A few days ago, my friend Don Perkins had a wonderful comment on my post, Are You Selling To Where Your Customer Is Going To Be?
He asked if CXO’s are really focused 2 years ahead, or do they focus on solving the “crisis du jour?”
The right response is that, in reality, they must do both—they must focus on where the organization needs to be and they must also address today’s problems. Easier said than done. Too often the day to day crises and sheer momentum causes us to focus our time on solving today’s problems and fighting today’s fires. There’s a great challenge though, solving today’s problems doesn’t necessarily get us to where we want to be tomorrow — it just solves today’s problems.
It’s critical for leaders to establish longer term goals and strategies to achieve those goals. Leaders have to keep the organization focused in executing plans to move forward. If we spend all our time focusing on today, we will never achieve our growth goals. A funny thing happens in executing strategies to achieve your long term goals. The current crises and problems of the day disappear. Eliminating barriers to achieving our growth goals can have us solve many of the challenges we face today.
Are you letting today’s crises divert you from achieving your long term goals? If you are, what would happen if you changed your perspective?
