We spend most of our time beating back the alligators while we’re trying to pull the plug on the swamp. We are enslaved by the tyranny of the urgent, ducking for cover from the barrage of everyone else’s demands.
You know what demands we don’t get? Requests to work strategically. Yet, that’s the one thing that can have the greatest impact on us, our work, and the business we work in. We don’t get nearly enough time to think about better ways to do things, where to create efficiencies, how to plan our work, new business opportunities, or how to develop ourselves and others. If you don’t make those demands of yourself, no one else will. If you wait until you have time, you will be waiting a very long time. Take the time to pivot from the chaos of your day into thinking and working strategically. How? Start by listing a few strategic questions that will have the greatest impact on you. Then carve out a time to think about or process those questions.