I was recently coaching the president of a mid-size accounting firm. He was frustrated that his senior leadership team was unable to come up with any fresh ideas for the future that would be aligned with the strategic initiative of improving retention, timeliness and focusing on strengths. The firm leaders could only focus on current goals and objectives, and not what might lie ahead one or two years into the future.
Is Your Senior Leadership Ready for the Future?
“Discovering the future…is a far less amazing skill than inventing it. The thing discovered already exists; you simply see it before most others do. Often it is a new piece of technology that makes it possible for something to happen on a large scale. So, find a direction things are moving in and spell out the ultimate logic or conclusion. If you are right, there will be early examples of the thing already around. You are not creating the trend, you are simply spotting it before others.” – Stan Davis, Lessons from the Future, 2001
Is your organization looking forward, or is it focused on the problems of the present and immediate short-term competition? What occupies your senior management team? Are they issues of the present, or are you getting ready for a changing future?
How will your organization create new rules of competition in the future? Is it imagining new ways of doing business, building new capabilities, and setting new standards of customer satisfaction? Is it alert to possible risks from unconventional rivals, new business models, changing demographics, and global uncertainties?
It is no longer a question of being able to operate lean and mean. Trimming jobs and cutting costs, while important tasks, will not put you and your company into a front running position for industry leadership of the future.
Here are three questions to ask senior management to evaluate readiness for the future:
1. What percentage of your time do you spend on external, rather than internal, issues? Do you understand the implications of new technology that is affecting your industry? Or are you debating corporate overhead allocations?
2. When you are spending time looking outward, do you consider how the world could be different in five or ten years? Or are you more concerned with landing the next big contract or responding to competitors’ pricing?
3. How much of your time is devoted to looking outward and forward? Are you consulting with colleagues to create a shared vision of the future based on risk evaluations as opposed to a personal and idiosyncratic view?
These questions were posed by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad in their book Competing for the Future over ten years ago. The book merits re-reading as it is even more relevant today.
Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the BarOn EQ-i and CPI 260 can help you become a more inspiring and visionary leader. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of the company.
Is Your Senior Leadership Ready for the Future?
“Discovering the future…is a far less amazing skill than inventing it. The thing discovered already exists; you simply see it before most others do. Often it is a new piece of technology that makes it possible for something to happen on a large scale. So, find a direction things are moving in and spell out the ultimate logic or conclusion. If you are right, there will be early examples of the thing already around. You are not creating the trend, you are simply spotting it before others.” – Stan Davis, Lessons from the Future, 2001
Is your organization looking forward, or is it focused on the problems of the present and immediate short-term competition? What occupies your senior management team? Are they issues of the present, or are you getting ready for a changing future?
How will your organization create new rules of competition in the future? Is it imagining new ways of doing business, building new capabilities, and setting new standards of customer satisfaction? Is it alert to possible risks from unconventional rivals, new business models, changing demographics, and global uncertainties?
It is no longer a question of being able to operate lean and mean. Trimming jobs and cutting costs, while important tasks, will not put you and your company into a front running position for industry leadership of the future.
Here are three questions to ask senior management to evaluate readiness for the future:
1. What percentage of your time do you spend on external, rather than internal, issues? Do you understand the implications of new technology that is affecting your industry? Or are you debating corporate overhead allocations?
2. When you are spending time looking outward, do you consider how the world could be different in five or ten years? Or are you more concerned with landing the next big contract or responding to competitors’ pricing?
3. How much of your time is devoted to looking outward and forward? Are you consulting with colleagues to create a shared vision of the future based on risk evaluations as opposed to a personal and idiosyncratic view?
These questions were posed by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad in their book Competing for the Future over ten years ago. The book merits re-reading as it is even more relevant today.
Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the BarOn EQ-i and CPI 260 can help you become a more inspiring and visionary leader. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of the company.
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