Planning for Success Leads to Success
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Funny how that is! The more I plan, the luckier I am. Luck you may ask? Success doesn’t just happen. It takes thought and preparation.
Here are five steps for this month!

1. Separate the nuggets: Become skilled at separating the nuggets of information from the sludge that crosses your desk daily. Be aware that there is such a thing as too much information that can easily cause your leadership brand to get bogged down in minutia. Know what is MOST important to get done in your day – according to your boss and his or her expectations. As the saying goes, “What’s important is what important people think is important.” Craft your strategy to get done the “have to do’s” without getting caught up in the “nice to do’s.”


2. Become a ninja: Anticipate your clients’ needs. If you’re well informed it’s easier to stay ahead of the trends. They change in a twinkle of an eye. Remember when American Airlines started the Advantage rewards program? Today just about every industry has a rewards program of some kind. Is your niche recognized as a value proposition, one that differentiates you in the marketplace? What about tomorrow? Strong brands evolve and always deliver on their promise of value. That’s how you get customers to become your brand ambassadors.


3. Keep your brand relevant: Condition yourself to learn fast. The speed of today’s business demands it – and your clients deserve it. Keeping your skills current is mandatory. What can you do to show your personal brand attributes in a way that demonstrates strong leadership capabilities? If you’re a life-learner, that shows you’re current. If you’re uber responsive, that shows you deliver above expectations.


4. When you make a mistake, correct it fast. It takes a strong leader to learn from a mistake, minimize it, and immediately move from recovery on to the next challenge. You’re human, you make mistakes and will likely make others. Sometimes those risks you must take at work just don’t turn out the way you had expected. Or maybe you’re buzzing around so fast that you miss a key detail. The point is that it does more harm than good to stress over a mistake and beat yourself up. That’s an unnecessary energy drainer. The sooner you can come to grips with your mistake, the less drama you will create for yourself and others. Learning from a mistake, fessing up to it (remember, bad news over time only gets worse), and correcting the mistake is what leaders do.


5. Above all else, create an environment of trust, integrity, and high expectations. Enable others to show their strengths, strong brand, and leadership competencies. Then align talent with tasks and encourage people through empowerment and reward.