This was my favorite question of the week! What really made it my favorite question, was that I found myself asking it, not just answering it. As a leader, I think about this question and its answers across all levels of the business. This is what occupies my mind, keeps me up at night and consumes much of my work day. I am either answering this question, judging our performance against my perceived answer or trying to explain to someone what my vision of success is for a particular area of the business. Sometimes these conversations go very well and sometimes the message is not received clearly or even resisted. In order to take a new approach to the same issue, I flipped the vision into a question and not just an answer. It was fascinating to hear the response and amazed that it was very close to my answer. I was then able to build on this close response to grow the vision to match fully with my answer to what does success look like.

As a leader it was very de-stressing to have someone else answer this question for a change. It was also rewarding to hear that the vision I am sharing is compelling enough that those around me are listening, buying in and passionate to see it become reality!

Please hear this from both perspectives. As a leader, start asking the question, not just answering it. If you want to help your boss and exhibit your capabilities, proactively answer the question.