It was 2017 when I felt completely lost in how to change the future in my organization which was doing poorly when I arrived. This had been one of the most daunting challenges I had taken on. My region was in last place and needed to find a way forward. Working harder and applying more resources would get me short term results, but wasn’t sustainable. Does this resonate with you? I share this insight often because the leader’s conundrum is to get results, but they often are not rewarded for taking a pause to find a new path forward or envision and manifest the future.
That is why I created a “crystal ball” for unlocking your future career path. It’s called the “whiteboard” both physically and figuratively, but simply a place to project your thoughts. It could be post-it notes, Miro Boards, Journal, Powerpoint or any space you feel comfortable putting down your thoughts.
What is different from most “Planning” frameworks is there is no structure to this. Simply put random thoughts on the “whiteboard” and don’t worry if they have meaning.
To enable the creative process, you might want to ask yourself such questions as:
- What is missing?
- What is needed?
- What is working well?
- What type of leader am I?
- What type of leader do I want to or need to be?
- How do I feel?
- What does the team need?
- What are my strengths and weaknesses?
- What are my team’s strengths and weaknesses?
- What do I see in my future?
These are simply prompts to put up random ideas with no structure. When we allow ourselves time to freely think with minimal structure, something interesting happens. What we want or what we “see” starts to show up on the board. Once they are documented, it is good to walk away and come back later and look at them with a fresh set of eyes. Let the words / phrases speak to you and I promise the “whiteboard” is the crystal ball into the future. When you start to see common themes or connected concepts, they start to take shape and tell you what the future looks like and the actions needed.
Here are a few things that happened when I started to whiteboard:
- The Framework of One came to me to enable me to unify my region
- My purpose was to enable people to struggle less and spend more time doing the things they enjoy
- My greatest gift to my team was to remove barriers and elevate their leadership to unleash their potential
- Create a collaborative environment to amplify their impact
- Leverage feedback continually as an accelerator for improving performance.
So what happened after I did this exercise? I went from the #4 out of 4 regions to #2 in 18 months! I created the future I wanted and enabled the team to perform to it’s highest potential. There were of course challenges along the way, but this vision and change in my leadership created the future I wanted for myself and others.
Even now, I have a whiteboard that is telling me to use my voice in ways I never imagined to support you and enable your fullest potential. It’s working for me and I want to give this approach to you.
Here’s your framework for creating your own crystal ball:
STEP 1: Find your whiteboard
STEP 2: Write down ideas, no framework, nothing, personal, professional, family, community, passion, strengths, goals, dreams… what you see, visualize it
STEP 3: Walk away
STEP 4: Return and add to it, step back and just assess, no goals
STEP 5: Go back to step 3 and walk away
STEP 6: Circle themes, start to make some sense of it, what are they saying about the future. Start summarizing what you are seeing
STEP 7: Go back to step 3 and walk away
STEP 8: Take some of the themes and put them into a plan / roadmap to explore or go in that direction with specific steps.
Do you have challenges with unlocking the future? Do you avoid leaning into seeing the future? Worse yet, are you a leader who has team members who lack these critical skills to create vision and a future worth pursuing? Let me partner with you. I’m here to listen and perhaps we can have a conversation and unlock your future!
To hear more about this topic please tune into my podcast that is releasing this Friday 11/24/23.
Would you rather have a quick 1-2-1 to discuss your specific challenge?
Could The Drop In CEO be your support system? Direct Message me on LI or contact me by schedule a short call and let’s have a conversation. Until then, I wish you much success.