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Why Great Leaders Look Beyond Today’s Forecast to Shape Tomorrow’s Reality
In a world increasingly attuned to the realities of climate change, leaders would do well to reflect on a parallel question in their own professional lives: Are you more focused on the weather, or the climate?
This simple metaphor offers a powerful lens into the quality and impact of leadership.
The Weather vs. The Climate of Leadership
Weather is what’s happening today—this week, this quarter. It’s the sales forecast, the cash flow report, the day-to-day metrics, the reactive fire-fighting that fills so many leaders’ calendars. It demands your attention, sometimes your urgency—but it’s fleeting.
Climate, on the other hand, is enduring. It’s the long arc of your organization’s culture, values, mission, and strategic direction. Climate shapes the identity of your business—not just for today, but for years to come.
Leaders obsessed with the weather make short-term decisions, often at the expense of long-term resilience. Leaders who understand climate think in decades. They futureproof their teams and strategies. They invest in infrastructure others can’t yet see.
Tactical vs. Strategic: Where Are You Spending Your Time?
Tactical leaders are weather-watchers. They track the ups and downs, the daily changes. Are we hitting this month’s targets? Are we reacting well to the latest crisis?
But subtle shifts—economic, social, technological—can turn yesterday’s success into tomorrow’s irrelevance. Those leaders who fail to notice the slow change in climate will eventually find their strategies outdated, their teams disengaged, and their businesses vulnerable.
Strategic leaders, on the other hand, do what hockey legend Wayne Gretzky once described so simply: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” They anticipate rather than react. They stay grounded in purpose while adapting to an ever-evolving world.
Weather Questions vs. Climate Questions
Weather-based thinking:
What’s happening right now?
Did we hit Q2 numbers?
Are we meeting today’s KPIs?
Climate-based thinking:
What kind of organization are we building?
How do our values guide decisions?
What leadership pipeline are we nurturing for five years down the line?
In essence: Are you reacting to what’s urgent or shaping what’s important?
Steven Covey’s Timeless Reminder
In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey warns against simply prioritizing what’s already on our schedules. Instead, he says, we must schedule our actual priorities.
Most leaders live in Quadrant II of the Eisenhower Matrix: Urgent and important. It’s stressful, exhausting, and ultimately unsustainable. Climate leaders aim to spend most of their time in Quadrant I: Important, but not urgent—where vision, culture, development, and innovation live.
How to Gauge Your Strategic Focus
Just like a doctor won’t treat a patient without understanding the symptoms, leaders must diagnose their own approach. Ask yourself:
On a scale of 1 to 10, how strategic have I truly been in the past six to nine weeks? (1 = “embarrassingly tactical,” 10 = “build-me-a-statue strategic”)
If it’s not a 10 (and be honest—it isn’t), then there are gaps to identify and close. But what are those gaps? How serious are they? What impact do they have? And most importantly, how will you change?
Take a Leadership Assessment
Many assessments exist—personality types, communication styles, decision-making tendencies. Choose the one that best suits your development goals, and then do the hard part: listen to the results.
Reflect. Adjust. Commit. Because unless you’re willing to act on what you learn, the exercise is meaningless.
Or as Tom Landry once said—paraphrased here for leadership: A leadership assessment is something that tells you what you don’t want to hear, so you can see what you don’t want to see, and become who you’ve always had the potential to be.
Final Thought: It’s Time to Forecast Differently
If you’re too focused on the daily storms and sunny spells, you may miss the slow, shifting patterns that determine your organization’s survival. Weather is temporary. Climate is destiny.
The best leaders know that while today’s forecast matters, the real legacy is built by those who study, understand, and shape the climate of their organizations.
