Increasing Employee & Client Engagement

2009 has been such a challenging year in so many ways.  It was a perfect storm.  I do not have to tell you that… because you lived it.  Based on many conversations I have had, many say they are just going to coast in and get ready for 2010. 

Yes, I too feel I have run uphill 90 miles an hour this entire year and would enjoy a long slumber.

Before we settle down for a long winter’s nap, and have visions of sugar-plums dance in our heads.  We need to rethink this holiday season.

No matter how much we hope, do not expect just going to sleep through the end of the year will bring better results once you awake, just like dormant grass will rejuvenate in the spring.  

Although I feel them… I do not think that is the best course of action right now.   We need to FINISH the year with a Twinkling.

The best teams know that the fourth quarter is as important as the other three combined…  You are tired, physically and mentally.  It can not only take a lousy game (or year) and make it ring with victory, it can make all the hard work you put forth worth it.  I always say, it is not how you start the race, but rather how you finish.  We celebrate finishers…  Hitting a walk off homerun, hitting the shot with 1 second on the clock or draining the putt to win.  What we do in the clutch at the end is how we are measured.

So I hope you will put down the hammer with me…  Keep the throttle high.  Elevate your energy.  FINISH.  The great news is there is hope.  People are excited about 2010.  Prospects & Customers are melting and actually excited to talk to you for the first time in a long time.

Even though the end of the year is not the finish line, run through it and get a head start on 2010.

Even though 20/20 vision is about clarity of sight with distance, this actually was referring to the year 2020. 

 Do you remember in the 80’s when we sang, Party Like its 1999.  Did we think we would live in a world like the Jetson’s by now?  Well we are not there yet, but the world is changing faster.  The last 6 months to a year seemed to change as much as the first 9 years of the decade combined.  Technology is rapidly shaping the world.

With this decade coming to an end and a new one beginning… I wanted to give a months notice that we need to really take a look forward.  However, it will be just as important to take a look back where the only real 20/20 vision is useful. 

As the world moves faster our visions gets shorter… We lose track of long-term goals because we do not feel like they will be as relevant because of all the change.  The problem I see with most long term plans is that they are isolated and not contingent.

Goals are basically intentions… right?  Your strategy needs to have goals that are congruent and leading you where you ultimately want to end up.  It is easy to get off track.  The first half of the decade I thought I had all these great “goals” of getting my MBA and other isolated things.  They were great in their own way but they were not leading me to where I wanted to go.

I do personal branding workshops & boot camps… and really worked hard putting together 10 steps that help hinge upon themselves that will keep you going toward your ultimate goal.  Success is not an event, it is a journey.  It is taking a look at everything that is possible and defining its potential and putting action steps into performance.  Every action needs to set you up for your next action and build upon that.

So as you start thinking about the next decade, use 2020 vision.