The Most Common Mistakes CEOs Make When Strategic Planning
When Dr. Park walked into my room in the ER at Memorial Sloane Kettering, he asked me a series of diagnostic questions as he read from my blood test results. I could see the fear in the eyes of my family and closest friends that mirrored mine.
Dr. Park then gave me a life-saving thought.
He said:
You don’t come to MSK to be treated.
You come to MSK to be cured.
GAME ON.
This one thought changed my life.
If survival was no longer in doubt, what would I do?
What could I do?
What was possible?
What if…
WHY NOT?!?!?!?
There was so much at stake, but nothing now felt risky. Nothing to lose and everything to gain.
I thought: I can launch my coaching business from the hospital.
I began to ask myself what was truly possible.
What if:
I got certified…
Enrolled in a leadership training class…
Created a 30-Day Challenge offer to enroll my first clients…
Begin writing a book…
With the bolder of cancer, nothing in my life was now at risk, and everything seemed possible.
We make decisions about our future every day. Much of the time, we make decisions to keep us safe.
Safe will never produce the future you really want.
One new thought can be life-changing. One thought can change a mind, one thought can fuse a team together, and one thought can change a company’s trajectory.
A few weeks ago, I hosted The Possibilities Workshop for a team of 10 executives after a morning-long review of the business. They felt good and had a solid and safe plan forward.
During the afternoon workshop, They began questioning solid and safe.
One new thought changed everything. One new thought gave way to reimagining their business and how they would work as a team going forward.
One of the leaders on the team shared a thought that at first landed uncomfortably.
The room went still.
The energy shifted.
Without a word uttered, you could feel the collective YES.
Almost a sigh of relief.
And then a collective impatience for success.
Here's the simple thought she offered: It’s our magic. We must believe it. Own it. Use our magic to boldly create demand for the company we want to work for.
With that one thought, everything changed for the team and the challenging decisions that would be required to achieve it.
They wanted it. Not the safe and solid.
They wanted permission to be bold, audacious, and feel safe even when uncertain. To embrace the risk because there was so much at risk if they didn't.
That one thought was the change they needed to become the company they wanted.
The Possibilities Workshop helps people and teams let go of risk and let in outrageous possibilities. The results have been nothing short of life-affirming for me and transformative for attendees. It allows leaders to move beyond the tactics of the day to imagine a desired and new future.
We don’t take enough time to imagine our futures for ourselves, our work, and our businesses.
You spend more time planning your vacations than planning your future.
It’s almost time for 2024 strategic planning. Strategic planning is a linear exercise that looks back to look forward. When your baseline is last year, you get increments of growth doing more of the same.
Strategic planning is not imagining or envisioning a new future because it is created from the past.
Default thinking that’s safe.
We wonder why things do not change.
Imagining radically is letting go of past experiences, escaping from mental models and habits we’ve become accustomed to.
If you want the business to be markedly different and a team rowing energetically towards a desired new future, it’s on you to empower them to think differently. Give them the freedom to explore and break the rules.
When you move away from doing things the way you always have done them and open yourself up to imagining what's possible even though it feels uncomfortable and even impossible, that's where creation and innovation unfold.
If you want to bring more freedom to your team to think boldly and explore without fear, shoot me back an email.
If you want to get on the waitlist for the 2024 Possibilities Group Workshop, simply respond to this email with WAITLIST.
In this podcast episode, I share my story of possibilities after being diagnosed with AML Leukemia and throughout the year of treatment.
I now call that period my post-traumatic growth period. Being hit with the bolder of cancer opened me up and gave me permission to get out of my head and take the biggest risk of my life.
It was impossible to think I could launch my coaching and consulting business from my hospital bed. It was impossible, but what if?
Nothing feels risky when you struggle with unspeakable side effects and uncertainty. I stood out on a ledge and started to fly.
If there were no risks, what would you do?
In your life.
Career.
Your business.
If your success was inevitable, what would you no longer be afraid to do?
If you are on the ledge and ready to fly, I’m your co-pilot. Send me an email at christina@christinalangdon.com as a first step in taking off.
If you are considering working with a High-Performance Success Coach or want to know more about the components of a coaching engagement, let’s get on a coaching call. As a business coach for women entrepreneurs, Executives, and Teams, my proven engagement method is highly results driven.
The question I get most frequently is, ‘What results can I achieve?’ Here’s what one client shared:
“Coaching is by far the most ROI-positive investment you can make in yourself. Do it! Even if you go in with a specific issue or question, you will be amazed by how the process can change your thinking about who you are, your skills, and where you want to go.”
You can wait for life to no longer be hard. If you are a dreamer and a doer, let’s have a conversation.
High-performance success coaching and business coaching, and life coaching combined for massive value and impact on your life and business.
