Prepare yourself for it may be later than you may think, if you have failed to focus on the future. As important as it may be to live in the present if we have failed to focus on the future than our past would have pasted us by with the future rushing at us at breakneck speed. There is something that all good leaders know and that is a leader’s concentration can not focus on the past or the present, but the leader must have focus on the future. A chief preoccupation of an effective leader is their vision for the future. It is the dreamers within an organization that bring reinvention and a renewed hope and focus on the future.
Leadership is about the future and good leaders have their focus on the future and what all it holds in store for the organization or group they are responsible for. The present methods we have and are using are obsolete and that is why we have to be constantly refining, improving, listening, and learning. We need the dreamers and the mavericks that can implement and adapt change as our focus on the future keeps shifting.
Focus On the Future It Is Coming
Approaching at lightning speed is the future and we better have our focus on the future or we will miss the opportunity to expand. The future is coming at us in quantum leaps and it is coming like an earthquake in proportions as to how we do what we do. The good leaders are completely rethinking with cutting edge precision the nature of organizations and leadership for the world of tomorrow.
The old tried and true just does not work because the workers are demanding to participate in decisions affecting their lives. A different kind of work force is fast filling our ranks. Today’s work force is just not going to blindly accept whatever comes down from the top. The new generation of the baby boomers, and busters have lost confidence in the hierarchical processes of government, church, education, and business. They are saying, “we just ain’t goin’ to take it anymore.” The new generation wants to go where the action is, to make a difference, they want to work in flat organizations, and they want the control of their own destinies, which requires a new focus on the future.
Concrete Advice About Building Our Focus On the Future
Focus On the Future By Setting Aside Time To Think About It. We need to schedule at least one day every quarter to get away for the whole day just to get our focus on the future. We need to focus on the future from one year at a time all the way to a ten-year time frame out. We need this time away from the swamp and to forget about the alligators nipping at our necks. The best time for future thinking is to get out away from the office and this should be a requirement and is for all good leaders. We need to have a future file in our computers in a place where we can dream away from prying eyes of the bureaucrats and the pragmatists. But by all means we need to take the time to dream and focus on the future.
Focus On the Future By Performing A Vision Audit. We need to have a healthy understanding of our present position. Set aside time to ask both the insiders and the outsiders how they feel about the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. In order to focus on the future we need to perform a vision audit and send out questionnaires and ask for honest feedback. Once we have done this collect the respondents together in small focus groups to discuss feedback. Good leaders are not afraid to hear the truth because this helps them focus on the future. Here are the six most important questions to ask: 1) What are the strengths of the group, 2) What are our greatest weaknesses, 3) What should our highest priorities be, 4) What is it we do well, 5) What is it we do poorly, and 6) What are the barriers that need to be removed that will fundamentally enhance our effectiveness as we focus on the future?
Focus On the Future By Developing A Fresh Vision Statement. It does not matter how new or how old the organization may be new times require fresh expressions of the passion of the group, if we are going to focus on the future. Powerful and transforming vision statements have the following special properties: 1) Appropriate for organization and the time, 2) Set standard of excellence and reflect high ideals, 3) Clarify purpose and direction, 4) Inspire enthusiasm and encourage commitment, 5) Well articulated and easily understood, 6) Reflect uniqueness of the organization, and 7) They are ambitious for our focus on the future.
Focus On the Future By Setting Short and Long Term Strategic Goals. We must have a set of flexible changing long and short-term goals. 1) Focus on the future by having annual goals for the organization. It is important to have a new and fresh theme every year for our leadership team. 2) Focus on the future by having quarterly goals for each department. People do their best work when you help them work through your expectations of them every three months. Our best advice for goal-setting is putting together S-M-A-R-T goals. S – specific, M – measurable, A – attainable, R – relevant, and T – trackable goals to keep the focus on the future.
Focus On the Future By Concentrating and Eliminating. ”Concentration is the key to economic results. No other principle of effectiveness is violated as constantly today as the basic principle of concentration… Our motto seems to be, ‘Let’s do a little bit of everything.’” Peter Drucker. We need to focus on the future by articulating a clear purpose statement and set up corporate goals that everyone can sign off on, especially the leadership. By doing this the organization can focus on the future and concentrate on doing the specific thing it was raised up to do instead of dissipating energies by dabbling in a little of everything.
Focus On the Future By Reading About It. We need to read articles, books, and magazines that will give us future trends in our given field.
Focus On the Future By Attempting and Expecting Great Things. We all need to learn to be eternal optimist. Know that there is an eternal higher power that holds the future in His hands of control. Yes bad things do happen to good people, but ultimately history will unfold as the Master Planner has planned for it to happen. But we believe that we should still expect great things and great things will happen as we focus on the future.
“I am a dreamer. Some men see things as they are, and ask why; I dream of things that never were and ask why not?” George Bernard Shaw.
Don’t you think it is time we started to focus on the future rather than complain about the way things are? The best way to get our focus on the future is to understand and ask why not by getting our copy of the 11 forgotten laws of leadership by Bob Proctor. We have your especially reserved unabridged limited edition of the 11 forgotten laws of leadership to help you get your focus on the future. You can get all the details and your copy by just going here now.
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