Shaping Your Future
What you can do to bring the future back to today.
In the current business environment leaders are subject to increasing demands on their time, requiring faster responses, with less information in shorter time-scales. In this age of infinite information and endless distraction, it’s easy to spend an entire day reacting and responding to what others want as opposed to what we want or need to do.
Here is a question for you.
Do a quick calculation of the percentage of time you spend responding to things in a typical day (answering email and phone calls, etc.). Compare this with the percentage of time you spend initiating actions.
Where do you spend most of your time? In most cases, a reactionary time greatly outweighs proactive time.
The problem is that you spend most of your time dealing with the past in the present, making it difficult to prepare, plan and act for the future. And it is what you initiate today that will shape the future. It might be a conversation that leads to a new friendship, sharing an idea that leads to a new product or service etcetera. Your ability to create a positive charge for others is almost directly proportional to the amount of time you can spend initiating instead of responding.
Leaders look to the future, deal with people, and lead change. So, with your team, allocate time to reflect and look to the future to determine what you can and need to initiate that is aligned with your purpose and goals. Talk with others, and encourage your team to do the same, to gain insights into their perspectives and thoughts and to start the process of developing opportunities for the future. Look to initiate rather than respond, this will help you to be proactive and to take control of the future for yourself.
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