What I learned from Mr. Anthony McLachlan at Nortel – Part 8

Continuing from last week, today I will be sharing another lesson from Anthony. This is second of the two lessons that one of my mentors, “Malur” reminded me of. We all had a chance to work with Anthony, during those good old days of “Nortel”.

Hope is not a Plan

Business environment is dynamic and ever-changing but as a leader of a “Region” Anthony was supposed to declare and track to a target. When things change and what one anticipated in the beginning of the year does not come to be, then what do you do? Can you just hope that things will change again and change to your favor?

Anthony had a simple mantra for this one, “Hope is not a plan”. He used to push his team to come up with alternates plans to make up for the gaps that appeared as the year unfolded. By meticulously planning and working hard, we were always able to come up and not just meet our plan but exceed it.

I do wish that as leaders, you do not rely on just Hope and that you have a plan and another plan in case that one fails and that you have a team that can come up with as many plans as needed to stay on top.

Stay tuned for more next week.