: I’ve had the good fortune in over 30 years of start-ups, mid-market companies, and giant corporates to have met hundreds of senior executives and start-up CEOs. What I observed during that time — and what I experienced myself when I was a founder — is that the majority of managers are overwhelmed with the daily tasks of running their business, attracting new business, taking care of customers, endless internal meetings and extinguishing fires that ignite out of the blue almost daily.
Very little time is left for their most important priorities: real strategic thinking and planning; finding and implementing exponential growth strategies; solving that festering problem that keeps rearing its head; starting that long-neglected opportunity that would surely be a blockbuster if they could just find someone with available bandwidth to own it. The many challenges and demands that these priorities require, and the sheer size of the efforts, are daunting, often causing procrastination or paralysis in beginning the process.
I have always been a believer in keeping things simple and boiling issues down to their essence. If you can identify your most pressing problems or opportunities and if you can tackle them head on, the weight of other daily tasks are reduced, and you see light through your very dark and crowded tunnel. You begin to realize that progress starts at the top, by addressing the biggest issues and taking advantage of the most promising opportunities. That’s where exponential change takes place.
I have asked one question over the years to size up my own imperatives and to help others focus on theirs. This question shines a spotlight on your real needs and fears. If I’m talking to an executive and I hear an endless list of problems and challenges scattered across the board, I simply ask one question to get to the heart of the matter. “What really keeps you up at night?”
Next, learn the single question I ask myself and others when daily tasks are overwhelming and you don’t know where to start.