Bill Walsh, the former head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, was thought eccentric because of how extensively he planned his plays in advance of each game. Most coaches would wait to see how the game unfolded, then respond with plays that seemed appropriate. Not Bill Walsh. Walsh would pace the sidelines with a big sheet of plays that his team was going to run, no matter what. He wanted the game to respond to him.

Walsh won a lot of Super Bowls with his "eccentric" proactive approach. But all he did was to act on the crucial difference between creating and responding. He was a coach that looked into the future.

Effective leadership not only requires thinking about where the organization needs to go, but also looking at how it will get there. We look ahead so we won't get behind. Only by seeing the invisible can we attempt the impossible.

The wisest person of all instructed, "The wise man looks ahead" (Prov. 14:8 LB).

The critical need of looking ahead is the process of creating your organizational ...