Rule 3 of Leadership: It's not about you, or others, it's about the VISION!!!

EVERYTHING STARTS WITH A VISION

Whether you’re a Founder, a CEO, a product manager, or an individual just living their life; having a vision is crucial! A vision is like a lighthouse guiding your direction, aligning your team, offering clarity on which actions to take, or NOT to take, spurring everyone into action and focusing everyone. Without a vision, efforts can become fragmented, aimless, leading to confusion and a lack of motivation. As the saying goes, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll likely end up somewhere else.” This perfectly captures how aimlessly people can wander through life without consciously creating their path.

FEELING LOST? A VISION CAN HELP

As a leader, a product manager or an individual, do you feel like you're just randomly working on tasks that don’t align up to something, or deliver results? Is your list of things to do, or backlog, out of control, with more initiatives than engineers, or time, to complete them?

Do you feel like you’re managing products & work in the dark, reacting to whatever comes your way without a clear direction? Kind of like an order taker? Do you feel stuck, unsure of what you’re doing, perhaps even experiencing ‘imposter syndrome’? If so, you're not alone.

If you need direction and alignment, creating a vision can help! There are many ways to set a vision for your products and teams. You can write them out as a word doc, a story, a song, you can do a vision board, but the most common in organisations is some sort of vision statement. Keep in mind that an organisational vision is very different to a product vision, which is also different to an individual’s vision, so choose the appropriate vision methodology for your need, the audience and size of the organisation. ?Now more than ever, having a vision is critical. With remote work and virtual meetings, leaders need something that aligns the team, sets an aspirational direction, defines goals, and keeps everyone focused and heading in the same direction.

RULE 3: IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU OR OTHERS, IT’S ABOUT THE VISION

The 3rd Rule of Leadership emphasizes that it’s not about you, or others; it’s about the vision. This rule is about creating a shared vision that everyone in the organization or team can work towards. A well-defined vision helps ensure that work is focused on delivering outcomes rather than spending endless hours on needless tasks that don't deliver results. As leaders, you might not always know what your teams are doing while working from home, but if they are delivering outcomes, does it matter what they do each hour or minute? A vision aligns, defines goals, gets authentic buy-in if done collaboratively, and delivers outcomes in a virtual world. It’s a touchstone for change. If your organization, or team is facing change, defining what that future state could look like, can provide direction. You can always course-correct as you learn more about what you didn’t know initially.

THE POWER OF VISION

Visions inspire passion, motivation, and action. A powerful vision attracts ideas, people, and resources. It creates the energy and desire to make change happen, inspiring individuals and organizations to commit, persist, and give their best, even bringing in new talent. Visions can bring stakeholders together, providing direction and creating alignment. They help keep organizations and teams focused, especially during complex projects and stressful times. You can refer back to the vision to check why you’re doing what you’re doing, reconnect to your purpose, and see if new ideas fit within the vision.

CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE VISIONS

• Clarity: A vision should be so clear and detailed that you can see, smell, and taste the smallest details.
• Positivity: Focus on the positive outcomes or changes your vision will create. Avoid using fear as motivation, as it can limit results to damage control rather than achieving positive change.
• Ambition: Create a big picture of the effects of your work beyond solving the immediate problem. A small vision may not inspire or generate enough energy to overcome tough spots.
• Attitude Changes: Include changes in attitudes and personal roles. This isn’t about ego but taking full responsibility for achieving desired results.
• Practical Steps: A vision should outline the steps to reach the end goal. It serves as a guide for creating plans, setting goals, making decisions, and coordinating work.
• Ownership Through Participation: Visions get people into action by defining measurable goals and ensuring buy-in, but the entire team has to participate and collaborate. You cannot write a robust vision by yourself in a monologue. You have to lead the team through a dialogue, exploring and discussing all points of view regarding, current and future issues elements.
• Heart Over Head: Visions come from the heart and elicit emotions. They are different from goals or objectives, which are more analytical. They drive passion and motivation.

CHALLENGES IN CREATING A VISION

Creating a vision can be difficult for several reasons:

• Old Negative Messages: Such as “we don’t have the money for this.”
• Limiting Beliefs and Attitudes. Such as believing that “you can’t do this, or that you aren’t smart enough”
• Omitting Initial Steps: Such as setting up context and safety.
• Over-reliance on Left Brain Exercises: Such as data and analytical models.
• Not Embracing Passion: Visions should come from the heart; in that it should drive your interest, passion & motivation and deliver on outcomes.

It’s often wise to use a skilled facilitator for vision sessions. It’s not easy to facilitate and participate simultaneously as you can create bias. With proper preparation, the process can be accomplished in one to two days.

HOW TO COLLABORATE WITH THE TEAM TO IDENTIFY A VISION

Creating a vision is not a solo endeavor. For product and organisational visions it can and should involve gathering insights and perspectives from team members, stakeholders, the environment, megatrends, other types of analysis and even customers. Engaging the team in visioning sessions fosters a sense of ownership and commitment to the vision.

CASCADING THE VISION

Once a vision is established, it becomes the guiding star for all activities. Every project, initiative, and decision should align with and support the vision. This alignment ensures that all efforts are cohesive and driving towards the same ultimate goal. As soon as the visioning process is complete, immediately cascade the results throughout the organization. Gather feedback, seek alignment, iterate, and iterate some more. Make sure to look for data to support that vision too, which might mean some discovery and validation work. The power of your vision, comes from shared understanding and commitment, forging alignment of purpose, action, and results.

Having a vision provides a sense of purpose and direction for your product teams. Your vision helps define your short and long-term goals, guiding decisions along the way. As a leader, you inspire the power and energy to get things done and as a result, success will follow!