With all the hustle and bustle of the holidays and ending the year, it’s time to set your vision and goals for next year.
The holidays often provide down time – time for reflection.
They can also generate inordinate amounts of stress, making it hard to find the time, or the desire, to reflect.
As a leader for your organization, it’s critical to find the space, time, and perspective to create a vision and set your goals for the following year.
So…how to plan for next year, amid the end-of-year chaos?
Here’s the truth.
You can’t be strategic – have a wide field of vision – if you’re under stress. Our bodies are biologically inhibited from being strategic when we’re stressed.
If you’re one of the many folks who can’t find the time and space to plan for next year amid the hustle and bustle and family and gifts, give yourself permission to wait until you have the time, space and perspective.
Plans made under pressure or in haste are usually short-sighted, fraught with problems, and incomplete.
This is how to tell if you gained the perspective required for strategic thinking:
- You are calm.
- You can think about the future without being distracted by the current and immediate past.
- You are able to paint a picture with words about the future state of the business.
- You are able to anticipate pivot points, bottlenecks, and challenges between the current reality and the vision you’ve painted.
If you feel stressed, limited or stuck, then you haven’t yet gained the perspective to plan properly.
Happy Holidays! And here’s to a better 2013!