Forward 2021: 3 Steps To Help You Succeed In The New Year
2020 was the VUCA year no one saw coming. Even if you were following COVID-19 and anticipating its impact in the US, no one understood quite the scale at which it would affect every business and sector of life. As the challenges kept on coming, we recommended several ambiguity and complexity-mitigation measures to help leaders and organizations make the best out of the year - like improving how you communicate with your team, completing a VUCA SWOT exercise, tips for leading through uncertainty, and bringing your team together for scenario planning.Now 2020 is coming to a close and there's one question on everybody's mind. Will 2021 be another roller-coaster ride? We can't know for sure what the year will bring, but we do know that many of the same conditions from this year will follow us into the next. This may not be the best news, but there is an upside: 2020 has already given us the tools and experience to plan for uncertainty.We recommend 3 levels of action to prepare yourself, your team, and your organization for a successful new year. These action items are designed to help you think about what you can do right NOW to position well for any scenario – whether health and safety related, unexpected market shifts, or our favorite down here in Louisiana – hurricanes. Set the tone for the year to come with these positive, forward-thinking actions.
Prepare yourself for 2021
Our Critical Success Factors Dashboard is a simple tool to help you think about the future, and track the metrics that are vital to your personal success in three areas: Business/Career, Personal, and Community. Success flows from balance, and too much focus on one area (such as career over your personal and community impact) will lead to increased stress and anxiety… affecting your ability to meet challenges as they arise. Maintaining forward momentum in all three sectors might sound overwhelming, but we encourage you to choose and track only three goals in each area, thus helping you prioritize your efforts. In 2021 it’s all about taking the small steps forward every day that will move the needle in the most important areas of your life.
Download the Critical Success Factors Dashboard here.
Prepare your team for 2021
Bring your team together for a planning session and complete our VUCA SWOT exercise. This session will help establish your clear strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats for the coming year; and it will engage your team as part of the process, expanding their thinking and utilizing their insight in working towards a common goal. Strategy and action items will flow out of this process, but contrary to belief a plan does not lock you into one course of action. Plans allow teams to be more flexible and better prepared for ambiguity, because they start with a base understanding of limitations and possibilities for growth.
Download the VUCA SWOT Dashboard here.
Prepare your organization for 2021
Focus on leadership and developing your talent pipeline. Engaging your team through the planning process will naturally lead to opportunities to pinpoint gaps, build strengths, and develop your reports for resilient leadership in a VUCA world. Equipping emerging leaders for future success will yield dividends for your organization in the long haul, because in times of ambiguity and turbulence, your people strategy can provide stability through the storm.Team planning, leadership development and personal success all benefit from a structured and facilitated process, with follow-up built in. This allows for a smooth transition to action. If you need support at any stage, the consultants at Success Labs are eager to help you. We've spent 2020 working with organizations on strategy, scenario planning, and talent development as businesses were forced to pivot in ways they never expected - and now we'd love to help you get a head start on 2021.Going into the uncertainty of a new year feels strange when the issues we faced in 2020 haven’t been fully laid to rest yet – but it’s important to realize that you can still make plans, set goals, and reclaim a measure of focus and control over the unknown. Engaging your team and your emerging leaders in the process gives you more power of flexibility, creativity and agility as we chart a course for the new year. As we enter Q1 of 2021, remember that sometimes just a few steps forward is enough to get you started down the right path - even when you can't yet see what's around the curve.Success Labs is a leadership development and management consulting firm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For more than 25 years, our expert team of consultants has worked with hundreds of companies to grow leaders, build teams and drive results through great people strategy. Contact us to get proactive about expanding your company’s potential.