Detour Ahead…Need a Road Map? (Part 1)

I’m a planner by nature…I enjoy leaving my house on errand runs with a specific strategy in mind.

I look forward to completing the stops on my outing. Having a goal of being efficient with my route while also accomplishing exactly what I set out to do is genuinely fun for me.

On a recent outing, I had everything all laid out. Those who know me will not be surprised that I even had my stops written down in the order I intended to make them. (It’s so satisfying to check them off one by one along a logical path around town!) Then, with no warning, I rounded a corner to find a chain link fence protecting those of us on the street from the danger of a nearby construction site. A “detour” sign hung on the fence, instructing me to alter my journey.

What happened to my errand running plan is similar to what happened to many organizations’ strategic plans in 2020. The pandemic detour sign popped up, and plans changed. For some organizations, the impact has mirrored my journey that day: some frustration and lessened efficiency, but a relatively small long-term impact. For others, it’s as if turning off their original route was like veering off onto a pothole-ridden road of terrifying uncharted territory. And for a select few organizations, the detour became an on-ramp to a superhighway of new opportunity.

The coronavirus pandemic very likely disrupted and possibly even destroyed whatever strategic plans your organization had created for 2020.

Where are you now? Have you changed your vision for the next year or two? Or—perhaps you have even changed your mission. Wherever you are, the key is to build from there.

We at Milestone Leadership know leaders worth following inspire their followers to execute specific actions. Ensuring those actions take the organization in the direction of a shared vision, great leaders focus on being true to the stated mission or purpose of the organization. They hold fast to the values that govern expected behaviors and enforce them with others.

Do you need help rebuilding or fortifying your mission, values, and vision? We can guide your journey to create that strong foundation. Feeling solid on your foundation and ready to construct actionable plans to move forward? We can
guide you through that process.

That detour sign that appeared in early 2020 has taken all of us on a quite unexpected journey. What about the road ahead?

We’ll explore that in our next post, Detour Ahead – Part 2.

Written by: Sandy Tush, Partner – Milestone Leadership