The quality of our lives and of our companies depends on the questions we ask and the challenges we set for ourselves. For example, you might ask yourself “Do I dare to be great?” That’s a good question. You can also ask yourself what kind of nonsense would get in the way of believing that you can be great. That’s a good question, too! With this spirit in mind, here are questions that could open you up to higher thoughts.
- How clear is the vision for your company? Does everyone at the company know what it is? Have you branded it in your employee literature, on your intranet, on your walls, and so on? Would I know it simply by walking into your place or visiting your website?
- Is your vision for your company a big, hairy, audacious one? It’s better to really go for it and succeed at 50% than to shoot for average — and end up average.
- Have you played the movie forward to the end? If you got everything you had hoped for, what would it look like? How would it feel? How would your life be different?
- What personal sacrifices are you willing to make to create a great company or career?
- What personal sacrifices are you willing to ask others to make to build a great company or career?
- What effort have you made to guarantee you bring the right people on every seat of the bus?
- How do you stimulate your workforce to think for itself?
- How do you create an employee suggestion system that works?
- What have you done to eliminate the possibility of people making unnecessary mistakes?
- What “one big thing” could wipe out your business tomorrow?
- How could your business die from a series of 1,000 cuts?
- Do you really want to do this anymore? If not, what would you rather be doing instead?
- How could you stay in your business/career and reinvent how you work in it?
Have fun with the answers!
