Every organization has opportunities knocking at their door. In fact, opportunities are usually plentiful. The challenge is knowing whether an opportunity is really a distraction in disguise. Too often our enthusiasm short circuits our ability to objectively evaluate which opportunities are truly worth pursuing. To help you differentiate between opportunity and distraction, answer these ten questions:

1. Does it Match Your Organizational DNA? The longer I lead the more I realize the importance of protecting organizational DNA. Your DNA consists of your vision, values, and culture. Everyone has an idea (usually many ideas), but not everyone has infused the organizations DNA into their thinking. In fact, when confronted with the DNA, people often find “creative” ways to make their ideas fit. When every idea fits, the DNA is unclear or tainted.

2. Is it Aligned with Your Core Competencies? Every leader and every organization has specific areas of strength and passion. An organization’s core competencies are the leverage points for opportunity. If there’s misalignment between opportunities, strengths, and passions, the organization will work twice as hard but only deliver half the results. Stay true to your organizational DNA. Understanding yourself is one of the most crucial steps to understanding your opportunities.

3. Does it Present Growth or Impact Potential? The opportunity must demonstrate clear potential for growth or impact in or through the organization. Growth might include things such as customers, sales, finances, or market share. Impact might include life change, community transformation, or resolving a problem or meeting a need. If the opportunity isn’t contributing to growth or impact, what value do you see in the opportunity?

4. Do You Have Sustainable Resource Capacity? Every opportunity comes with a cost. That cost usually involves at least three resources: time, money, and people. If you don’t have all three, your opportunity may very well turn into an extended nightmare. Or, you may need to determine how you can secure the resources without jeopardizing the organization. Keep in mind that resource capacity includes both the launch and the sustainability of the opportunity. The last thing you want to do is start but not finish.

[bctt tweet=”Resource capacity includes both the launch and the sustainability of the opportunity.”]

5. Does it Pass the Two-Dimension Timing Test? The timing test must be viewed from two angles. First, is it the right time right now? Some opportunities are the right opportunities but they’ve shown up a few months too early. Resist the temptation to jump to soon, and develop a system to revisit the opportunity in the near future. Second, does the opportunity pass the 7-day, 30-day, or 90-day test? It’s very easy to get infatuated with an idea. If you’re not careful, this leads to vision whiplash for your team as you jump from one great idea to another. In most cases, you should give an opportunity a testing window. Sit on it for a few days (or even a few weeks) and see if your passion for the idea grows stronger or quickly fades. In those rare cases where opportunities must be seized quickly, carefully answer the other questions. 

6. Do You Have Buy-In? If you’re pursuing an opportunity while the rest of your key stakeholders are shaking their heads in disbelief, you’re walking on thin ice. Creating buy-in is crucial not only for the decision to move forward, but for the long-term success of the initiative too. It’s your job to cast inspiring vision and articulate a clear pathway that maximizes the opportunity. If you can’t get all hands on deck, you’ll never leverage the value of the opportunity.

7. Will it Put a Hole Below the Waterline? It’s easy to glamorize “bet the farm” thinking as if it’s a noble leadership quality. We can all point to people who risked everything and won big. But those stories are usually far and few between. When you bet the farm, you more often lose the farm. In most cases, it’s simply not wise to put everything on the line and risk sinking the entire ship. It’s one thing to take a risk and put a hole in the side of the boat. It’s an entirely different thing to take a risk that puts a hole below the waterline. Seek counsel. Do your research. Take smaller risks to determine the viability of the opportunity. I’m not suggesting you simply play it safe. Leaders take risks and courageously act in the face of fear. The opportunity matrix will help you find balance in this process.

8. Will it Compete with Existing Programs, Products, or Strategies? When internal competition arises, the resources mentioned above (time, money, and people) get divided. Division often leads to distraction. Be careful that you don’t create programs, products, and strategies that compete with each other for the same time, money, and people. Figure out what you do best and leverage your resource pool to deliver the greatest growth and impact.

9. Are You Confusing Opportunities with Partnerships? Sometimes you should pursue an opportunity via a partnership with another organization rather than a solo project. Instead of reinventing the wheel, maybe you should create a win-win situation that leverages the strengths of both organizations. This reduces the drain on resources while increasing value and impact.

10. Are You Overreaching? This is one of the most difficult things for visionary leaders to manage. Organizational expert Jim Collins warns of the danger of the undisciplined pursuit of more in his book, How the Mighty Fall. He describes this as the temptation of overreaching. Collins observes:

“When an organization grows beyond its ability to fill its key seats with the right people, it has set itself up for a fall. Although complacency and resistance to change remain dangers to any successful enterprise, overreaching better captures how the mighty fall.”

Overreaching happens when organizational success leads us to believe we are invincible. As a result, the focused discipline that brought initial success is exchanged for an uncontrolled appetite for more, more, more. Opportunity and focus should coexist. Otherwise you’ll wander into irrelevance.

[bctt tweet=”Overreaching happens when organizational success leads us to believe we are invincible.”]

Your answer to the first six questions should be “Yes.” Your answer to the final four questions should be “No.” When the opportunity wanders outside of these parameters, it may actually be nothing more than a distraction…possibly a very costly distraction. Stay focused. If you struggle with focus, be sure your team includes people with a “focus” strength rather than a bunch of “yes men.”

Question: What strategies or tactics do you use to identify, pursue, or leverage the right opportunities without becoming distracted?