It’s one thing to set a BIG GOAL but I think you would agree that the hard thing is to make sure you make it happen.
Right now we are in the midst of the presidential campaign. Each of the candidates for both parties have a big goal of becoming the next president of the United States.
I guarantee you the winner will do the best job of understanding the reality they face and then putting together a plan to take people with them.
The reality will start with an insight driven by self awareness of how voters see the candidate today. What are the strengths they need to reinforce; what perceptions do they need to build or change? For example, just listening to the political pundits, you hear: Can Hillary Clinton become more trusted? Can the nation afford the programs Bernie Sanders is proposing? Can Donald Trump represent America is a humble fashion when required? Is Chris Christie a bully or just decisive? Is Marco Rubio experienced enough? Can Jeb Bush separate himself from his big brother? Can Jon Kasich go from low awareness to high awareness? Can Ben Carson demonstrate a command of the issues as a relative outsider? Can Carly Fiorina overcome the fact she was fired as a CEO and leverage her background as an innovator?
No matter who the candidate is, they will need to identify their specific issues and be sure to develop a focused plan to win the election. What is their strategy? In other words, what do they need to accomplish to gain the votes they need? And then, how will they structure and marshall the resources they have to execute their strategy? For example, will they have to spend disproportionately to win Ohio and Florida? Will they have to target the Millennial voters? What political consultants will they recruit and hire?
Wow, there are so many decisions to be made to ensure the campaign is well organized and focused to attain their big goal. Remember when Obama beat Romney? One of the keys was how well the Obama team organized to take advantage of social media to win the vast majority of Millennial and minority voters. That’s a great example of having a strategy and putting the plan together to execute.
At the same time, each of the current candidates will have to create the culture for their team that instills the passion, energy and work ethic to get the vote out on their behalf. Once more, the successful candidate will have to build the belief that they can create the environment in our country where more people can grow and prosper by promoting the values and behaviors that will inspire support.
Clearly, being the president of the United States is a pretty heavy goal and the winning candidate will have to execute a great plan to make sure he or she wins.
As you work with your students, push them to have a big goal and pursue a big project. And as you do, challenge them to be specific on the tactics they plan to execute to make it a reality. Help them develop a REAL action plan. To get your students pumped up, I encourage you to create a culture of recognition. Be sure to highlight the great initiatives and ideas as you see them. This recognition will build the momentum that will help motivate the students to accomplish big things.
The awesome thing about being a teacher or coach is that you help people achieve what they never thought was possible and it’s really fun to help them be a part of something bigger than themselves.
Think about your big goal for Lead4Change and develop an action plan to make it happen with your students. What specific things are you going to do to make sure Lead4Change accomplishes what you envision? The joy and reward will be in the doing and watching your students grow as they learn to lead and serve.
If you are not yet a member of Lead2Feed, begin your journey to accomplishing your big goal by registering today.