Motivational

Rule 24: Develop a Game Plan

August 5, 2016

Two Nigeria’s Elite Opposition Party, PDP Politicians, Gov. Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti & Ex-Miniser of State for Defense, Musiliu Obanikoro

Developing
a game plan is a bit like an actor choosing a part and learning their
script. Your game plan has to be who you
are going to be. Not many people choose
consciously to be a loser but that’s where they end up. Don’t let it happen to you. And it doesn’t happen, once you seize the
initiative and develop a game plan.

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Your
game plan is a sort of person mission
statement. It is different from
setting objectives which is how to be the person your game plan decides you
are.

So
who are you going to be? Successful? A
failure? Someone who gives up? Someone
who picks themselves up, dusts themselves off and starts all over again? A brilliant career strategist? A loser?
None of these?

Obviously
you could decide to be ruthless, unpleasant, cruel, vindictive, but we assume
you won’t – a Rules Player is never any of these. Your game plan should include your qualities
as well as what sort of game you want to plan – ‘I will be successful and still be a thoroughly nice person’.

“I am going to be a complete
and utter bastard and stitch up as many people as I can, be disliked by
everyone and generally make myself as unpopular as possible”

Not
many people sit down and consciously carry out this exercise. It may seem simple but it is an essential
tool to get you to where you want to be.
If more people did this they wouldn’t end up as prates, or the office
bore, or a gossip, or frighteningly callous in their dealings with their
colleagues. If we all had to sit down and
write our game plan – and then live by it – we might all end up as nicer
people. There is no bad karma in trying your hardest to be pleasant, co-operative,
helpful, friendly, kind and honest in your dealings with others around
you. Who would sit down and write, ‘I am going to be a complete and utter
bastard and stitch up as many people as I can, be disliked by everyone and
generally make myself as unpopular as possible’ Yes, no one would write it, but I’ve worked
with quite a few who live by it as a game
plan. Yes, they may be successful but
how do they sleep at night? How do they
live with themselves?

I
once worked with a fairly senior manager whose technique was to arrive, walk
through the department, and bawl out as many people as he could, go to his
office, put his feet up with a coffee for half an hour and then walk back again
being as nice as pie to everyone. When I questioned him about this, he said. ‘It
keeps them on their toes. They never
know where they are with me’. He was
genuinely disliked by everyone, feared by most and commanded zero respect from
his peers. Good game plan. Not.

(Excerpts from THE
RULES OF WORK by Richard Templer Read “How to set Objectives” from The
Rules tomorrow on Asabeafrika)