Four questions loom before leaders today—What? Why? How? and When?—and leaders have to answer each of them. Furthermore, they need to know which one to answer first and in what order to answer the others. Too many leaders respond to the wrong questions and in the wrong order. In so doing, they come up with ineffective answers.

Effective leaders know that two of the four questions take priority. The question leaders choose to answer first tells us much about their attitudes and methods. I use the term futuring leaders to refer to leaders who are able to discern the times and possess a firm vision of where they want to go in the future. Consequently, futuring leaders first answer What? Then they ask Why?

By answering these two questions first, they begin to define the direction in which their organization should go and to form a process to get them headed in that direction. Since their search for answers has a direct relationship to the mission and...