Welcome to the November issue of The Total Leader® Newsletter from LMI UK, The PLANNING issue.
It has variously been reported that many people spend more time planning their summer holiday than everything else in their lives combined. We can’t verify this absolutely, but it has a ring of truth about it!
Planning is something that most leaders do less of than they would like to do and recognise would be valuable in helping them achieve better results in their organisations. Equally, there don’t seem to be many people who have a clear and well thought-out plan for their lives.
In this issue we’ll look at some of the reasons for this and how you can improve your own results through better and more consistent planning.
How much, how often and for how long?
The world today moves faster than ever before. You have to stay agile, ready to adapt to whatever is happening around you in your marketplace, the wider economy and, for many organisations, the global geo-political arena.
There are emails, Teams chats, Slack messages and WhatsApps (and even the occasional old-school phone call!) pinging constantly all around us.
If we plan too much, we might think, there’s a clear and present danger of missing out on the opportunities that might arrive any minute now!
The result of this kind of thinking is that people find themselves working in a constant FOMO state, unable to focus on anything for very long, afraid that the email that just arrived could be the big thing for today, or that failing to respond within minutes to that ‘something urgent’ that someone wants from them might be the cause of some permanent demerit mark against them.
Where does good planning fit into all this?
Clearly planning is necessary. You have to give careful thought to where you are going and how to get there. Equally clear is the fact that you can’t do long-range planning – the next five years, one year even – and then stubbornly follow through on that plan, refusing to acknowledge and respond to what it happening around you.
What is needed is a planning process and schedule that is able to create both effective long-term strategy and enable you to stay current in a fast-moving, VUCA environment.
Rather than focus on the content of your planning – there is much written about this and it will be specific to your unique situation – the best starting place is to look at building in the frequency and duration of your planning so that you know that you are regularly reviewing things and making/adjusting plans as necessary.
The following suggestion is not definitive but is a good starting point that will work well for most leaders and organisations:
Annual plan: 1-2 days
Quarterly plan: ½ - 1 day
Monthly plan: 2 - 4 hours
Weekly plan: 1 - 2 hours
Daily plan: 10 - 30 minutes
What makes the difference is that you build in your time for review, reflection and planning with sufficient frequency and duration to stay on top of what is happening right now in your world and also create effective strategy for the longer term.
Once you have scheduled those times, protect them vigorously! Those urgent and insistent minute-by-minute pings will love nothing more than taking over your planning time for their own self-perpetuating purposes!
If you’d like some support in creating your own planning schedule, please get in touch and we’d be glad to help.
Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets planning.
Thomas Edison
Bite-size Total Leader®
Leaders are faced continually with multiple, diverse situations and developing in all four core leadership elements gives a distinct advantage - like an actor who can convey the whole range of emotions, or a golfer who is brilliant on the putting green as well as off the tee.
In this section you’ll find practical bite-size ideas related to this month’s topic across the four elements of the Total Leader® that can help sharpen your own leadership skills.
1. Personal Productivity
Here the message is simple. If it doesn’t already exist, schedule time right now for daily, weekly and monthly planning. Make it a recurring calendar appointment and stick to it! Eliminate distractions whilst planning so you can give clear, unbroken thought to the day/week/month ahead and you’ll find these times quickly become invaluable.
2. Personal Leadership
Think about that (possibly true!) statistic that people spend more time planning their holiday than their life and begin to redress that balance for yourself. One way that can help is to give yourself a score out of 10 for different aspects of your life – e.g. physical health, personal finance, education, social activity – and make a plan to move each area up one notch. Regular personal planning will give you the impetus to move your own life in the direction you would like it to go, often with surprisingly rapid and exciting results.
3. Motivational Leadership
Creating and nurturing a motivational environment is one of a leader’s most important responsibilities. Plans that are delivered to your team as a ‘fait accompli’ can have a hugely demotivating impact. Conversely, where people are involved in relevant discussions and play a significant role in making the plans that they are then tasked with implementing, engagement levels soar and results invariably improve. Think about who you could involve in the planning process and get some group planning time scheduled!
4. Strategic Leadership
Some questions to consider for you and your leadership team. Take time to review your strategic plans and see if they are currently fit-for-purpose. Are they helping you make good day-to-day decisions? Are they giving direction to you and the whole organisation that is meaningful and exciting? Have you got the right balance between long-term planning and short-term adjustments?
Leadership development is not a one-off event and leadership is not simply a role or title, rather it’s a way of thinking and behaving. The best leaders are Total Leaders® and the most successful organisations develop leaders throughout the entire organisation.
Upcoming events
Foundations of Success Workshop
This is an online, 2-hour workshop that we run every month, with the offer of two complimentary places to every UK organisation.
15th November & 12th December
“very motivational and applicable to any element of business. I would highly recommend to anyone!”
“really informative and interactive…provided solutions that can be easily incorporated into your daily routine. A really worthwhile session for anyone wanting to become more efficient.”
click here to reserve your place
Total Leader Part 1: Effective Personal Productivity kick off (Online open programme)
Next start: 17th January 2024 - Total Leader® Part 1
Life-changing productivity improvement for you and the team you lead.
We trust you have enjoyed this edition of the LMI UK newsletter. If you’d like to share any feedback or discuss anything raised, please contact us at info@lmi-uk.com.