Looking Ahead

What does 2021 hold for you?

Other than wishing it will be better than 2020 - what goals have you set?

Are your team committed to the journey you have planned for the coming year?

Looking back on 2020 it is the year that will be remembered by the word “unprecedented”,  and in business the word that epitomises the year will be “pivot”.  These words have been used so much that they have fallen rapidly into the space of jargon. As we look forward to 2021, it already is being hailed as the year of the vaccine, with the hope of some sort of normality returning to a world that is still reeling in turmoil.

New Zealand has been spared most of the terrible tragedies seen around the world. It can be tempting to have a degree of complacency, assuming all will be well in the coming year.  If there's one lesson we ought to have learnt this year, it is that one cannot predict the future. The best laid plans can be so easily waylaid by factors completely out of your control.  The temptation, in light of this fact, is not to plan for the coming year but to take it as it comes. 

I encourage you not to fall into this trap. Approach this coming year with dreams, a vision and plans. When I look back over this year, it is the companies that have had dreams and visions and plans that have best adapted to the changing environment and been able to rapidly manoeuvre resources to keep a forward momentum.  Plans are not meant to lock you into place - they are an early warning system that lets you know when things are deviating from what you thought would happen,  giving you time to reconsider your options.

Take some time out ahead of starting in the New Year and look at what went well this year that you can learn from,  what went well that you should continue doing.  Look at what you could stop doing. Read and research to see what you might be able to start doing.  As you develop your plans, I encourage you to build ‘white-space’ into them.  By ‘white space’ I mean time deliberately created in your calendar to stop, reconsider, regroup and review on a more frequent and regular basis.

Additionally, remember what is most important in your life, as well as what is important in your business and ensure you carve out time to invest in those areas that mean the most to you.

Here’s to your success!