Leadership usually focuses on bottom-line, team morale, vision, and mission. But there are a few things you have to ask yourself to gain perspective on where you are as an organization.
At our strategic planning events, we spend tons of time gaining perspective on the business. Every company I work with, in the beginning, says they understand exactly where they are, how they got there, and the areas they need to focus on the most.
And every company leaves absolutely blown away they did not have a good perspective on where they are or what the main issues and opportunities are.
More importantly, they leave with an incredible understanding of how they make decisions, where they’re going, and the absolute most important things that they need to focus on right now! In fact, they leave with a plan on exactly how they’re going to do it and how they will execute it.
So what are some of the things I make them focus on? First, I get perspective on what’s going on inside of the company by asking four simple questions:
- What’s right?
- What’s wrong?
- What’s confused?
- What’s missing?
I ask every company to answer these questions before the event. The funny thing is, the initial answers are not even close to what we discover during the event. It’s difficult while you’re so focused on what you’re doing to realize what’s right, missing, and confused in your business.
As leaders, however, we usually don’t have a problem knowing what’s wrong. That column always seems to be filled up pretty well. That’s partly why I always start by asking what’s right.
This should be one of the easiest things for an organization to do, but it’s very difficult for a company to visualize what is right inside the business. They usually get about six things listed and then stop.
It’s one of the first questions I ask because it shows the leadership that we have a lot of work to do. And that’s just the very beginning of three days of discovery!
Question: What’s the most difficult of the Four Helpfuls for you to fill out?
Resources:
7 Simple Ways To Foster Great Communication On Your Team
7 Ways To Lead A Negative Team Member
Good questions, Chris. You’re right about the “what’s wrong” list typically being long relative to “what’s right”. Verne Harnish has a similar approach with the “start, stop, keep” list. (What should we stop doing?, etc.). Very generous of you to offer a free hour. Also, really enjoying your posts on clo.tv.
Good point Kenny – often we find much better results and greater motivation for other when we focus on what is right!
Thanks Kenny! We are enjoying doing those.
What’s confused?
HAHAHA…confusing huh? 🙂
Love the four questions. You can use this in other areas of life as well.
That’s a great idea! It may be good to have others answer those questions about you, too! That way you can get a better view of where you are at, instead of just seeing it from your own perspective. But Q #2 will bring some pain when some one else answers it truthfully.
Absolutely! I use it with leaders and team members in a ton of areas.
Great questions, Chris. Appreciative Inquiry can produce some amazing results – it also is a great way to focus on our own personal strengths.
Amen brother!
The business I work for could use a lot of insight from answering these questions. Definitely a great foundation for my own business!
Thank you for the opportunity Chris! We had the pleasure of hearing you speak at Scentsy’s Leadership training 2 years ago and we have been fans ever since!
We met with you, Chris in July over Skype. It was quite an eye opener. You are so right when you tell people that they are going to hear things they don’t expect to hear. We are working on all the things you spoke about and are excited to dig in further and come out on the other side with the tools to be the best at what we do. Thank you for all that you do. Changing lives, it’s a great thing.
What’s confused? Hehehe