I met a friend for lunch the other day - he had attended a church committee meeting the previous night and shared his unspoken thoughts.  One of his church leaders had just returned from a conference and was brimming with ideas.  She wanted to share her ideas, solicit new ones, and inspire the committee to act.  There was just so much great work to be done!

My friend said he wanted to ask "What are we trying to accomplish?"  "What is the purpose of this effort?"  The answers were important to him as a way to evaluate the ideas, and perhaps think of others.  But he didn't ask the questions.

He didn't ask them because the momentum of the leader and the group was focused on discussing the ideas.  He didn't ask them because he didn't want to derail the leader's enthusiasm.  He didn't ask them because the meeting looked like it was going to run long, and asking the questions would surely make it run even longer. 

Despite incredibly busy lives, most of us are not too busy to attend meetings, not too busy to work on new initiatives, and not too busy to give our thoughts on how best to get work done.  Sadly, we are almost always too busy to ask the important questions.  So we work and work and work, and to what end?  Growth is still stalled, margins are still squeezed, and we can't find the elusive silver bullet.

The truth about mission, vision and strategy is that it's hard to do well.  Even if we take the time, all too often the efforts result in ambigous statements that fail to give the direction that is so needed by our people.  But when it is done well - when the statements are clear - when the communication is inspiring - we are poised to achieve great things.  We can begin to work on the things that propel us in the desired direction, and begin to question the things that do not.  Setting the organization's strategic direction is one of the most valuable skills a leader can possess.  It is also incredibly rare.

I talked recently with a colleague who was passed over for a senior leadership role.  The feedback was that she was clearly the better candidate when it came to leadership and strategy.  The company felt more comfortable, however, with the candidate who brought specific operational experience they needed.  To me, this seemed a terrible decision for the company, and for the people who were anxiously awaiting a new leader.  But at least the meetings will run on time.