As a CEO or organizational leader, you may be searching the marketplace for that next big revenue source, investor, or grant — your next opportunity to execute on your mission and create a sustainable bright future.
But, are you ready for it?
There are countless stories of individuals and businesses securing wonderful opportunities and being completely unprepared for what came next.
As CEO, business owner, or Executive Director, it’s up to you to ensure that you ARE prepared for what comes next. That means addressing underlying inefficient, misdirected patterns within yourself or your company NOW, or the next big thing won’t be sustainable.
To be sustainable, indeed, to create your next opportunity, honestly ask, are your resources organized in the most effective way possible for the good of one and all?
Reshaping and optimizing your resources can result in organizational gains in innovation, creativity and resiliency, as you develop your own leadership capacity.
Consider both your inner and outer resources. Your potential as a leader lies within your inner resources. When you nurture, grow and develop these resources, your capacity grows as your organization grows. One feeds the other in a natural and organic way.
Inner resources include your awareness, concentration and energy.
Questions that help expand awareness include:
- Are you clear about where your organization has been and where it needs to go?
- Are you aware of the details and daily actions required of you and your team to move the organization toward a sustainable thriving future? Do you clearly see the gaps – where this is not happening –and why?
Consider concentration:
- Are you able to concentrate on what needs attention now?
- Can you concentrate for as long as is needed?
- Are you able to control time, or does it feel like time is controlling you?
Energy:
- Are you working in a way that feeds and sustains your creativity? or
- Do you go home at night exhausted and drained?
- Is your energy there for you when you need it most?
Your potential lies within your ability to manage and optimize these precious resources. If you want to change some of the answers to these questions, you are not alone! The first step is to be aware of them.
Outer resources include your team, business partners, vendors, funders, donors, investors, customers/clients, even your equipment, real estate and technology. Consider:
- How can these resources be organized and optimized so they are leading you toward your desired outcome?
- Are you getting outcomes fast enough to keep stakeholders engaged for the long haul?
- What patterns of communication can be established so these outer resources are supporting the same organizational vision?
- How can you create opportunities to deepen your team’s understanding and commitment to the organization and create a path of personal and professional growth for them to truly flourish?
- What skills are required for the organization to grow to the next level – to bridge the gaps you see?
- Given your existing challenges and opportunities, what skills do you need to develop now?
I often advise leaders to begin with optimizing their team. In part 3 of the paper, Three Essential Elements of Sustainable High Performance, (get your complimentary copy here), we delve further into these questions. These questions will help you to assess what is needed to unleash the potential of your organization and truly be ready for the future.
Want to explore more?
I am leading an intensive workshop for nonprofit executives just before the N.C. Center for Nonprofits Annual Conference on September 30th, 2015 in Winston-Salem, NC. Join me and a small group of your peers in a safe environment to explore into these important questions. Click here to learn more so you can access your potential as a leader and create your next big opportunity.
