Leadership Principles: Vision
Of all the leadership traits and principles that I’ve written about or walk through, to me vision is crucial. In fact, with the exception of integrity, it’s the most important trait a leader can posses in my opinion. It’s so much bigger than just seeing. I’d like to take some time to break this one down a bit. Jack Welch says it this way,
“A leader's job is to look into the future and see the organization, not as it is, but as it should be.”
The best leaders are the ones that have the ability to see beyond the right now into what could and even what should be. It’s an interesting dynamic to be able to see the now and the yet to come and more importantly, how those things meet. Many visionaries, myself included, are good about seeing what could, and again, should be, but we’re not always the best at making that transition. So how do we make the shift? How do we get people to buy into the vision?
I’d like to take Mr. Welch’s idea a step further. A leader’s job is to look into the future and see their people, not as they are, but as they could be. Whether you’ve led for five days or fifty years, you probably are well aware that people don’t like change. We’ve done things a certain way for a long time and we’re invested in the process. For me to change something now would mean all I’ve invested in making this work was for nothing. For an organization to be as it should be, the people within the organization have to be who they should be. How does this actually look though?
To start with, don’t use the word “change.” The moment you start asking someone to change something that natural resistance kicks in and they have stopped listening to what you’re saying. Instead, cast a vision for who they could be and the role they’ll play in this grand and glorious organization that is to come. Give the permission to dream big and pursue that vision in a big way. When they do this, the change will come.
From there we have to make sure our environments are conducive to the vision we are casting. When a flower doesn’t bloom you don’t blame the flower. You instead fix the environment the flower is in. Maybe prune or fertilize or maybe relocate the flower. The point is, it’s the flower’s environment that dictates it’s growth. The same is true for our teams. We can cast a vision for who they are and what our organizations look like but if the environment within our organization doesn’t match, they won’t buy int.
Lastly, cast that vision again, and again, and again… Vision leaks and we have to constantly and consistently pour that vision into our people. A leader is always the primary source of vision for an organization but how they get people to buy into that vision is what makes the organization go. I’ve found myself at times wondering why someone from my team doesn’t “get something” we’ve done before. It may simply be a misunderstanding but I’ve learned a lot of times they’ve simply forgotten the vision for why we do what we do.
The best vision is one that is constantly reaching for stars with boots firmly on the ground. It’s an interesting balance when done correctly but so necessary for healthy and thriving organizations. Theodore Roosevelt said it best,
“Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.”
Keep casting, keep growing, keep leading! You have what it takes!