Our culture seems to be enthralled with detective programs, CSI (Miami, New York, LA, etc.), The Mentalist, Law and Order (SVU, Criminal Intent, etc.) and the list goes on.

Our culture also gets wrapped up with court cases, the most recent involving the Casey Anthony trial. How many of you spent time listening to the “evidence” and drew a conclusion in this case?

There is something intriguing about the process of investigating. What are we investigating in our leadership?

Are we investigating the causes behind the problems?
Are we investigating the individuals involved?
Are we investigating every possible solution to the problem?
Are we investigating the consequences and benefits?

There is no doubt problems are going to arise in leadership. How we approach those problems will make a difference. We cannot ignore or deny them. We cannot hope they will go away. We need to deal with problems quickly.

Before making decisions, however, we need to be investigators.