Where Are You?

 

I was riding by the Sound near the Gulf of Mexico and I saw this nice sail boat listing to starboard and aground.  It could be that it was run aground accidentally, or maybe it was sailed into water that seemed deep enough only to learn it wasn't when the tide went out. (Several great sermons in that last sentence!) Regardless, it was a bad decision based on poor planning.  Three of my favorite leadership questions are: 1.  Where have we been?, 2. Where are we?, and 3. Where are we going?  The three questions require a lot of courage.  Too many leaders don't ask them enough because they don't want to face the scrutiny of their directional leadership.  If the answers are, "We are where we were and we are going where we are", then that raises concerns. Any organization without a forward moving plan is "dead in the water".  

Checking where we have been is always a good thing.  We can evaluate the effectiveness of the past and learn from the good and bad of that which is behind us.  Those lessons can help us evaluate where we are, what got us here and again, the effectiveness of the now.  We can only plan for the future by knowing where we are. Where we are would involve taking inventory.  We need to see what we are doing(success and failures), what are our resources and begin to work with those tools.  From there we can now make a better plan for our future.  A part of moving toward a successful future is correcting the mistakes and/or weaknesses of the present.  As a leader your most valuable resources are your people around you in leadership.  I recommend spending a "think tank" meeting at least twice a year and ask these three questions, giving plenty of time to discuss each one in the group.  Then, apply what comes out of that creative meeting.  Keep notes and review what was said in your next such meeting.  
I am confident you will see great benefits from applying these simply questions.