Future Focus: The Second Pillar of Resilience

Have you ever noticed how some leaders maintain clarity and direction even during the most chaotic circumstances? What separates those who get consumed by daily firefighting from those who transform challenges into stepping stones toward a compelling future?

Welcome to an exploration of Future Focus – the second pillar of resilience that empowers leaders to see beyond immediate difficulties while remaining firmly grounded in present realities. Drawing from over two decades of experience coaching executive teams across industries, I share the personal story of how future focus sustained me through the early challenges of building my leadership coaching consultancy when the industry was still in its infancy.

This episode unveils five crucial elements that define future-focused leadership: 

Maintaining clear vision during challenges, 

Balancing short and long-term priorities using the Horizon Framework, 

Practicing "intelligent optimism" rather than blind positivity, 

Helping team members maintain perspective during difficult periods, and 

Planning for opportunities while managing current challenges. 

Each element is illustrated through real-world examples from my work with leaders navigating complex organizational transformations.

You'll discover practical strategies including perspective scaffolding techniques, the distinction between passive hope and active optimism, and a complete future focus audit for your team. Whether you're leading through uncertainty or preparing for your next leadership challenge, these insights will help you expand your horizons and lead with greater resilience. 

Listen now and transform how you navigate complexity – because the future belongs to those who can see it clearly even amidst today's storms.

Leadership Horizons - Helping You Lead Beyond Boundaries

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Introduction
• 1:04 The Power of Future Focus
• 2:05 Five Elements of Future Focus
• 4:16 Intelligent Optimism vs Blind Positivity
• 5:38 Perspective Keeping for Teams
• 7:10 Future Focus Audit Challenge

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

Hello and welcome back to Leadership Horizons. I'm Lois Burton and, if you're joining me for the first time, I'm an executive coach and leadership development specialist who's spent over 24 years working alongside senior leaders and executive teams, helping them navigate complexity and become the best that they can be. Today we're going to be exploring the second pillar of resilience. Last week we explored energy management and this week we're going to talk about future focus. And I want to start with a story from my own journey. Two decades ago, when I founded Lewis Burton Limited, I was stepping into uncharted territory. The coaching industry was in its infancy and many questioned whether this new approach to leadership development would last. But I had a vision. I could see a future where leaders wouldn't just manage their teams but would genuinely transform them and transform themselves. That vision sustained me through the early challenges, the skeptical clients and the moments when the short-term pressures threatened to overwhelm the long-term dream. Today, that vision has become a reality. We're now one of the UK's premier specialist leadership coaching consultancies, and so I know from my own personal experience about the power of holding on to future focus. Future focus isn't about having perfect foresight or endless optimism. It's about maintaining a grounded vision, the ability to see beyond current difficulties while staying rooted in present realities. In my work with executive teams across sectors from financial services to healthcare, from higher education to oil and petroleum, I've observed five critical elements that define future focus in resilient leaders and resilient teams. The first element is maintaining a clear vision during challenging situations. I remember working with a manufacturing executive team during a major supply chain crisis. The immediate pressures were intense, customers were frustrated, costs were escalating and the team was firefighting daily, but the most resilient leaders didn't lose sight of their larger purpose. But the most resilient leaders didn't lose sight of their larger purpose. They kept asking how are we moving forward and what are we building toward? How does solving this crisis position us for the future we want to create? This isn't about ignoring present realities. It's about using vision as your north star when the storms hit. As leaders, we must be keepers of the vision when our teams can only see the immediate chaos. That's not just leadership. That's transformational leadership. The second element is balancing short-term pressures with long-term objectives. This is where many leadership teams stumble. I've seen brilliant executives become so consumed by quarterly targets that they sacrifice the very foundations that will deliver sustainable success.

Speaker 1: 3:16

In my coaching practice, I use what I call the horizon framework. Imagine standing on a hill looking out at three horizons. Horizon one is your immediate view the next 90 days. Horizon two is the middle distance the next year to 18 months. Horizon three is the far horizon your three to five year vision. Resilient leaders allocate attention across all three horizons. They never sacrifice horizon three for horizon one, but they also never ignore immediate pressures while chasing distant dreams. It does sound sometimes as if that's a very complicated thing to do, because the present moment can feel really overwhelming. Part of this is actually allocating some time and we've done quite a bit on time but allocating some time and some energy to reminding yourself of horizon two and horizon three while still working on the immediate pressures.

Speaker 1: 4:22

The third element is demonstrating optimism while remaining realistic. You need to ask yourself do team members demonstrate optimism while remaining realistic? This is what I call intelligent optimism, not the blind positivity that ignores problems, but the grounded belief that challenges can be overcome through focused effort and smart strategy. I learned this from working in some of the most complex organizational challenges over the past two decades. True optimism isn't about pretending difficulties don't exist. It's about believing in your team's capacity to find solutions and work with them to do that, even when you can't yet see them. When I work with teams, I help them to distinguish between hope and optimism. Hope is passive I hope things get better. Optimism is active. I believe we can make things better, and here's how we're going to start.

Speaker 1: 5:23

Element four helping others maintain perspective during difficult periods. The fourth element focuses on whether we help others to maintain that perspective even when they're going through very difficult times. As leaders, we're not just responsible for our own future focus. We're the perspective keepers for our entire teams. When your team members are drowning in immediate pressures, they need you to remind them of the bigger picture. I've coached countless executives through this challenge. The key is what I call perspective scaffolding providing the framework that helps others see beyond their immediate circumstances. This might mean regularly sharing progress toward longer-term goals, celebrating small wins that connect to bigger victories, or simply asking the questions that lift people's gaze from the immediate crisis to the emerging opportunities.

Speaker 1: 6:18

The fifth element is planning for future opportunities while managing current challenges. So not just looking at that future horizon, but actually planning for the opportunities that are going to arise. It's perhaps the most sophisticated aspect of future focus because it requires that kind of dual consciousness the ability to be fully present to current realities while simultaneously scanning for emerging possibilities. I've watched the most resilient executive teams master this art Even in crisis mode, they allocate time and mental bandwidth to opportunity recognition. They ask questions like what might this disruption make possible? How could these changes position us for future advantage? So let's bring it together.

Speaker 1: 7:11

Future focused isn't a luxury for when times are good. It's essential for navigating uncertainty and transforming challenges into competitive advantages. As I reflect on my journey from those early uncertain days of building a coaching practice to now training team coaches and working with global corporates, I realize that Future Focus has been my constant companion. It's what's enabled me to see possibilities where others saw problems, to invest in long-term capabilities while managing immediate needs, and to help hundreds of leaders expand their own horizons.

Speaker 1: 7:48

So here's your leadership challenge for you this week Conduct what I call a future focus audit with your team. Ask yourselves these five questions. Can every team member articulate our vision, especially during pressure situations? How are we balancing our attention across immediate, medium-term and long-term horizons? Are we modelling intelligent optimism, acknowledging difficulties while believing in solutions? Who on our team needs perspective support right now, and how will we provide it? What future opportunities might emerge from our current challenges? So five questions for you to conduct that future focus audit with your team. Remember future focus isn't about predicting the future perfectly. It's about positioning yourself and your team to create the future you want, regardless of what challenges arise. Next week we'll explore the third pillar of resilience and I'll be sharing insights from my work with teams who've mastered the art of adaptation. Thank you for joining me on Leadership Horizons. I'm Lois Burton and I'm committed to helping you lead beyond boundaries, because the future of leadership truly knows no bounds.