Making Time to Set Direction
“I’m so busy running the business that I don’t have time to think longer term.”So began a recent client meeting. It’s been an exceptionally challenging time to run a business. The day-to-day struggles are all-consuming; to survive, you keep your head down and focus on achieving essential short term results.
But as a leader, you are also responsible for ensuring the long term sustainability of your business. In every company, it’s the senior managers’ responsibility to raise their heads, look towards the future and carve out time to set direction.
Remember this famous Peter Drucker quote?
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”
Helping your company resolve its current short term pain is important, but are you the only one in the business who can get the job done? Focusing on the short term can become habit forming. After all, the immediate challenges are often the most clear; they are right in front of you so you don’t have to lift your head much to deal with them. They are also easier to confront; you’ve likely seen the problem before and know how to handle it, so you believe that you can resolve the issue quickly and then move on.
Of course, moving on to tackle the long term direction for the business is hard work – it takes concentration and an investment of valuable time. The factors influencing your deliberations are unclear and achieving the targeted results is risky. So, it’s no surprise that resolving one pain can produce a sense of productivity that leads you to seek the next one. Before long, another day has slipped past you.
Only the senior leaders in a business can point the way forward. You are responsible for delivering the future for your company. If you don’t do it, who will?
How much time have you dedicated to thinking about the future of your business?
Are you getting too comfortable resolving short term issues?
