If you want to be successful don’t try to solve tomorrow’s challenges with today’s solutions. That is why leaders bring tomorrow’s solutions into view to solve tomorrow’s challenges.
How do leaders bring tomorrow’s solutions? What are tomorrow’s challenges that need solutions?
These are the questions that leaders must answer as they look around the corner for emerging risks and opportunities.
In an ever-changing world, here are the four things leaders must do to bring tomorrow’s solutions:
Predict – the future scenarios. You can’t predict the one thing that will happen, but you can be prepared when something happens.
The past is a guide but doesn’t always predict the future. Based on what you already know you can visualize what else could happen. Find the common themes in all that possible future scenarios you see.
“Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking at the back window.” – Peter Drucker
Present – the team with the future goals and the plans to reach them. Don’t just wait for the future to come true, plan for it and execute. Share the themes of the future you visualized with your team and create plans to succeed through them all.
Success does not come from being sure of what will happen. Success comes from being sure of what you will do if something happens. Remember, the future is not something we enter,the future is something we create. We can control how we respond to risks and opportunities.
“The best way to predict the future is to create it”– Abraham Lincoln
Prepare – the team to be ready to succeed. With your vision of the future clear and a plan to achieve success in mind, now it’s time to get ready to respond when the future comes. What skills, people, and information will be needed in when the future comes?
“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” – Alexander Graham Bell
Prevent – the team from getting off course. A greater purpose instills a sense of mission in us all. Leaders need to repeat the goals so you don’t retreat from the goals. Leaders are the chief cheerleaders.
“Start strong, stay strong, and finish strong by always remembering why you’re doing it in the first place.” – Ralph Marston
