17. Leadership: Implementing Plans Not Ideas

Hey, my friend Kenny Chapman here, your host of leadership in a nutshell, where we're cracking the code of the driven mind. Welcome back. I'm super pumped to talk to you today about implementing plans, not ideas. Let's get plan focused. Now, obviously, everything starts with an idea. But as driven minded leaders, entrepreneurs, managers, you know, with thought leaders, as we think about all the different things that bounce around in our mind if we run around starting to take action, you know, there's an assessment called the Colby assessment, and they measure a few different things. One of the things that they measure is called Quick Start. How high are you on a scale of 1 to 10 when it comes to starting quickly? Some people want to do a little more research, get a little more information. Some people want to sleep on it, want to think it through a little bit. And here's a tip. Kenny Chapman is a 9 out of 10 on Quick Start. Oh, no. What does that mean? That means that I got really good at implementing ideas rather than plans, and that is so painful. That's fine if you're a solopreneur. If you're running around and the only wake that you're causing and the boats that you're wrecking is your own as you run it into the dock and turn and hit rocks as you're out there not navigating effectively because you just go, oh, I think I'm going to go over here now. Oh, I think you're never going to get that much accomplished. But, hey, at least you're not bringing anybody down with your ship. However, as a leader on our time together here today, you probably have people following you. We probably have people counting on you. And when I talk about implementing plans, I'm not saying that things don't change and that plans don't evolve. We're talking about this during 2020. Can I get a hoorah? Can I get an amen? Can I get a hell, yeah? Plans change. And we've never been more clear about that than we are right now as we are going through this time together. Right. However, it's about creating a plan to implement. It's about implementing that plan or what that plan evolves and turns into. It's not about implementing ideas. So this became very, very clear to me back in 2018. I met a gentleman by the name of Keith Cunningham. Keith Cunningham happens to be one of the rich dads, the two rich dads that Robert Kiyosaki wrote the book Rich Dad, Poor dad about. He modeled two different people in this book. And as far as Rich dads go. And Keith Cunningham was one of those gentlemen. And this is a man who lost $100 million in the market crashes back in the 80s. He was leveraged in real estate and banking and different types of fund, lost $100 million. I want you to let that sink in for a minute. And when I was talking to him, he's like, you know, sometimes I feel like I'm the dumbest guy in the room because I was able to lose 100 million. You have a hard. You can find all kinds of people lost 20, 30, 40, 50, 100 grand, 500 grand. A million, 5 million. But a hundred million bucks, that's almost hard to do to get to that level and lose it all. Good thing for Keith and for you on with me here today is that he figured out how to earn it all back. Now he's got multiple businesses, nine figures. He's an incredible man. He's very inspiring and he helped me tremendously because I realized that I was implementing ideas. I would have a great idea. I would think, man, that's amazing. I'm going to go ahead and go make this happen. And I've had that show up in various ways in business, in personal relationships, in life. I've had businesses that I've started on an idea, I've taken on partners on an idea. I, I've added team members on an idea. And what I know is that I win when I really implement plans. So I want to give you a few ways that you can just take a step back and go, cool. I'm a driven minded individual. I know I'm creating value in the world. I know that I'm leading my team as effectively as I can. But what if I just got off that hamster wheel a little bit? What if I stopped squirreling around, if you will, you know, kind of bouncing around like a pinball in a machine. I write about in the six dimensions of change 2.0. It's one of those things where you just go, hang on, wait a minute, what am I doing here? Here's where I want to give you a couple strategies. And the first thing I want you to do is slow down. You and I were drivers. We're going, we're just. What's next? Let's go. Okay, cool. I accomplished that. I got that going. Now I want to do this. Now I want to do that. I've got. That's okay. And that's part of being a driven minded human, being a driven minded leader. But that can create chaos if you don't take a step back and slow down. How many of you right now can look back at a poor financial decision you made, a poor business decision you made, a poor relationship decision you made. And now you can take a step back and look back from your eyes today, from the human being you are right now and you go, huh? I would not do that today. There is zero chance that I would make that decision. Now. I'm not saying that you wouldn't go, that you want to go back and change it and oh, woe is me, Kenny. I want to change. I'm not. No, of course not. I wouldn't change anything in my past. It's what brought us together. It's what brought me to this point in my life. It's what gave us the opportunity to be together here today as we share this so valuable time that we have together. However, moving forward, I don't want to make the same mistakes I made in the past we or get the same education that I've gotten in the past. One of my Keith Cunningham stories is around dumb tax. He writes in one of his books, he calls it the dumb tax. Right? And that's what happens if you make a mistake. He paid $100 million in dumb tax. Right. Hopefully you don't have to pay that much. And one of the ways that we stop paying so much dumb tax is when we take a step back and go, huh, Slow down, take a moment to pause, create some space so you can just huh, what does this mean to me? And think on it a little bit. That's the second thing I want you to create is strategic thinking time. Literally block it on your calendar is what Keith taught me to do. You got an idea, you got a concept, you got a market you want to go into. You want to hire a new sales manager, you want to go into a new direction with your business. You want to lead your team through the current situation, current condition. Put an appointment on the calendar with yourself. Call it strategic thinking time, call it whatever you want, I don't care. But I like strategic thinking time where you are working on the business. More importantly, you're working on the business leader. We've heard this for many years now. Work on it, not in it. But what? Who are you working on if you're not working on the number one who in your world, which is you, you might be missing some massive opportunity. And we pay dumb tax in two different ways. We pay dumb tax by making ill fated decisions and we pay dumb tax by not maximizing opportunities. Both of those things are Areas that we can maximize when we first slow down. Secondly, schedule some strategic thinking time and block an hour and go to. Maybe it's a coffee shop with some music in. Maybe it's in your office. Get out a writing pad, get out your iPad, get out your notebook, whatever, and just start jotting, start writing, start doing different thoughts around this. One of the episodes here at Leadership in a Nutshell, I talk about effective journaling tips. I'm not talking about journaling here, but it's similar concept. Or just write and get it out of your head and what are all the different things? Then get away from it for a while and come back with a clear mind. This slows down. This incredibly driven mind, this subconscious that's running like crazy. And very optimistic, by the way. As driven leaders, we are very optimistic. We're always looking at the glasses half full. Even now, if so many people are worried about just every single thing. And you and I are looking for opportunity. We're going, okay, this has happened. Interesting situation we're in. What does this mean to me? What are the questions that I'm not asking that I need to be? What does this mean to my organization? What's a potential blind spot that I might have? Where can I show up at a different level? Right. These are the things where you really start to zero in on going, huh? I'm going to implement a plan. Yes, it begins as an idea, but then you implement the plan. Plan. Okay, so then and only then, once you've gone through these first three steps, my friend, create space. You know, just slow down and create some space. Second, you schedule some strategic thinking time. Third, write, capture it, write it down, all those things. Then and only then do you start thinking about why there's three W's here. Why, who and when? So as I have these amazing ideas, and I don't know about you, but sometimes they come in the middle of the night. Sometimes they come when you're getting ready in the morning. Sometimes they come when I'm doing my best to meditate and dang subconscious pops in with an idea for me. Whatever it is, right? You have these things come up. And right at the moment, it's like, oh, this is the greatest idea ever. After you schedule your time and take a step back and go, okay, let me write about this. And now get back to your why again. Like, why do I really want to hire a sales manager? I gave that example. Like, what would that be? Why do I really want to go after that? And make sure that you have emotional engagement. Make sure. That there is proof, that there's proof that you need to make this change, that maybe there's a problem in the marketplace, maybe there's a problem in a situation. You know, one of my companies, we do a ton of live events. We used to do a ton of in person events in 2020 that completely got changed. So I say, well, we. Why do I need to change my strategy? Oh, by the way, because it's illegal to have them the way we used to have them. That's why. Then you go to the second one and go, who? Who is going to help me with this? Who's going to be responsible for this, involved in this? Who's going to be a champion with me? Now, I'm talking about a plan, my friend. I'm not talking about ideas. I'm talking about who is going to help me execute this thing. Third W I want you to focus on today is when. So it's who or I mean, it's why rather then it's who and then it's when. Why is it critically important? Why gives you the driving factor when you stumble, which you will. When you run into challenges, which you will, you can always tie back to. I know, okay, I know why I'm doing it. It's painful, it's challenging, it's costly, but I know why. Who I thought out who are going to be my champions? Who on my team? Can I enlist? Can I enroll? Can I get engaged to really help me here last when are we going to do this? Put it to some calendar, put it to some project breakdown, put it to some time stamps and off to the races you go. It is about implementing plans, not ideas. Please give us a rating. Subscribe if you haven't subscribed yet, make sure you stay with us and get involved in our community. I love community. I love hearing what you got going on. Stay in touch throughout the week. During the podcast time, go to kennychapman.com group and join our private Facebook community for leaders where you can share openly and get involved with us Leadership. In a nutshell, cracking the code of the driven mind. I'm your host, Kenny Chapman. Implement plans, not ideas. Make it a better than fantastic day.