May 13, 2025 • 29 mins
In this Mike on the Mic episode, I’m diving into 10 powerful questions every leadership team should be asking—again and again. These questions are your roadmap to clarity, alignment, and innovation. Whether you’re just forming your leadership team or have been together for years, these prompts will challenge your thinking, expose blind spots, and drive your company forward.
Let’s raise the bar—because building a great leadership team is never done.
🎧 Tune in and ask yourself: Which question do we need to focus on next?
Thanks for listening! Connect with us at mike-goldman.com/blog and on Instagram@mikegoldmancoach and on YouTube @Mikegoldmancoach
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mike Goldman (00:01):
I hate status meetings where everybody's just
going around the table tellingeverybody else what they're up
to, and everybody else islooking at their watch because
they need to get the hell outtathat meeting and get some real
work done.
Do you have an agenda?
Do you have an effective agenda?
One great way to do it isinstead of an agenda being
(00:23):
topics on a list, but have theagenda.
Be focused on what questionsneed to be answered in that
meeting.
Some of these questions could beon your agenda, You made it to
(00:46):
the better leadership team show,the place where you learn how to
surround yourself with the rightpeople, doing the right things.
So you can grow your businesswithout losing your mind.
I'm your host and leadershipteam coach, Mike Goldman.
I'm going to show you how toimprove top and bottom line
growth, fulfillment, and thevalue your company adds to the
world by building a betterleadership team.
(01:09):
All right, let's go.
Instead of just focusing onsolutions, great teams need to
focus on asking the rightquestions.
(01:29):
So.
What I wanna do in this episodeis focus on 10 questions every
leadership team should be askingthemselves in order to improve
10 essential questions to helpyou focus on clarity, alignment,
and innovation.
(01:51):
So let's start the first one,first question, are our best
people focused on our topopportunities?
I know as a leader for most ofmy career, I overinvested.
(02:14):
My low performers andunderinvested in my high
performers, and I see leadersdoing that all the time.
So in my mind, what, when I askare our best people focused on
our top opportunities?
I really mean two things.
One is the obvious.
When you think of your toppriorities, top opportunities as
(02:35):
an organization, do you haveyour highest performers?
Focused on those things, or arethey focused on things that are
less important?
But there's a sub question tothis too, which is, which people
are you as a leader spendingmost of your time with?
Do you find you're spending mostof your time with the people
(02:58):
that need you most?
Which sounds logical, right?
I should be spending most of mytime with the people that need
me most.
But man, if you want.
A great company, you need tospend most of your time not with
the people that need you most,but the people that have the
(03:20):
best ability to take yourcompany to the next level, which
is not the people that need youmost.
It's probably the people thatneed you the least, but you need
them the most.
So are our, this is thequestion.
Are our best people?
Focused on our top priorities.
(03:41):
Question number two, what one totwo areas should we stop
focusing on immediately?
Every time leadership teams gettogether, and I bet this is the
case for your team, every timeyou get together with your team,
(04:03):
you identify more things you allneed to do.
There are probably three or fiveor seven ideas that come out of
that meeting that people say,you know, I'll do it.
I'll take care of it, and that'sall great.
Of course, there should beaction coming out of these
meetings, but what winds uphappening when we don't ask the
question, what should we stopfocusing on, is all that stuff
(04:27):
just piles on.
We get overloaded, and when weget overloaded, either we.
Actually work on too many thingsand we just don't do them all
that well, or we can't get toeverything, which is normally
the case.
And very often it's some of themost strategic, high priority
(04:50):
things that fall off the list.
So we need to cut the excessnoise.
We need to figure out where wehave objectives are misaligned.
Do we have a priority that's noteffectively moving us forward to
where we want to go?
Are there meetings we're havingthat we should stop having?
(05:11):
Are there reports being producedor analysis being done or
products or services being.
Created or products and servicesthat are already out there that
are just not adding value and weought to stop.
So the number two question is,what one to two areas should we
stop focusing on immediately?
(05:35):
Third question, is our currentmeeting rhythm serving us or
slowing us down?
Now, that could mean.
Questioning meetings that youhave and challenging whether
(05:56):
those meetings are really addingvalue.
It could also be, you know, theit could focus on the fact that
you have stopped having certainmeetings and because of that
you're losing the ability to bealigned, or you're losing the
ability to hold peopleaccountable.
So.
(06:16):
The question is our currentmeeting rhythm serving us or
slowing us down?
is really, I'd say three subfocuses of that.
Number one, do we have the rightmeetings?
Are we having meetings we don'tneed to have?
Are we missing meetings that weshould have?
So number one, are we having theright meetings?
Number two, do those meetingshave the right agendas?
(06:43):
Are we getting together for astatus meeting, man.
I hate status meetings whereeverybody's just going around
the table telling everybody elsewhat they're up to, and
everybody else is looking attheir watch because they need to
get the hell outta that meetingand get some real work done.
Do you have an agenda?
Do you have an effective agenda?
(07:05):
One great way to do it isinstead of an agenda being
topics on a list, but have theagenda.
Be focused on what questionsneed to be answered in that
meeting.
Some of these questions could beon your agenda, so, so number
one, do, are you having theright meetings?
(07:25):
Number two, do you have agendas?
Do you have the right agendaswith the right objectives for
those meetings?
And number three, do you havethe right people in those
meetings?
That could mean, you know, arethere people that should be in
the meetings that are not?
But more often the problem is wejust have too many damn people
(07:49):
in meetings because we wantpeople to learn and observe, but
meanwhile, they're sitting inmeeting where they're not adding
any value and they could behurting the meeting I have seen,
fairly.
Junior level folks in a seniorleadership team type meeting,
(08:11):
and the senior leaders are notfree to talk about what they
really want to talk aboutbecause there's people in the
room that shouldn't be hearingit.
Certain information can't beshared, so more often than not,
I've seen too many people inmeetings.
I forget if it was, may havebeen Amazon, may have been, you
(08:32):
know, Jeff Bezos said, had a twopizza rule where any meeting
where you couldn't feed thegroup with two pizzas, there
were too many people in thatmeeting might be a way to do it.
So is our current meeting rhythmserving us or slowing us down is
the third question.
Right?
Meeting right people.
Right Agendas.
(08:52):
Fourth question.
How are we gathering feedbackworth acting on in order to move
our companies and our teamsforward, we need feedback.
We need feedbacks from ourclients.
we need feedback from our, ourteam members, from our vendors,
(09:17):
feedback in the form of keyperformance indicators about how
we're doing.
How often are you talking aboutthe voice of the customer or the
voice of your client?
In your weekly meetings, in yourmonthly meetings, is there an
(09:38):
agenda item focused on askingWhat are our clients thinking?
Too often we don't.
Listen, or we don't share thatinformation until there's a big
problem.
Well, we need to share thatinformation all the time.
So, so how are you gathering andhow are you discussing,
(10:03):
communicating and taking actionon the voice of the customer?
What about the voice of yourteam members?
How are you gathering thatinformation?
How and when are you takingaction on that?
You know, one way to do that isfor your clients, a net promoter
score for your employees andemployee net promoter score.
(10:25):
But it's not the only way.
It's not even necessarily thebest way.
It's just one way.
You know, skip level meetingsare another way.
Having effective one-on-onediscussions is another way.
So, so that fourth question ishow are we gathering feedback
worth acting on?
(10:46):
Fifth question.
Are we effectively movingtowards our long-term and our
midterm vision?
And by long-term, I mean 10, 15years, midterm, three years, are
we effectively moving towardsour long-term and our midterm
vision?
Sometimes we can get so caughtup in the day to day, the month
(11:10):
to quarter, even the year toyear that we lose sight, of
long-term where we're trying toget to, especially as the world
is changing so fast.
So maybe the first kind ofsub-question under this is, do
you have a long-term vision anda midterm vision?
(11:33):
Do you have a company purpose?
A big hairy, audacious goal, athree year a highly achievable
goal, a vivid vision of what youwant the company to look like,
sound like, taste like, smelllike, feel like over the next
three years.
How clear is that vision?
(11:55):
How well communicated is thatvision?
How aligned are people towardsthat vision?
All those are kind ofpre-questions to this.
'cause it's pretty difficult toeffectively more move towards
your vision if people aren'taware of what that vision is.
So get clear on the vision,communicate the vision, align
(12:16):
around the vision.
Make sure your quarterlypriorities or your rocks, make
sure your annual priorities,your financial targets, your
non-financial targets, all ofthose should be moving you
closer to your vision and makesure you're monitoring all those
things.
To make sure you're movingtowards that vision.
So the fifth question, are weeffectively moving towards our
(12:41):
long-term and our midtermvisions?
Question number six, how alignedare we on this year's top three
priorities?
So similar question, but this isfocused not on the long term or
the midterm, but look out.
(13:02):
To the year or the remainder ofthe year and you know, are your
top priorities clear?
If I ask you what your toppriorities for the year and you
list out 10 things you have notprioritized, we need to be
aligned around a small number ofannual priorities.
(13:25):
Quarterly as well.
But let's talk about annual.
We need to align around a smallnumber of annual priorities, two
or three or four, no, certainlyno more than five.
So are you aligned around thosepriorities?
Are they clear and clearlycommunicated up and down the
organization?
(13:46):
Does everyone understand howthese priorities relate to their
job, to their larger objectives?
Does everybody understand how,what they're doing and what
their individual or team toppriorities are?
How does that relate to theannual priorities?
(14:06):
Those are all, again,pre-questions to if you're
moving towards those, but thekey question here is how aligned
are we on this year's top threepriorities?
That was question number six.
Question number seven, and thisis an interesting one.
What would failure look like andhow do we prevent it?
(14:34):
So one way to think about that.
We normally.
Think about what success wouldlook like.
but man, a powerful question iswhat would failure look like?
and the way I want you to thinkabout it is if you've got a key
initiative or a top priority forthe year or the quarter, or
maybe you're implementing a newCRM system, or maybe you're
(14:56):
launching a brand new product orlaunching a current product into
a new market, when we thinkabout what failure would look
like.
It uncovers potential mistakes.
It uncovers.
(15:17):
Potential areas of focus that wenever would've thought about.
and I like the term pre-mortem.
most of us know the termpostmortem when you are, when
you've completed something andit's either gone well or not
well, especially if it hasn'tgone well.
We do a postmortem is, Hey,let's look back at what we did
and what did we do well and whatdid we not do well, and how is
(15:39):
it gonna make us better movingforward?
But a pre-mortem.
Says, let's imagine the worst.
We've got this brand new productthat we're launching, or a brand
new service that we'relaunching.
If six months from now this is acolossal failure, let's think
(16:02):
about all the reasons that mightbe the case.
And we might uncover thingslike, you know, that could be
the case if there's a lack ofalignment or a lack of
leadership buy-in.
That could be the case if wehaven't effectively.
Beta tested, you know, or, youknow, or had enough discussions
(16:23):
with our clients about thispotential product that could be,
you know, we haven'teffectively, calculated and
communicated the return oninvestment of this brand new
service or this brand newproduct line.
I mean, there, there are dozensof questions, dozens of
potential reasons why it mightfail and all, although we like
(16:45):
to think positively.
Sometimes it is really importantthat we do a pre-mortem and ask
the question, if this fails,what might be the reasons?
And you're gonna come up with awhole lot of, a whole lot of
areas to focus on and actions totake that you never would've
(17:05):
thought about before.
That was question seven,question eight.
How are we empowering ourmid-level talent effectively?
I hear all the time from seniorleaders that they're stretched
too thin, that, you know, wedon't have enough people.
We are, we're doing too manythings, and maybe you are doing
(17:28):
too many things.
And that comes back to aligningaround a small number of
priorities.
But are you empowering yourmid-level talent effectively?
Are there.
Really high performing, highpotential mid-level leaders that
need to be challenged.
Could you, should you increasetheir responsibility?
(17:52):
Could you, should you raise thebar?
On their targets.
I've talked in other podcastsabout the idea of what, Keith
Cupp from Gravitas, impactcoaches.
a longtime mentor of mine,introduced to me something
called an accelerator sessionwhere you're getting your
highest performing mid-levelleaders together and asking them
(18:18):
to.
Identify what they think the topthree priorities of the company
ought to be.
Asking them to do a stopexercise.
What are the three things weought to stop doing as a
company, asking them to do aSWOT exercise, strains,
weaknesses, opportunities,threats for the company, asking
(18:39):
them to talk about the corevalues and how well you're
living the core values and whatyou could do as a company to
better live your core values.
There are, so many ways tobetter empower your mid-level
talent.
To make sure that the company'smoving in the right direction to
help you as a senior leader doyour job.
(19:01):
And also to prepare them forleadership.
So that eighth question is, arewe empowering our mid-level
talent effectively?
Question number nine, where'sthe next growth opportunity?
And how are we preparing?
For it.
(19:21):
So this one's about innovation.
What are you doing to spottrends early?
Now some of that gets back tothe voice of the customer or
maybe the voice of the industry.
But what are you doing to spottrends early, and how often are
you discussing those things?
Do you only spot a trend whenev, when all your competitors
(19:42):
have started leveraging that andyou say, Ooh, maybe.
Maybe we ought to, maybe weought to do that.
You know, AI is a great example.
I'm not sure AI is a trendanymore.
I mean, it's here, you know,what are you doing to leverage
that before it makes you.
(20:03):
Not a necessity anymore.
How are you positioning yourteam to seize on those
opportunities?
Are you fo so focused on theday-to-day tactics that there's
no time to seize onopportunities?
(20:24):
Are you as lead as a leaderspending any of your time just
experimenting with new ideas?
Very often when my clientscreate their quarterly
priorities, their rocks, theyfocus so much on creating rocks
they know they can commit to.
They know they can achieve, butsometimes it makes sense.
(20:47):
To play a little bit to say,man, I don't know if we can get
this done.
I'm not sure how we would do it,but man, we ought to give it a
try.
Imagine if we could, and that'swhy with my clients, very often
we say it's not a hundredpercent achievement of your
quarterly priorities that'ssuccess, Google actually says
(21:08):
it's 70%.
Because It's 70%, a hundredpercent.
You may be sandbagging, it's70%.
It means you're trying some newthings and failing.
Failing is okay.
You're gonna learn.
If you don't fail, it meansyou're not trying hard enough or
you're not trying new things.
So question number nine, where'sthe next growth opportunity and
(21:32):
how are we preparing for it?
And then question number 10.
Are we living our core valuesdaily?
Very often we get caught up inproductivity.
We get caught up in making surewe're making the revenue numbers
(21:53):
and making the profitabilitynumbers and getting to our labor
efficiency ratios, and do wehave enough marketing qualified
leads?
All those things are obviouslycritical, but sometimes we can
get so caught up inproductivity.
We forget about the culture fit.
We forget about the personalityof our organization.
We forget about ournon-negotiable core values.
(22:16):
Okay, are we living our corevalues daily?
And that doesn't mean justbeating people up who aren't
living the core values.
It means raising people up,patting people on the back who
are living the core values.
Someone does a great job in themeeting.
You could say, great job in themeeting.
Or you could say, Hey, I gottatell you, that was a great
(22:38):
example of our, we lift eachother up, core value.
You were such a help in there.
Or someone does a crappy job ina meeting and you could say, I'd
like to see you improve, youknow, your behavior meetings.
Or you could say, I gotta tellyou, you know, collaboration is
one of our core values.
And if I heard you say, it's notmy job, one more time, my head's
(23:01):
gonna explode.
Are we living our core valuesdaily?
and when you think about corevalues, remember there are three
tests of a core value.
Sometimes we're not living ourcore values'cause our core
values aren't the right corevalues.
So there are three tests to makesure any core values is a real
(23:22):
core value, a non-negotiablebehavior that anchors your
culture.
And the first test is that corevalue.
Is not living that core value afireable offense.
There are.
(23:42):
There are situations wherecompanies have created core
values that sound nice, create acore value like creativity.
But when I say, so, if your oneof your accounts payable clerks
isn't creative, you're gonnafire them.
Well, no, of course not.
Well, then that's not a corevalue.
Your core values arenon-negotiable behaviors.
(24:04):
So if someone is blatantly andrepeatedly violating a core
value, that needs to be afireable offense, you need to be
committing to, committed tofiring anyone, even a top
producer.
They are repeatedly andblatantly violating the core
value.
So the first test is it afireable offense?
(24:25):
Second test is, are you willingto take a financial hit to
uphold a core value?
If core values only make sensewhen they increase your
profitability, then it's not acore value.
If you have a core value ofrespect, and one of your clients
is disrespecting all yourpeople.
(24:45):
Working with that client becausethey're bringing in revenue, is
you violating your core values.
So the first test is it afireable offense?
Second test, are you willing tolose revenue?
Are you willing to take afinancial hit to uphold the core
value?
And the third test is it alivein your organization today?
(25:05):
Core values are notaspirational.
it can't be aspirational andnon-negotiable at the same time,
or you'd have to fire half yourpeople.
So 10th question, are we livingour core values daily?
So real quickly, let me remindyou of the 10 before we wrap up.
Number one, are our best peoplefocused on our top priorities?
(25:27):
Number two, what one to twoareas should we stop focusing on
immediately?
Number three is our currentmeeting rhythm serving us.
Or slowing us down?
Number four, how are wegathering feedback worth acting
on?
Number five, are we effectivelymoving towards our long-term and
our midterm vision?
(25:48):
Number six, how aligned are weon this year's top three
priorities?
number seven, what would failurelook like and how do we prevent
it?
Number eight.
Are we empowering our mid-leveltalent effectively?
Number nine, where's the nextgrowth opportunity and how are
we preparing for it?
(26:09):
Number 10, are we living ourcore values daily?
Maybe ask these 10 questions inyour next monthly or quarterly
meeting.
Maybe take.
One or two of these questions,and in each of your weekly
meetings, ask those questions,but ask these questions not
once.
Ask them again and again.
(26:32):
If you want a great company, youneed a great leadership team.
I hope these 10 questions getyou closer to that great
leadership team.
And by the way, if you alreadyfeel like you have a great
leadership team,congratulations.
But you know what?
Raise the bar.
(26:53):
Creating a great leadership teamis something that never, ever
ends.
Look forward to seeing you againsoon.
I hate status meetings where everybody's just
going around the table tellingeverybody else what they're up
to, and everybody else islooking at their watch because
they need to get the hell outtathat meeting and get some real
work done.
Do you have an agenda?
Do you have an effective agenda?
One great way to do it isinstead of an agenda being
(00:23):
topics on a list, but have theagenda.
Be focused on what questionsneed to be answered in that
meeting.
Some of these questions could beon your agenda, You made it to
(00:46):
the better leadership team show,the place where you learn how to
surround yourself with the rightpeople, doing the right things.
So you can grow your businesswithout losing your mind.
I'm your host and leadershipteam coach, Mike Goldman.
I'm going to show you how toimprove top and bottom line
growth, fulfillment, and thevalue your company adds to the
world by building a betterleadership team.
(01:09):
All right, let's go.
Instead of just focusing onsolutions, great teams need to
focus on asking the rightquestions.
(01:29):
So.
What I wanna do in this episodeis focus on 10 questions every
leadership team should be askingthemselves in order to improve
10 essential questions to helpyou focus on clarity, alignment,
and innovation.
(01:51):
So let's start the first one,first question, are our best
people focused on our topopportunities?
I know as a leader for most ofmy career, I overinvested.
(02:14):
My low performers andunderinvested in my high
performers, and I see leadersdoing that all the time.
So in my mind, what, when I askare our best people focused on
our top opportunities?
I really mean two things.
One is the obvious.
When you think of your toppriorities, top opportunities as
(02:35):
an organization, do you haveyour highest performers?
Focused on those things, or arethey focused on things that are
less important?
But there's a sub question tothis too, which is, which people
are you as a leader spendingmost of your time with?
Do you find you're spending mostof your time with the people
(02:58):
that need you most?
Which sounds logical, right?
I should be spending most of mytime with the people that need
me most.
But man, if you want.
A great company, you need tospend most of your time not with
the people that need you most,but the people that have the
(03:20):
best ability to take yourcompany to the next level, which
is not the people that need youmost.
It's probably the people thatneed you the least, but you need
them the most.
So are our, this is thequestion.
Are our best people?
Focused on our top priorities.
(03:41):
Question number two, what one totwo areas should we stop
focusing on immediately?
Every time leadership teams gettogether, and I bet this is the
case for your team, every timeyou get together with your team,
(04:03):
you identify more things you allneed to do.
There are probably three or fiveor seven ideas that come out of
that meeting that people say,you know, I'll do it.
I'll take care of it, and that'sall great.
Of course, there should beaction coming out of these
meetings, but what winds uphappening when we don't ask the
question, what should we stopfocusing on, is all that stuff
(04:27):
just piles on.
We get overloaded, and when weget overloaded, either we.
Actually work on too many thingsand we just don't do them all
that well, or we can't get toeverything, which is normally
the case.
And very often it's some of themost strategic, high priority
(04:50):
things that fall off the list.
So we need to cut the excessnoise.
We need to figure out where wehave objectives are misaligned.
Do we have a priority that's noteffectively moving us forward to
where we want to go?
Are there meetings we're havingthat we should stop having?
(05:11):
Are there reports being producedor analysis being done or
products or services being.
Created or products and servicesthat are already out there that
are just not adding value and weought to stop.
So the number two question is,what one to two areas should we
stop focusing on immediately?
(05:35):
Third question, is our currentmeeting rhythm serving us or
slowing us down?
Now, that could mean.
Questioning meetings that youhave and challenging whether
(05:56):
those meetings are really addingvalue.
It could also be, you know, theit could focus on the fact that
you have stopped having certainmeetings and because of that
you're losing the ability to bealigned, or you're losing the
ability to hold peopleaccountable.
So.
(06:16):
The question is our currentmeeting rhythm serving us or
slowing us down?
is really, I'd say three subfocuses of that.
Number one, do we have the rightmeetings?
Are we having meetings we don'tneed to have?
Are we missing meetings that weshould have?
So number one, are we having theright meetings?
Number two, do those meetingshave the right agendas?
(06:43):
Are we getting together for astatus meeting, man.
I hate status meetings whereeverybody's just going around
the table telling everybody elsewhat they're up to, and
everybody else is looking attheir watch because they need to
get the hell outta that meetingand get some real work done.
Do you have an agenda?
Do you have an effective agenda?
(07:05):
One great way to do it isinstead of an agenda being
topics on a list, but have theagenda.
Be focused on what questionsneed to be answered in that
meeting.
Some of these questions could beon your agenda, so, so number
one, do, are you having theright meetings?
(07:25):
Number two, do you have agendas?
Do you have the right agendaswith the right objectives for
those meetings?
And number three, do you havethe right people in those
meetings?
That could mean, you know, arethere people that should be in
the meetings that are not?
But more often the problem is wejust have too many damn people
(07:49):
in meetings because we wantpeople to learn and observe, but
meanwhile, they're sitting inmeeting where they're not adding
any value and they could behurting the meeting I have seen,
fairly.
Junior level folks in a seniorleadership team type meeting,
(08:11):
and the senior leaders are notfree to talk about what they
really want to talk aboutbecause there's people in the
room that shouldn't be hearingit.
Certain information can't beshared, so more often than not,
I've seen too many people inmeetings.
I forget if it was, may havebeen Amazon, may have been, you
(08:32):
know, Jeff Bezos said, had a twopizza rule where any meeting
where you couldn't feed thegroup with two pizzas, there
were too many people in thatmeeting might be a way to do it.
So is our current meeting rhythmserving us or slowing us down is
the third question.
Right?
Meeting right people.
Right Agendas.
(08:52):
Fourth question.
How are we gathering feedbackworth acting on in order to move
our companies and our teamsforward, we need feedback.
We need feedbacks from ourclients.
we need feedback from our, ourteam members, from our vendors,
(09:17):
feedback in the form of keyperformance indicators about how
we're doing.
How often are you talking aboutthe voice of the customer or the
voice of your client?
In your weekly meetings, in yourmonthly meetings, is there an
(09:38):
agenda item focused on askingWhat are our clients thinking?
Too often we don't.
Listen, or we don't share thatinformation until there's a big
problem.
Well, we need to share thatinformation all the time.
So, so how are you gathering andhow are you discussing,
(10:03):
communicating and taking actionon the voice of the customer?
What about the voice of yourteam members?
How are you gathering thatinformation?
How and when are you takingaction on that?
You know, one way to do that isfor your clients, a net promoter
score for your employees andemployee net promoter score.
(10:25):
But it's not the only way.
It's not even necessarily thebest way.
It's just one way.
You know, skip level meetingsare another way.
Having effective one-on-onediscussions is another way.
So, so that fourth question ishow are we gathering feedback
worth acting on?
(10:46):
Fifth question.
Are we effectively movingtowards our long-term and our
midterm vision?
And by long-term, I mean 10, 15years, midterm, three years, are
we effectively moving towardsour long-term and our midterm
vision?
Sometimes we can get so caughtup in the day to day, the month
(11:10):
to quarter, even the year toyear that we lose sight, of
long-term where we're trying toget to, especially as the world
is changing so fast.
So maybe the first kind ofsub-question under this is, do
you have a long-term vision anda midterm vision?
(11:33):
Do you have a company purpose?
A big hairy, audacious goal, athree year a highly achievable
goal, a vivid vision of what youwant the company to look like,
sound like, taste like, smelllike, feel like over the next
three years.
How clear is that vision?
(11:55):
How well communicated is thatvision?
How aligned are people towardsthat vision?
All those are kind ofpre-questions to this.
'cause it's pretty difficult toeffectively more move towards
your vision if people aren'taware of what that vision is.
So get clear on the vision,communicate the vision, align
(12:16):
around the vision.
Make sure your quarterlypriorities or your rocks, make
sure your annual priorities,your financial targets, your
non-financial targets, all ofthose should be moving you
closer to your vision and makesure you're monitoring all those
things.
To make sure you're movingtowards that vision.
So the fifth question, are weeffectively moving towards our
(12:41):
long-term and our midtermvisions?
Question number six, how alignedare we on this year's top three
priorities?
So similar question, but this isfocused not on the long term or
the midterm, but look out.
(13:02):
To the year or the remainder ofthe year and you know, are your
top priorities clear?
If I ask you what your toppriorities for the year and you
list out 10 things you have notprioritized, we need to be
aligned around a small number ofannual priorities.
(13:25):
Quarterly as well.
But let's talk about annual.
We need to align around a smallnumber of annual priorities, two
or three or four, no, certainlyno more than five.
So are you aligned around thosepriorities?
Are they clear and clearlycommunicated up and down the
organization?
(13:46):
Does everyone understand howthese priorities relate to their
job, to their larger objectives?
Does everybody understand how,what they're doing and what
their individual or team toppriorities are?
How does that relate to theannual priorities?
(14:06):
Those are all, again,pre-questions to if you're
moving towards those, but thekey question here is how aligned
are we on this year's top threepriorities?
That was question number six.
Question number seven, and thisis an interesting one.
What would failure look like andhow do we prevent it?
(14:34):
So one way to think about that.
We normally.
Think about what success wouldlook like.
but man, a powerful question iswhat would failure look like?
and the way I want you to thinkabout it is if you've got a key
initiative or a top priority forthe year or the quarter, or
maybe you're implementing a newCRM system, or maybe you're
(14:56):
launching a brand new product orlaunching a current product into
a new market, when we thinkabout what failure would look
like.
It uncovers potential mistakes.
It uncovers.
(15:17):
Potential areas of focus that wenever would've thought about.
and I like the term pre-mortem.
most of us know the termpostmortem when you are, when
you've completed something andit's either gone well or not
well, especially if it hasn'tgone well.
We do a postmortem is, Hey,let's look back at what we did
and what did we do well and whatdid we not do well, and how is
(15:39):
it gonna make us better movingforward?
But a pre-mortem.
Says, let's imagine the worst.
We've got this brand new productthat we're launching, or a brand
new service that we'relaunching.
If six months from now this is acolossal failure, let's think
(16:02):
about all the reasons that mightbe the case.
And we might uncover thingslike, you know, that could be
the case if there's a lack ofalignment or a lack of
leadership buy-in.
That could be the case if wehaven't effectively.
Beta tested, you know, or, youknow, or had enough discussions
(16:23):
with our clients about thispotential product that could be,
you know, we haven'teffectively, calculated and
communicated the return oninvestment of this brand new
service or this brand newproduct line.
I mean, there, there are dozensof questions, dozens of
potential reasons why it mightfail and all, although we like
(16:45):
to think positively.
Sometimes it is really importantthat we do a pre-mortem and ask
the question, if this fails,what might be the reasons?
And you're gonna come up with awhole lot of, a whole lot of
areas to focus on and actions totake that you never would've
(17:05):
thought about before.
That was question seven,question eight.
How are we empowering ourmid-level talent effectively?
I hear all the time from seniorleaders that they're stretched
too thin, that, you know, wedon't have enough people.
We are, we're doing too manythings, and maybe you are doing
(17:28):
too many things.
And that comes back to aligningaround a small number of
priorities.
But are you empowering yourmid-level talent effectively?
Are there.
Really high performing, highpotential mid-level leaders that
need to be challenged.
Could you, should you increasetheir responsibility?
(17:52):
Could you, should you raise thebar?
On their targets.
I've talked in other podcastsabout the idea of what, Keith
Cupp from Gravitas, impactcoaches.
a longtime mentor of mine,introduced to me something
called an accelerator sessionwhere you're getting your
highest performing mid-levelleaders together and asking them
(18:18):
to.
Identify what they think the topthree priorities of the company
ought to be.
Asking them to do a stopexercise.
What are the three things weought to stop doing as a
company, asking them to do aSWOT exercise, strains,
weaknesses, opportunities,threats for the company, asking
(18:39):
them to talk about the corevalues and how well you're
living the core values and whatyou could do as a company to
better live your core values.
There are, so many ways tobetter empower your mid-level
talent.
To make sure that the company'smoving in the right direction to
help you as a senior leader doyour job.
(19:01):
And also to prepare them forleadership.
So that eighth question is, arewe empowering our mid-level
talent effectively?
Question number nine, where'sthe next growth opportunity?
And how are we preparing?
For it.
(19:21):
So this one's about innovation.
What are you doing to spottrends early?
Now some of that gets back tothe voice of the customer or
maybe the voice of the industry.
But what are you doing to spottrends early, and how often are
you discussing those things?
Do you only spot a trend whenev, when all your competitors
(19:42):
have started leveraging that andyou say, Ooh, maybe.
Maybe we ought to, maybe weought to do that.
You know, AI is a great example.
I'm not sure AI is a trendanymore.
I mean, it's here, you know,what are you doing to leverage
that before it makes you.
(20:03):
Not a necessity anymore.
How are you positioning yourteam to seize on those
opportunities?
Are you fo so focused on theday-to-day tactics that there's
no time to seize onopportunities?
(20:24):
Are you as lead as a leaderspending any of your time just
experimenting with new ideas?
Very often when my clientscreate their quarterly
priorities, their rocks, theyfocus so much on creating rocks
they know they can commit to.
They know they can achieve, butsometimes it makes sense.
(20:47):
To play a little bit to say,man, I don't know if we can get
this done.
I'm not sure how we would do it,but man, we ought to give it a
try.
Imagine if we could, and that'swhy with my clients, very often
we say it's not a hundredpercent achievement of your
quarterly priorities that'ssuccess, Google actually says
(21:08):
it's 70%.
Because It's 70%, a hundredpercent.
You may be sandbagging, it's70%.
It means you're trying some newthings and failing.
Failing is okay.
You're gonna learn.
If you don't fail, it meansyou're not trying hard enough or
you're not trying new things.
So question number nine, where'sthe next growth opportunity and
(21:32):
how are we preparing for it?
And then question number 10.
Are we living our core valuesdaily?
Very often we get caught up inproductivity.
We get caught up in making surewe're making the revenue numbers
(21:53):
and making the profitabilitynumbers and getting to our labor
efficiency ratios, and do wehave enough marketing qualified
leads?
All those things are obviouslycritical, but sometimes we can
get so caught up inproductivity.
We forget about the culture fit.
We forget about the personalityof our organization.
We forget about ournon-negotiable core values.
(22:16):
Okay, are we living our corevalues daily?
And that doesn't mean justbeating people up who aren't
living the core values.
It means raising people up,patting people on the back who
are living the core values.
Someone does a great job in themeeting.
You could say, great job in themeeting.
Or you could say, Hey, I gottatell you, that was a great
(22:38):
example of our, we lift eachother up, core value.
You were such a help in there.
Or someone does a crappy job ina meeting and you could say, I'd
like to see you improve, youknow, your behavior meetings.
Or you could say, I gotta tellyou, you know, collaboration is
one of our core values.
And if I heard you say, it's notmy job, one more time, my head's
(23:01):
gonna explode.
Are we living our core valuesdaily?
and when you think about corevalues, remember there are three
tests of a core value.
Sometimes we're not living ourcore values'cause our core
values aren't the right corevalues.
So there are three tests to makesure any core values is a real
(23:22):
core value, a non-negotiablebehavior that anchors your
culture.
And the first test is that corevalue.
Is not living that core value afireable offense.
There are.
(23:42):
There are situations wherecompanies have created core
values that sound nice, create acore value like creativity.
But when I say, so, if your oneof your accounts payable clerks
isn't creative, you're gonnafire them.
Well, no, of course not.
Well, then that's not a corevalue.
Your core values arenon-negotiable behaviors.
(24:04):
So if someone is blatantly andrepeatedly violating a core
value, that needs to be afireable offense, you need to be
committing to, committed tofiring anyone, even a top
producer.
They are repeatedly andblatantly violating the core
value.
So the first test is it afireable offense?
(24:25):
Second test is, are you willingto take a financial hit to
uphold a core value?
If core values only make sensewhen they increase your
profitability, then it's not acore value.
If you have a core value ofrespect, and one of your clients
is disrespecting all yourpeople.
(24:45):
Working with that client becausethey're bringing in revenue, is
you violating your core values.
So the first test is it afireable offense?
Second test, are you willing tolose revenue?
Are you willing to take afinancial hit to uphold the core
value?
And the third test is it alivein your organization today?
(25:05):
Core values are notaspirational.
it can't be aspirational andnon-negotiable at the same time,
or you'd have to fire half yourpeople.
So 10th question, are we livingour core values daily?
So real quickly, let me remindyou of the 10 before we wrap up.
Number one, are our best peoplefocused on our top priorities?
(25:27):
Number two, what one to twoareas should we stop focusing on
immediately?
Number three is our currentmeeting rhythm serving us.
Or slowing us down?
Number four, how are wegathering feedback worth acting
on?
Number five, are we effectivelymoving towards our long-term and
our midterm vision?
(25:48):
Number six, how aligned are weon this year's top three
priorities?
number seven, what would failurelook like and how do we prevent
it?
Number eight.
Are we empowering our mid-leveltalent effectively?
Number nine, where's the nextgrowth opportunity and how are
we preparing for it?
(26:09):
Number 10, are we living ourcore values daily?
Maybe ask these 10 questions inyour next monthly or quarterly
meeting.
Maybe take.
One or two of these questions,and in each of your weekly
meetings, ask those questions,but ask these questions not
once.
Ask them again and again.
(26:32):
If you want a great company, youneed a great leadership team.
I hope these 10 questions getyou closer to that great
leadership team.
And by the way, if you alreadyfeel like you have a great
leadership team,congratulations.
But you know what?
Raise the bar.
(26:53):
Creating a great leadership teamis something that never, ever
ends.
Look forward to seeing you againsoon.
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