknesses

We both have weaknesses and one of mine is holding rigidly to the plan. By remaining aware of this, I can adjust my responses to neutralize the negative impact. In a situation that is ever changing and fluid I need to have a plan while recognizing the plan may need to be adjusted. This applies daily when raising children, but also in an ever-changing business or team environment.

You may not have the same weakness but understand yours and determine ways to neutralize it. This awareness prevents blind spots that can dramatically hinder our personal and professional leadership.

Work Together to Build a Unified Plan

While fending off interruptions from children, we recognized our individual strengths and weaknesses and then had to determine our best possible plan. Through gaining a unified agreement on our structure (with flexibility of course) and what we expect we will create a lower stress environment.

This sounds easy, but while implementing this process we will have to adjust. These same principles can be utilized at home and work. What helped this conversation the most for us was an awareness of our basic behavior styles. Had I not known our individual styles this conversation could have been much more difficult. If you want to learn your style go here or if you want to go deeper and learn your style and have a personalized debrief contact me writing DISC with debrief in the subject line at randy@wheelercoachingsystems.com and I will provide a blog reader’s discount. Keep focused, communicate often, and lead well.

Mar

2018

What a Car Show Taught Me About Leadership: Part I

A short time ago my son was in his room listening to a local radio station when he burst into my office excited about something. He really enjoys cars at this stage of his life and he heard about a local car show and he wanted to see. I checked out the cost and after seeing it was more than I was willing to pay I asked him if he was willing to pay for his ticket. Without hesitation he said “yes!”

A couple days later we get our tickets from the auto parts store that was sponsoring the event and drive downtown to attend the experience. Personally I am not as excited about looking at cars as my son, but we walk around and see cars ranging from classic cars to exotic race cars such as Lamborghinis. I must confess I did enjoy the experience more than I anticipated (it did help I was able to buy some fudge at a vendor).

During our time I was looking at photographs of a car in front of me that showed the process of rebuilding the car. I was intrigued so I asked him how he did it. After a brief conversation I found four principles from rebuilding a car that can be applied to leadership either personally or professionally.

Vision – In order to take something that looks to the common person as worthless and turn it into a display to be admired one has to have a clear picture in their mind of what the final result will look like. In order to lead anything one must have a clear picture of what the final result looks like.
Passion – Angela Duckworth discusses in her book Grit that a person who has grit or toughness exhibits two characteristics and one of those is passion. In order to take a rusted-out car and turn it into a showroom exhibit one has to have a lot of passion for the project. If your vision is going to come to fruition as a leader there must be passion that will fuel it or the vision will die from a lack of energy pushing it forward.
Strategic Plan – as I talked to the car owner I heard a plan that he had to implement in order to get a car with a rusted out bottom to become what eventually was a car that could be driven. This was not a random plan, but a specific process where certain aspects of the car were rebuilt first in order to get to the next step. As leaders we may have a vision and passion, but we must have a plan to follow which will have to be adjusted and will not be perfect. The plan will keep us focused on the purposeful work we need to accomplish so we lead intentionally.
Daily Action – One of the biggest concepts that arose from my brief conversation was that in order for him to accomplish this car rebuild he took daily action. He didn’t complete the project in one weekend. He did a little bit on a regular basis over a couple years. I know I get really impatient and want the vision fulfilled yesterday, but I need to remember that in order to accomplish anything worthwhile it will take daily habits that help me climb up the hill to my desired result.

As you look at these four principles where do you need to grow? Do you have a clear vision for what you are leading and are you passionate about it? If you have those is there a strategic (not perfect) plan in place? What is one daily action step you and your team need to take in order to fulfill the vision? Finally, who will hold you accountable to this next step? Keep leading well both at work and home with passion, vision, planning, and daily action and who knows what you will accomplish.