Anticipatory Leadership is often like breathing for my senior executive clients (I was just saying this to one today).  These leaders are adept at strategic thinking — and thinking ahead – in a way that seems to come naturally to them while leading and running organizations.

They can’t imagine not thinking as an Anticipatory Leader.

What is less common is finding that same acumen and skill in key members of their senior leadership teams who can be thought partners and lifeguards in running the organization.  And, as a result, my CEO and senior executive clients are hesitant to rely on those SLT members in this way for fear that something critical will be missed.

An overlooked pattern, numbers that are trending the in wrong direction, these things can have grave consequences for a business.

There is reason for caution.

The absence of Anticipatory Leadership can typically be attributed to one or more of the following:

• The SLT member is too busy to lift their head from the weeds, too busy running on the treadmill of daily delivery, to think strategically and with anticipation
• They are afraid of being wrong or making a mistake and don’t want to stick their neck out; this might be related to company culture, their own ego, or fear of not performing well
• It hasn’t been expected of them in their prior role and they haven’t yet grown into their current role (and it may not have been made an explicit expectation)
• They don’t know what it means to think as an Anticipatory Leader, to be looking at contingencies and prevention and risk, and their CEO, who is often exceptional at it, hasn’t mentored and coached them by externalizing the CEO’s thinking (more on that in a minute)
• They don’t have the capacity or skill to anticipate in a meaningful and strategic way

If you find that you need one or more members of your senior leadership team to be better at watching what you watch, the first thing is to tell them that.

The next is to provide coaching and mentorship to them by sharing how you think.

If someone isn’t accustomed to monitoring trends and patterns and predictors, it can seem overwhelming to know where to begin.  As you externalize and share your thinking, consider:

• What are the numbers and trends that you watch?
• Why are you looking at those, in particular?
• What do they signal to you?
• Why are they so impactful? Do they show a cascade effect?
• How often are you checking these key markers?
• Why is that cadence important?
• What data can’t you live without?
• Are there questions from certain others that you always want to be prepared to answer?

After providing some coaching to your team member(s), consider delegating the least essential of what you anticipate while giving continued mentorship.  That way, the learning process and skill acquisition can improve without fear of a major blunder.

And you’ll be better able to assess if your team member can become proficient with Anticipatory Leadership in time.

For more on working with me directly, you can find more information here.  My clients are senior executives and their leadership teams who want to elevate their performance and drive business results.

Coming soon: A blog on How to Build a Kitchen Cabinet.