Understanding Where You Are Today As A Leader - A Problem Most Leaders Face

Understanding Where You Are Today As A Leader - A Problem Most Leaders Face

One of the Goals of a Leader is to Design the Future.

Typically, the Higher Level of Leader you become, the Further into the Future you are Responsible for Guiding Teams and Organizations.

But there is a Gigantic Trap that I see Leaders often fall into due to this Necessity.

You will often hear Leaders say things like, "If we just get 1% of this Market..."

Or 10%.

Or whatever percentage it is.

They are looking at the Future of their Market and talking about taking a Piece of the Market.

The Problem Here?

Do you "Actually" Understand what is Required to get that Percentage?

More Importantly, are you "Anywhere" Near that Today?

So often, Leaders are Completely Focused on the Future without having any True Understanding of where they are Today.

1% Sounds Tiny, but do you know how Many companies are Scrambling for only 1%?

Do you know how many Businesses Die each Year Trying to "Only" get 1%?

What about each Month?

Each Day?

It happens Frequently because "1%" is Significantly Larger and Harder to Obtain than Most People Realize.

This is "Especially" True in Comparison to where they are Today, which Frequently is a Tiny Piece of the Market (if they have "Any").

Do you Understand that by Category King Economics, the Top Organization in a Market Typically owns about 75% of the Market By Themselves, while "Every" Other Company Fights for the Remainder?

This Creates a Massive Uphill Challenge for Most Leaders, Putting them Against Hundreds of other Leaders all looking for "Their 1%".

The Difference between an Imagined Future and Today is also why Leaders have Utterly Failed with the Return-To-Office "Mandates".

Many Leaders who Enacted these "Mandates" just "Assumed" it would be Simple to get people back into the Office.

What they Failed to Account for was the Reality of Today.

They Failed to Understand the Prevalence of Burnout, and the Office's Role in "Causing" Burnout.

They Failed to see how Productivity and Flow States Increased when Employees were working Remotely.

They Failed to see How Little they as Leaders "Influenced" Employees anymore.

They Failed to Understand Employees' Financial Situations and how Being At Home was a Significant Boon for Employees.

All of these and More are Realities of "Today" that Leaders completely Failed to Recognize, which is why these "Mandates" have gone Ignored.

Even "If" Leaders had Valid Reasons for the Return to Office (Which most of them Did Not, but a few reasons at least made "Theoretical" Sense), the Problem "Every" Action Plan Had was that they Did Not "Start" with the Realities Today.

Frequently this Misstep becomes a large Problem for Leaders.

You also see this play out with how Leaders use their Teams.

Leaders create an Idea for the Future, and they begin to Build Plans to get to that Future.

The Issue when it comes to their Team(s)?

The Plans Fail to account for the "Current" Individuals they Have, and "Require" Individuals they Do Not Have.

This becomes a Double Whammy for Leaders.

When Leaders Demand their Current Individuals to do things they are not ready for, sometimes are not qualified for, and which they have no desire to learn, it creates Tension within the Team.

Then, as the Leaders attempt to Hire the Individuals they Do Not Have, many other Problems can occur.

Sometimes Leaders Never Find those Individuals.

Sometimes they are Unable to Pay those Individuals Enough.

Sometimes the Individuals Do Not Fit in with the Culture of the Organization.

Sometimes the Individuals "See" The Building Tension that Exists with the Current Team and therefore Choose to Run Away.

As Leaders Continue to push their Current Team into a Situation they are Unable to Do on their Own and Fail to get the Necessary New Members, the Plan becomes Unattainable.

These are only a few ways this Problem plays out, but the Solution for all of these is very Simple.

Start with Where You "Truly" Are Today.

Don't Aim for 1% if you Do Not Even Have or Know what it takes to get to 10 or 100 Sales Yet.

Start with 1 Sale.

Don't Force a Policy without Understanding What Impacts it will Immediately have on Employees.

Start with Understanding Your Employees' Real Challenges Today.

Don't Create a Plan that Relies on People You May Never Get.

Start with a Plan that Will Absolutely Work with those You Already Have, Using their Strengths.

Yes, Leaders must Build the Future.

But it is Impossible to Build a Future that Does Not Understand or Take Today's Reality into Account.

The Future "Must" Connect with the Present.

Understand Where You Are, Today.

Back to blog