Have you travelled abroad lately? If so, I’ll bet you are familiar with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Form 6059B – Customs Declaration.

Whether you’re familiar with the form or not, we can use it to guide and center our leadership. Here are three of its questions we need to answer as leaders.

Where have you been?

From a leadership perspective, we need to understand the past. It provides for us context and can help us identify or explain culture. Both are critical for leaders to understand.

Some leaders skip, or purposefully ignore, this question and its answers. Personally, I value the history. It helps explain how we got here. It can reveal things that have worked or not worked in the past. It may give hints toward potential achievement, strategy, purpose and meaning. In every past, there are good things to learn and others to avoid. The past keeps us from having to start at square one every day.

Yet, as Jeffrey R. Holland reminds us, “the past is to be learned from, not lived in.”

That brings us to question two:

Where are you going?

This is where most leaders spend their time, energy, thoughts and planning. It is important!

This is where we earn our pay. Thought to the future today can benefit organizations and people tomorrow, next month, next year and even years beyond our reach. John Sharr says it best when he notes, “The future is not some place we are going, but one we are creating. The paths are not found but made, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination.”

Leaders must communicate a clear sense of where we’re going.

The other key part of the form is covered in several sections. The question is, What do you have to declare?

Here we find a variety of things to consider. Do I need to be aware of any potential risks? Am I carrying large amounts of cash? Do I have anything of commercial value? What of value have I picked up in my travels? In other words, what of value should I declare?

While all of these have leadership application and consideration, there are others to consider as well. For me, people and relationships come to mind. There are great programs and our day-to-day operations to consider. How do we promote our business and services effectively? How do I mitigate potential threats to what we hold precious?

Three simple questions can help leaders focus on what is important. Who would have thought they would come from Customs and Border Protection?

When you think of them, I hope they will help you L.E.A.D. as much as they help me!

Oh, one other thing…any time I fill out this form, it reminds me of how much I appreciate coming home. I reflect on how blessed I am to live in, and to have the privilege to serve, our state of Tennessee!

>> CBP Form 6059b English