Tuesday at 2:00pm with Russ

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

Greetings to you!

Each week I send out a short leadership blog that's called "Tuesday at 2:00pm". The purpose of this is simply to provide a brief thought on leadership that you can read and think about in just a few minutes. I send it out every week at 2:00pm (PST) and encourage you to make an appointment with yourself to pause and think about the thing I'm writing about.

Russ...

LEADERSHIP QUOTE:

"Strategic Planning does not deal with future decisions, it deals with the futurity of present decisions." Peter Drucker

What does this stir up? Either write me HERE or comment at the end of the blog post HERE.




A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:

It's November, and if you're like me, as we approach the last weeks of the year, you begin to think about what's next. I'm in the middle of budget planning, calendar planning, and project planning, yet the most important aspect of planning is simply asking questions around STRATEGY and what will get us where we want to and need to go. This month, let's look at strategy a little bit and see what we can learn.

But first, today is election day in the USA, and while all of our readers aren't in the USA, I am, and the quote above connects with our election as well as the conversation we'll have around strategy.

My prayer today for the United States is that we would have a peaceful election and that we would consider the decisions we're making TODAY that will affect our TOMORROW! Pray with me today for the process we're in and for the Leaders that will be selected to lead us forward!

Here's a great definition of strategy I've carried with me. Not sure where it came from, but I like the flow of it:

"Strategy generally involves setting goals and priorities, determining actions to achieve the goals, and mobilizing resources to execute the actions."

When Peter Drucker makes a statement, people stop, listen, think, question, and then act. I do.

I have a book from Drucker called The Daily Drucker, and sometimes when I get stuck on something, I just open up a page and it causes me to step back and think again.

I came across this quote about 2 months ago, and I've been carrying it with me trying to figure out how it applied to me. First, I had to look up the word "futurity" which I didn't think was a real word, but it is, and it simply means "the future time; a future event".

Before I comment on Druckers quote, how does it land with you?

DEEPER STILL:

I've found that often, when talking about STRATEGY, we don't do a good job of capturing the whole picture. Remember the definition I shared above?

"Strategy generally involves setting goals and priorities, determining actions to achieve the goals, and mobilizing resources to execute the actions."

Here's another way to think about it:

You're standing on a mountain peak, looking out and you identify another mountain peak you want to get to. The problem is that you have to climb down, walk through a valley, find the best way to summit that next peak, and then you have to make it happen.

Not to simplify it, but strategy is simply seeing where you want to get to, and creating a map of how you'll get there.

The Drucker quote is a reminder to us that the decisions we make today will directly affect where we're trying to get to tomorrow. We need to make decisions today with our strategy in mind.

Why is this sometimes difficult for me to do?

  • I've got pressing needs all around me today that demand my attention

  • I get distracted and forget where I want to get to

  • I try to get there too quickly and I burn out

  • I'm trying to get there on my own, I don't bring others into it

  • I constantly change directions and never get anywhere

There's no way to do it perfectly, but it's a "PURSUIT". Where is God calling you to, and how are you going to get there?

Don't worry about having a perfect strategy. Just do your best, and get moving!

 

Things I'm Reading, Listening To and Watching This Week:

Source: www.leadermundial.org