It’s time to self-evaluate: these questions can help.

• What are the key measures indicating our success?
• What are the top one or two limiting factors to meeting our mission?

These are two strategic questions from a special report I created called “7 Key Questions Governing Boards Must Answer.” However, these questions should be answered by the CEO, senior staff members, and even volunteers. Each will bring a different perspective to the questions. If you aren’t sure of the answers or haven’t even considered asking the questions, it might be time to do so!

I work with a large Meals on Wheels organization, and one metric they use to measure success is how many meals they serve each year. Currently, they’re serving 300,000 meals per year to people in need. Within the next few years, they hope to increase that to 1 million meals each year. The organization knows that there is unmet need in their community, and they’d like to be part of the solution. Everyone at the organization knows the big goal: 1 Million Meals.

In their case, the limiting factors are easily defined: lack of funds and lack of volunteers. If they don’t have enough money, they can’t buy the meals. If they don’t have enough willing volunteers, the meals can’t be delivered.

For this particular organization, they know the answer to both of the key questions mentioned above.

What about you? Has your board or leadership team considered a mid-year evaluation? If not, I highly recommend beginning your next board meeting with these two questions.

I’ve attached this special report of the 7 Key Questions for you to download. All 7 questions are worthy of discussion and consideration.