We didn’t always do it this way. Playing to my strengths and desires, CSR used to come galloping in to save the day.
Lots of adrenaline, exhausting, sometimes unsustainable, and – ultimately – not in the best interest of the client.
Here’s what I’ve learned:
Much like a child who has to eat his veggies and meat before getting to dessert, doing the planning piece HAS to preface the glory part;
No one (at least no one should) gets into their car and randomly drives around and “hopes” that they get to wherever they need to go – if I want to go to Miami or DC or Nashville, I either pull out a map or program my GPS. This is how grown-ups work!
With that plan in hand, even if it starts to get stale and conditions change the minute it’s shared, you have a point of departure – it’s hard to deviate from a plan if you never had one to begin with!
We’ll be talking about this a lot this year – one of CSR’s “uniques” is that we eat our own cooking (that is, we are willing – and like to! – implement that which we recommend). However, if there is no “recipe” (I know, I’m mixing metaphors) you risk eating something that could either be nasty tasting or poisonous!
This is why we start out all engagements with strategic planning sessions. It just makes sense.