Unhelpful Extremes of Leadership Vision
Gary Sinclair
Helping Leaders Overcome Challenges and Have Major Impact Through ONE Encounter at a Time.
The concept of vision is usually prominent or at least foundational to any and every discussion, article, class or talk on leadership. And it should be. Of course, we may all have varying views, tweaks and outlines to define vision. However, I simply want to remind leaders of two extremes that generally hurt those we lead more than help when it comes to selling our vision.
These end points are about where the leader or leadership is positioned as they seek to move others forward in a defined, clear way.
One extreme is when leaders are still too close to their team. By that I'm suggesting that the vision is almost indistinguishable because they don't also go beyond the everyday - the processes, meetings, updates, trouble shooting and reminders that are necessary for organizations to function smoothly and continuously.
In other words, when leaders think and talk about vision, they can get lost in the urgent. And then, those being led find little enthusiasm, excitement, optimism and hope regarding what new plans, healthy changes and future dreams can offer.
However, leaders can become so future-minded that eventually their teams can't "see" them anymore. Top executives or administrators are always talking about ideas so far down the road that everyone tends to wonder how those will ever happen and when the organization is going to get back to reality. Teams also tend to not trust them anymore and feel like their supervisors don't care about the struggles they're facing everyday while they're "out there" planning the future.
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Wise leaders stay somewhere in between. Obviously, what that looks and feels like is dependent upon the leaders, the organization and the teams. But it's still valuable to take inventory of your leadership and honestly determine where you are or could be when it comes to positioning with your team. It does matter and adjusting your location just might get your team excited again and that much more eager to walk the road ahead with you and each other.
That's worth something.