Make it a habit to look ahead. Don’t live there, but the best leaders are always looking up and around. You have to look around the corner, anticipate the next challenge or move, anything that will affect the performance of their team. The most effective leaders are always working to improve the team and mitigate problems, and this can happen only when they take the time to look forward. If you are exclusively coaching from the field, your view is limited to what is directly in your line of vision. It takes rising above, metaphorically, and taking a ride around the field and down the road to see what’s coming next.
In our business the leaders need to always be looking forward to the next week, or to the busy weekend. They need to ensure we have enough product and people to service the clients with excellence. Failure to do this will always result in a lapse when it comes to the final goal- to exceed the client expectations. I spent a lot of my career coaching from the field, I was in the ranks, my finger on the pulse, but my eyes could only see the full circle around me. It took the right message at the right time for me to begin to learn how to heads up.
I was at a business seminar a few years back, and we had to break up into small groups with people we didn’t know. In the process of sharing what I do for a living, and the challenges I was having with growing my company, one of the women had the perfect insight. She said, “It seems like you are too close to the screen, what if you imagine yourself floating up in the sky and looking down at your business. Make the circle bigger, and expand the definition of what you do.” This was exactly what I needed to hear, and helped me to redefine myself as a leader. I was not a baker, well, I was, but not only. I was also a founder, a dreamer, an inspirer, a teacher, a coach…and soon a leader.
I continuously remind myself to look up, look ahead, anticipate the curves and ruts in the road, but also keep my goal in my line of sight. This is the secret to getting from here to there.