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There is an art to knowing the future, but living in the present.

This is an art I get to see from the highest performers I work with. It’s key to how you drive a billion-dollar company, or get outsized outcomes in your career—but it doesn’t always come naturally. There is a calibration to this state that almost every leader on their way up has to make.

You have to fine-tune this skill until it becomes second nature.

Right now, you likely have a vision...I have yet to meet a founder, executive, or leader on the way up in their company or career who doesn’t know where they’re headed. If asked, they’d know the roadmap to get there as well. Most can rattle off every goalpost they see as being important along the way. In meetings with me, it’s obvious…they’ve mapped it all out in their head with impressive detail.

But what I kept noticing is that on their teams, the many smart, capable people who surrounded them were not hitting these goalposts along the way (sometimes it was even the person themselves not hitting these very clear goalposts), and it didn’t make sense.

So, I asked their permission to start asking around and talking to the people who weren’t hitting targets but should have been. What I found was fascinating—the problem wasn’t confusion or lack of ability. The problem was their leader’s clarity, put in the wrong place. It’s nuanced.

Strong leaders see exactly where they’re going. That’s not the issue. The issue is that this clarity, this infectious enthusiasm for a distant future they can see so vividly, pulls their teams (and sometimes the person themselves) off course…and it dramatically impacts their ability to execute on the right things. The things right now.

They’re ten steps ahead, and they communicate with the kind of excitement that makes everyone want to jump straight to the finish line. So what happens? Teams get lost in the glamour of what’s coming six months from now while the critical work that needs to hit this quarter sits untouched. Boring. Uninspiring. Seemingly irrelevant work compared to the big wins coming.

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If you’re someone who thinks multiple steps ahead, your ability to see the future can become a liability when it hijacks the present. This is true for you and any team you lead.

Let’s tackle what’s really happening here, and more importantly, how to tighten this up for far better performance both from your team and for yourself.