Dave Schmidgall, one of our proteges, send me a link to a great article put out by Harvard Business Review. One stat really struck me. The article wraps around a survey question asked of tens of thousands of employees: “What do you look for and admire in a leader?” The number response? Honesty. Number two? 72% said they wanted a leader who was forward-looking.

Can I interject? One of the common problems I see in many churches is frustration in second-chair leaders over the lack of vision in first-chair leaders. If the lead pastor isn’t forward-looking enough, it breeds frustration like rabbits. A leader’s vision needs to be big enough to unleash and empower the people around him to pursue their visions. To put it another way, if a leader isn’t forward-looking the organization they lead will expend tremendous amounts of sideways energy.

Now here is the stat that struck me. Researchers who study the work activities of executive leaders estimate that only 3% of their time is allocated to forward-looking endeavors.

Honestly, I’m not sure what that % is for me. But I know it’s a lot higher than 3%. One practical thing that has really helped me allocate time for forward-looking is scheduling my week around meeting days and focus days. I have very little creative margin on meeting days (Tuesdays and Thursdays). But that buys back focus days (Mondays and Fridays) where I have margin to dream and plan and pray and imagine and think.

3% doesn’t cut it for kingdom leaders. I’m not sure exactly what that % should be. But I’m convinced it’s the key to the kingdom advancing!