“All right stop, collaborate and listen” Who knew that 26 years later this line would perfectly summarise how you can make the most of planning and executing your personal or business strategy! Makes me wonder if Vanilla Ice missed...
The end of another year means two common activities take place for individuals and businesses alike, reflection and planning.
Has the year been a success? What can you learn from it? What can you celebrate?
All relevant questions I would challenge you to ask yourself, but, moving forward how do we make the most of 2017? Well a wise man once rapped:
“All right stop, collaborate and listen”
Who knew that 26 years later this line would perfectly summarise how you can make the most of planning and executing your personal or business strategy! Makes me wonder if Vanilla Ice missed a great e-book opportunity.
Let’s break it down:
STOP
To actually stop is potentially one of the toughest actions to take in the modern world. There is almost always something that wants to grab our attention or distract us from an opportunity to relax.
Taking the time to switch off and step away from regular, every day activities can be one of the most beneficial steps in the process of planning your strategy.
Make the time to STOP. Do this before you start thinking about what comes next. Gather your thoughts and prepare yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually or however you need to, so that the next 12 months can be your biggest yet.
COLLABORATE
Everyone fears that some form of “disruption” is going to shake up their ideas, career, business, lifestyle, EVERYTHING. To be honest, if you are going it alone then this is highly likely to happen.
Our ability to collaborate is so important to our extended success. Consider how a strategic partnership or a combination of two very different offerings could improve your ability to grow.
It might be a top buzz word right now, but it is the one I would pay the most attention to. Collaboration is just another means of reinvention, and a huge weapon in the fight to remain at the top of the game, no matter what you are playing.
LISTEN
Definitely the most challenging of the three steps.
The value of listening has been continually highlighted to me in recent months and shown itself to be the most powerful tool you can have in your emotional intelligence backpack.
We face situations everyday where listening, thinking and then responding could completely change an outcome. More often than not this outcome will improve as a result of listening.
Listening also dramatically assists you with establishing trust. In a world where the average punter is constantly aware of the next scam, if you can establish trust faster you are certain to have greater success with whatever you are trying to achieve.
Take the time to acknowledge others, respect opinions and consider the context before responding.
My challenge is that you take these three steps into consideration as you plan for 2017. Then spare a thought for the wisdom 90's rappers have brought us all these years later.
"Negativity spreads faster than any Justin Bieber song." Vanilla Ice
