The Power of Looking Where You Are Going
“Look where you want to go means keeping your gaze on the real prize, the
big goals you want to achieve during your finite time on this sphere. Staring at
the spot just ahead of your front tire, either literally or metaphorically, ensures
you won't be ready for the next curve life throws at you”.
Courtesy of Lance Oliver, TeamZilla Managing Editor (RevZilla) on motorbiking (and life perhaps too).
Are You Looking Where You Are Going?
Cycling towards a couple meandering in the middle of the towpath along the
River Thames (England) this morning, both of them had their heads looking
left towards the river. Despite my slowing down and asking them to move to
one side for me to pass, they were both completely oblivious to me coming
towards them. After a big ‘HELLO’ they finally looked ahead, panicked,
parted, and moved to either side of the track. Accident avoided (OK, so I was
on a mountain bike)
A leader in an international company recently flagged serious concern about 2
countries in his region during a senior leadership meeting, but no one was
listening to him. They were paying attention to the overall numbers (below
expectations), and not to the juggernaut coming straight towards them.
Eventually the leader announced a ‘red alert’ and everyone’s heads rose. An
‘emergency’ situation was coming their way and he caught their attention! He
is now getting the direction, inputs and support he needs from them to avert
catastrophe in the short, medium and long term. Accident avoidance strategy
being put in place.
A financial institution, set on its long term vision, lost sight of what their
businesses were doing in the short term, and sometimes the medium term.
The organization was ‘bleeding’ money and people. Its employees were
panicking, scared of losing their roles, desperately trying to win business
wherever they could and setting up short term fixes to meet their numbers, as
well as new structures, processes and sometimes products as more action,
they believed, was what was needed to win through. When the numbers kept
revealing continued reduction in share prices and dropping customer levels
and profits, they called a halt. Accident happened, damage controls put in
place and a brighter future painted - this time with eyes wide open to short,
medium and long term outcomes, practices and results.
HOW CAN LEADERS MAKE SURE THEY SEE THINGS?
PRACTICAL solutions!
1. Tangled - Confused - Overloaded Thinking. One of the biggest
challenges leaders (and others) face is it’s very busy inside, and
outside, our heads. There is so much to think about. So many
inputs, so many ideas we have, so many ideas others have, and so
many conflicting ideas to consider and weigh up. How can we
focus and think through these without interrupting ourselves, or
being interrupted by even more information. It’s very challenging.
It’s messy inside! (Or it can be).
So, GET OUT OF YOUR HEAD!
a. Get a white board or large sheet of paper
b. Draw out, or write down, your goals / vision and share your
thinking with yourself. Look at it all. Notice the connections
and links between your thoughts. Ask yourself what’s
missing? What would others suggest you add, or include?
c. Share your thinking with your team and colleagues. Invite
guests into your meetings too. Ask them for their
perspectives and inputs. They may not be specialists in your
area, though they will have different ideas from you.
d. Capture it all! Then you will SEE things that you hadn’t seen
before and think more clearly about them (Use
Mindmapping below)
Courtesy of www.adelaide.edu.au
2. Missing your targets. You have a clear vision for the business,
everyone agrees to it, they all are adults and know what they are
going to do to achieve that vision. But guess what? They all get into
their individual boats along with their teams, put up the sails and
head off. The prevailing winds may take them 1 or 2 degrees in
another direction over time, and 3 months later …. HELLO! With no
reference or checking in with other teams, each of them has arrived
at a different destination. So what can you do to keep everyone
aligned and going in the same direction.
KEEP ON TRACK and GET GREAT RESULTS
Put your vision / business goals on a tracking system and ask each
team/function leader to complete a monthly update online, inline
with other updates. These can then be reviewed collectively by the
team (whether face to face or remotely) and will quickly show
business performance levels, as well as surface any non-alignment
issues or challenges. Include:
 a full discussion on what each area needs/wants in terms
of inputs or support from the rest of the company
 a review of the progress of the competition and what they
are doing (or not doing)
 agreement on how the team will support each other to
achieve greater results during the next phase.
Continual referencing backwards and forwards together with the
team is essential. The more you do this, the less likely you are to
be hit by a juggernaut! Or a large fine?
(MPI’s UpAGear programme uses OnTrack – a monthly meeting
and tracker to review progress, challenge performance and further
develop team capability. One organization I worked in the Middle
East issued a loss of $4m. With these resources and team
development, they achieved revenues of $53 in just 6 months)
3. SPEAKING YOUR TRUTH (and speaking up). Sometimes we
may not know the truth of what is going on, but we do have a sense
that something is wrong. There are always indicators or symptoms.
If you have a seeping sty in your right eye, pain around the area,
blurred vision and inflammation on that side of your face – you
would know you have to go to A&E / Emergency Room, or a doctor,
immediately and get it attended to before it gets any worse and
causes more damage. So why is it that so many business leaders
who see a range of negative symptoms and indicators in their
organisations say and do nothing? Or sometimes cover things up?
SPEAKING YOUR TRUTH AND SPEAKING UP is critical to business
success. There are many reasons why people may avoid speaking up.
It can be fear of rejection, upsetting someone, losing one’s job or
plainly thinking ‘it’s not my responsibility’. Once you have realized that
it is your responsibility, and you are accountable for your organization,
how might you build up the courage to speak your truth in a way that is
acceptable. Briefly, here are a few pointers to help you:
THINK BEFORE YOUR SPEAK
 What is your outcome / purpose for speaking up?
 What are the benefits?
 What are the risks?
 Is this the right audience to share this with? Should it be
done in private?
 Prepare what you will say and how you will say it (to avoid
offence and defensiveness)
SPEAK UP
 State your positive intention (purpose of sharing the
information);
 Share data and inputs you have noticed
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Share what you think is important to know more about or
explore
Explore the benefits of further exploration and the risks of not
doing this
Ask others what their inputs and ideas they have
Ask how you can all support each other to make the
necessary changes so that you can move forward
successfully
Agree next steps
The key to many business challenges is individuals are either looking at the
same thing through the same lens (corporate blindspots), looking at different
things though not sharing them (non-alignment and lack of collaboration) or
focusing on ‘internal’ environment and processes and not the ‘external
environment’ where old and new competitors may be racing ahead and
potentially overtaking the company and taking its market share (competitive
blindness).
The solution is to keep your EYES WIDE OPEN and be aware of the
accidents that may happen if you don’t!
© Veronica Munro for Leading Minds 2016