It is that time of the year when most entrepreneurs and business leaders would be pouring the proverbial midnight oil to do three things – review the performance for the year that went by, fine-tune the implementation of a strategic business plan to perform better during the next twelve months and lastly bite their nails anxiously wondering how to escape blame if either of the first two are not showing any encouraging signs!
And, as is often forgotten, the
challenges for most businesses can seldom be overcome using the same sets of
data and knowledge that one has got comfortable with!
Wit and Wisdom, it’s usually acknowledged, are powerful weapons that have rescued many a hapless human being from death or even worse! So why are these ignored by the current generation of business leaders? I have no definitive answers, but I hope that the following ten random selection of wit and their hidden wisdom will resonate with many who are struggling to finalize their business plans.
|
WIT |
WISDOM |
|
Only chickens
accomplish something by sitting on their asses! |
Get
out of your comfort zone. Innovate if you want to see dividends to your
efforts. |
|
Fed up with boiling
water each evening? Heat 10 litres, and freeze for future use! |
There
is always a right process and a right time for that process to be effective.
No amount of premature planning and execution will improve its effectiveness. |
|
Never underestimate
the power of stupid people in large groups! |
It
is important to have the right levels of talent alongside the right sets of
attitude in the team. Large numbers of mediocre talent with a passive
approach will never take you beyond a level of overall performance. |
|
If you don’t know
where your kids are in the house, turn off the internet and watch them
magically appear! |
Unless
you create the enabling conditions that challenge your teams to stretch out
and perform to their peak levels, you will miss out on recognising their
capabilities. |
|
If you can’t blind
them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit! |
It
seldom helps if strategic planning gets hijacked by either sheer analytic
brilliance or by glib talk. Identifying and Connecting all the possible dots
that will impact the visionary goals calls for listening to the heart too and
learning to use intuitive judgement in parallel. |
|
Never break two laws
at the same time because that’s how you get caught! |
The
two things that increasingly matter for stakeholders are Ethics and
Governance. Falling foul of either will undermine all that you are struggling
to build. |
|
Silence is golden.
Unless you have kids! Then silence is suspicious! |
Understand
the interests and the power of your key stakeholders, and keep a track to
manage them better. |
|
To be sure of hitting
the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target! |
Never
be deliberately ambiguous in your targets. Never deliberately use a
“low-targeting, over-achieving” approach to planning. Both will misfire
badly. |
|
Is your sink full of
dirty utensils? Put some clean dishes in the draining rack! Now it looks like
you’re working on it! |
There
is nothing like “a best time to begin” or “well-begun is always half-done”
when it comes to implementing a strategy. It is always a work-in-progress and
needs constant efforts. |
|
If you can’t afford
virtual reality headsets, you can close your eyes and imagine everything you
want! |
Believing
in a Vision and Communicating that Vision as a relatable story for the entire
team to subscribe to, is the only cost that a leader needs to spend in order
to get the Core Value Proposition. |
