More years ago than I care to count, I was a college student at Messiah University with my mind fixed on a young woman I was just getting to know. I was in full swoon mode—the kind where your friends rip on you and you don’t even notice. She was terrific then (she still is; I eventually married her).

One day, I arrived early for lunch. The cafeteria was practically empty. I grabbed my tray, plate, and silverware and headed toward the food line…when I heard that familiar voice. I whipped around to see her—and kept walking straight into the door. Tray down. Silverware everywhere. The crash echoed through the cafeteria like a scene from a sitcom with a very low production budget.

As I knelt to pick up the pieces of my dignity, I realized something important: maybe I should look forward when walking through doors. A life lesson I should’ve learned in physics class.

I can’t remember how long I hid in the food service area afterward, but I’m confident of this: there are times to look back, and times to look forward.

Leaders perform best when we lean forward. We bring hope for the future, clarity of direction, and the energy to build momentum for our teams. But seasoned leaders also know that forward-looking hope grows from backward-looking gratitude; that vision sharpens when we pause long enough to assess the truth of where we’ve been; and that real momentum requires regular rest and refueling.

Leaders come in all shapes, sizes, and temperaments—but the best ones know how to balance looking back with gratitude and looking forward with hope.

When individuals and organizations embrace that balance, they don’t just perform better, they grow deeper, wiser, and more resilient over time. Our team members at North Group help leaders create space to consider the past and look to the future—without running straight into walls.

Written by Jerry Murray​

Reccently, I welcomed a long-term client for a monthly one-on-one meeting. After exchanging a few pleasantries, I asked him to rate his personal wellness by talking through five areas of life:

• Physical health – how do you feel physically and how have you cared for your body?
• Intellectual health – how have you stimulated your mind and positively tested your capacity for learning?
• Emotional health – how are you processing the events of life? Are you stuck and feeling heavy thoughts as a result or are you experiencing freedom?
• Spiritual health – in what ways have you invested in your relationship with God? How have you relied on God and what have you learned?
• Relational health – are you at peace in the relationships closest to you? Are you comfortable with how you have invested in others?

For each area, we considered together what behaviors within his control might increase his self-ratings over the next month.

The time we take to sincerely and professionally review these five areas of health and self-care provides many benefits, particularly as we consider these through the context of his personal life and vocational situation. Observations made during this part of our conversation often generate gratitude, occasionally disappointment, and always an illumination of the cause/effect relationship between diligence and performance. Ultimately, the practice, (which originates from ancient sources), provides a light along the pathway toward this client’s highest potential and leadership capacity.

During this phase, it is my job to ask direct questions, listen well, offer a balance of grace and accountability—and to remind my client with hope that his potential will be more fully realized as he advances along the continuum in each area of life. The conversation sets the stage for the balance of our meeting which almost always includes accountability items, development/learning topics and preparing for coming challenges.

My colleagues and I love to see individuals move toward their highest potential. It’s why we diligently approach each time together, asking the right questions, born from truth, and with the right, shared purpose. Are you ready to grow as a friend, a family member, a contributor, and a leader? We can help. Please call or email if you would like to learn more.

Written by Jerry Murray​

Last week, I met two business leaders with similar stories and challenges. Both leaders own and run profitable companies with loyal customers. They both hope to scale back or retire in the next five years. And both individuals recognize that although they currently have a significant impact on their company’s success, they want to see their company’s legacy continue beyond themselves.

The challenge of each leader represents a textbook succession planning scenario. Each of these leaders acknowledges the need for help to create and execute a plan:

• to prepare their organization to operate without them,
• that enables them to strengthen the overall value of their organization in a way that creates healthy ownership transition options, and
• to fully transition the leadership and ownership of their organization to a qualified, trustworthy, culturally compatible individual or team in a way that enables everyone, including their employees and customers to win (experientially, financially and otherwise).

This is a common scenario in Central Pennsylvania, an area rich in private businesses.

I know because over the last 28 years, my colleagues and I have seen it over and over again as we’ve walked alongside owners like the two I recently met. But even though theirs is a common scenario, every transition is filled with complexity and challenges.

Beyond the anticipated (textbook) complexities, are many unexpected and challenging emotions. And given the pressure to complete a transition, it’s often tempting to shortcut healthy processes, which rarely ends well for the parties involved.

However, these pitfalls and challenges can be overcome.

At North Group, we always turn to our core values because we’ve found that they help navigate both the anticipated and unanticipated challenges in every transition:

• to model an other-centered focus in a way that values each person and brings out the best in them,
• to instill hope in a way that reminds individuals of the benefits to stay faithful to a healthy process even before the results are clear,
• to build character in a way that prioritizes the long-term best interest of everyone involved, AND
• to encourage balanced living in a way that takes into consideration the whole person and how our overall “health” helps us to optimize our potential.

We’ve found that healthy and successful transitions are always driven by truth—truth that’s stood the test of time. And we know that the pathway toward your highest potential is hidden in those very same truths. That’s why we walk alongside you to model, reveal, and encourage these truths within your life, your organization’s life, and within our community.

Are you facing a similar challenge? We can help. Please call or email if you’d like to learn more.

The path to the future for retiring business owners can seem overwhelming. In this video, Jerry Murray shares some of the common questions these leaders face, and how our team is prepared to support you throughout the transition.