Questions Worth Losing Sleep Over

Founders have a million things to worry about on any given day. A key to success is making sure that you are worrying about the RIGHT things.

In today’s edition of Campfire Stories, we provide critical questions to help you know if you are worried about a symptom or the underlying issue that must be fixed. 

Here is a short list of questions every founder should be asking:

1) If every member of your team were to map out the company strategy and the key milestones associated with it, would everyone draw an identical roadmap? 

2) Does your entire team understand the tactical next steps to delivering against the company strategy, and how the work (and timelines) of different teams fit together? 

3) What business assumptions are you making, and how are you testing them to know if a shift or a pivot is needed? 

4) How are you identifying and addressing strategic risks, issues and roadblocks?  

5) Does your runway support your strategy? Do you know where every dollar is going? 

6) Are you measuring information that shows whether you are on the right path? Or are you creating noise by measuring data that is not relevant or actionable? 

7) Does the way you spend your time align to your stated priorities? 

8) Are decisions made based on the input of the people who are most knowledgeable, or the loudest - and is there a difference between those two? 

9) Does every single member of your team have a clear set of accountabilities and are they equipped to deliver on them? 

10) Do company systems, tools, and decision making processes align with your business and help your team members do their jobs more efficiently?

These types of questions are mission critical. They will reveal whether your strategy is truly embedded across your business, the extent to which daily operations are both efficient and enabling, and whether your team is able to do what needs to get done. 

Are you asking these questions enough? Do you like the answers? 

Ultimately, these will help you determine whether you really have a Culture that Works.