Why is it that good often-said things are not often-heeded? Day-after-day, I encounter leaders and managers in organizations toiling away at tasks, and chugging their way down paths, that will lead nowhere. Or nowhere good.

People so often miss the big picture. I think they'd miss it less if they did a better job asking themselves, and other folks, more of the right questions. Here are some examples:

• "Big picture, what do we need to do to grow our company 25%, and 25% again?"
• "Big picture, how can we improve our overall level of client dedication and service across the company?"
• "Big picture, what do I really need to do to make the transition to Rainmaker at my firm?"
• "Big picture, what will success look like for this client engagement...for this internal project...for our new website?"
• "What are we missing, big picture, that might derail our ability to achieve our 2 year goals?"

In service businesses, it can be more difficult to think big picture. Service business leaders, more often than not, need to sell, deliver, and manage client teams as well as guide the ship. They have precious little time to step back and ask the big picture questions, as well as take the necessary time to come up with worthwhile answers. What's a service business leader to do?

Stop making excuses.

Everyone else is as pressed for time that you are. Everyone else faces seemingly insurmountable challenges. And few people do something about them in real ways.

One of the most innovative service businesses I've seen is Gem Plumbing. They're not a traditional professional services firm like a consulting firm, law firm, technology services, accounting, engineering, etc. But plumbing businesses in general have many similarities with professional services firms:

• They're typically run by professionals themselves. (I.e. People don't get MBAs from top schools and go to work for plumbing companies...plumbers and family members typically run plumbing companies.) 
• It's tough to differentiate. There is a guy down the street who says he can do the same thing.
• Referrals are important.
• Repeat business is important.
• Reputation is important. (And it only takes one bad experience to spoil the reputation.)
• Managing the professional staff can be a challenge.
• Plumbers have to balance technical expertise, people skills, and business operations prowess to make sure clients get a complete service experience.

Meanwhile, the two brothers that took over the firm in the 1990s when the firm was about $3m in revenue, plus or minus, for about 20 years asked themselves one important question. "Big picture, what will it take to build a world-class plumbing company?" They came up with relatively few big needs to solve regarding people, operations processes, quality management, inventory systems, and pricing and marketing. Now, they had to work day in and day out on executing against their needs, and not a day goes by when they don't stay on top of it, but the major big-picture needs haven't changed.

Seven or so years later, they're a $35,000,000 company with good profit.

Big picture, what will it take to get your business to the next level?