The Halftime Blog

Essential Disruption @ Halftime – Part 3

1/3/2012

This blog is the last in a series on powerful disruptive questions that can help you gain clarity about your second half.

Question #1 was “what do you have that is priceless, and how are you protecting it?”

Question #2 was “what is all your winning costing you?”

Question #3 is about metrics.

Most successful leaders take time at the end of the year to assess their results. They don’t just recount stories of how their business served people, or anecdotes of how their profits grew, they look at metrics. Real measurable results. When I ask a group of men and women in Halftime “if your company was firing on all eight cylinders, how would you know”, they have an immediate answer. But seldom do they have metrics for their life.

So imagine yourself on December 31, 2013, it’s late at night, everyone in your house has gone to bed and you are sitting by the fire alone, with God, looking back over the year. After making a Halftime transition, you have been living out your second half mission for the entire year and you sense you are operating in the sweet spot of your unique contribution. For some of you that will be in a marketplace role, for others in a non-profit role or, more likely, a blend of those. But you know it’s your calling.

As you sit by the fire that night you realize at the deepest part of your being that you are actually living the perfect second half of your life. So here’s my question …

Disruptive question #3 is “If in two years you are living the perfect second half of your life, how will you know?”

Before you answer, notice that I am not asking you what you would be doing. Rather this is a deeper question. It is a metrics question. As you begin the new year, how will you know you are living the perfect second half? What will be the metrics by which you come to that conclusion?

The clearer you can answer this question, the easier it will be to build a strategy to get there.

Take a moment and write out those metrics. I encourage you to share these with your spouse and a few friends for their thoughts and insights.

To share these confidentially with the rest of us, please comment below.

Lloyd Reeb is the author of "From Success to Significance"