Is visionlessness holding you back?...

Over the last 15+ years I’ve worked with over 50 CEOs and several hundred executives / senior leaders to help them develop. These are typically talented, smart, and capable people, who have been successful in their career; but they are facing challenges or have plateaued and want to be?more?successful.

Often, although the ‘symptoms’ vary considerably, a likely source of the issue is identified simply by asking “What’s your vision? What does it look like?”

When I ask this question, I tend to get one of the following responses:

• A pensive or confused look
• A vague description of something they’ve just thought of
• A practised ‘vision statement’ (e.g., “to be the number 1 provider of…” etc)
• Defensiveness/dismissiveness (e.g., “all my team are already clear on the vision” or “that’s not a problem, I just need help with [insert leadership challenge]”)
• Eye-rolling or cynicism at the word ‘vision’

That is, they don’t have a vision, can’t communicate it effectively, or simply don’t believe it’s important.

Once we push through this response and build clarity on a vision that they’re passionate about; we develop their approach to communicating it and build their skill in leading through it - these leaders typically go on to be much more successful.

Directly reported outcomes from these leaders include:

• Organisational?(e.g., increased profitability, business turnaround, higher engagement, increased cultural measures, better customer satisfaction)
• Team?(e.g., reduced conflict/silos, higher productivity, more healthy debate and ideas, better interpersonal relationships)
• Personal?(e.g., increased confidence, promotion, wealth, motivation, reduced stress, better balance/use of time)

Many people reading this will, at this point, be sceptical - as would I, if not for the fact that time and time again, it has made a demonstrably positive difference for comparatively little effort.

It is important at this point to be clear that by a?vision?I do not mean a ‘vision statement’. A vision statement can be useful, but often this is something that the CEO wordsmiths with their team before everyone forgets about it and gets on with their job as before.

A vision by contrast is a clear and descriptive picture of your intended destination within a given timeframe. It’s much more than a goal or a mission statement and more specific than a ‘purpose’. It enables your brain to visualise where you’re going and to learn, to prioritise and to test different strategies against it. The analogy I often use to help people understand the power and importance of a vision is that of?building a house.

For example: if you were building a house, you might say that the ‘Purpose’ is to have a comfortable and beautiful home for your family. Your ‘Mission’ might be to work innovatively and efficiently to achieve an outstanding building within a tight budget. Your ‘Goal’ might be to build a 3-bedroom house under budget within a year. These are all accurate - but without architect drawings and agreed artist impressions to?consistently visualise?where we’re heading - it would be a costly nightmare to try and build it.

Not all teams need a vision though. Sporting teams for example have a distinct advantage over most organisations, i.e., the vision is already provided by the system they compete within e.g., ‘win the [competition] according to the established rules of [the sport]’. Immediately people can imagine what success looks like, they can imagine the peak moments and ‘see’ the celebrations. They can also self-motivate based on what it would mean for them, perhaps even including the additional opportunities that would come from this success. This clarity also provides them critical points of comparison to know what training or techniques work and whether they are on track or not.

But in organisations, in business, in government, ‘winning’ or ‘success’ is less obvious - in fact it’s usually vague and open to almost limitless interpretation. This is to the point where one person’s idea of success may be another’s idea of soul-crushing failure (e.g., “profits have risen sharply, shareholder wealth has increased” success? But…?“we’ve also burned out some of our best people and contributed to significant environmental destruction”?failure?). In the absence of clear vision, priorities and values, people typically fall back to dollar outcomes as their measure of success which is of course important, but it’s also poor as a moral compass or source of inspiration and growth. A strong vision helps leaders ‘do the right thing’ and hold the best course for the longer-term; without it, leaders are often driven to ‘do the right thing for stakeholders’, which tends to be much more short-term.

“Profit for a company is like oxygen for a person.?If you don’t have enough of it, you are out of the game.?But if you think your life is about breathing, you’re really missing something.”?Peter Drucker

Why else is a strong vision advantageous for a leader?

It’s easier

Leadership is hard work. If you don’t have a vision, you need to be there to provide direction, to influence and keep people on track. A great vision, (like a set of great architect drawings) leads for you, even when you’re not there. It also enables you to ask questions in line with the vision to enable others to do the thinking, rather than having to repeatedly explain or provide answers.

It is a key source of power and influence

Leadership is more effective when it’s about a shared cause and destination, not just the ‘charisma’ and persuasiveness of the leader. If you have a vision that your people care about, it is your point of reference to influence others, it’s where your ‘authority’ comes from, and it enables you to constructively challenge others when their ideas or behaviour are not aligned.

It enhances performance

Olympic athletes have been visualising their goals in conjunction with their physical training ever since a Russian study in 1984 found Olympians who did this outperformed those that didn’t (1). The effect has been replicated in many studies and across differing contexts. (2, 3) Intuitively it makes sense when you consider that everything we do is driven by our brain. So, it follows that being clear in our mind what we’re trying to achieve (a strong vision) will help develop the neuronal pathways for it to be physically performed.

From an organisational perspective, a good vision enables people to prioritise, make better ‘goal-oriented’ decisions and to stop working on projects and processes that don’t matter.?It can also be a major source of motivation for teams, and it can have a stabilising effect when times are tough. It’s also important to note that, a weak or fantastical vision may have the opposite effect on performance. (4)

It reduces negative conflict and stimulates positive conflict

I work regularly with leadership teams, usually on strategy and culture development; often there are conflicts and interpersonal issues that are affecting performance. If we take a step back and re-visit shared vision/goals, we usually discover the disconnect and find the platform needed for growth. Again, research backs this anecdotal finding, indicating around 80% team conflict stems from lack of clarity or agreement on the shared goal (5) (Note: interpersonal issues are a common?symptom?of team conflict, but according to the research, only the?cause?around 1% of the time).

Of course, not all conflict on a team is bad; ideational conflict is where passion, innovation and positive change can emerge. For this to happen most effectively, people need to have a shared understanding of the objective, ideally a strong vision that they can agree on.

It connects people

Particularly in larger organisations, silos can be problematic, and networks are often essential to getting things done. But building networks can be hard to do; and if you’re not an extrovert, can be excruciating. However, if you add a strong vision and a shared objective that people can reference in their conversation, networking moves from awkward ‘relationship building’ to necessary communication - it gives people the reason they need to connect.

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This list isn’t exhaustive, but hopefully illustrates the why a vision is important and how not having one is a major disadvantage.?Building a strong vision can be difficult to do and it takes a healthy mix of art and science. But when leaders get it right, (i.e., they create a clear aspirational picture that ‘sticks’ in the mind; they communicate it in a way that connects with their audience; and they use it skilfully day to day) - it enables people to achieve so much more.

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References and acknowledgements?

1. Newmark, T, MD (2012): Cases in Visualization for Improved Athletic Performance. Psychiatric Annals; Thorofare Vol. 42, Iss.10, October 2012 (385-387)

2. Driskell, J., Copper, C., Moran, A., & Driskell, J. (1994). Does mental practice enhance performance??Journal of Applied Psychology,?79(4), 481–492.

3. Cheema A, Bagchi R (2011); The Effect of Goal Visualization on Goal Pursuit: Implications for Consumers and Managers. Journal of Marketing March 1, 2011

4. Kappes, H., & Oettingen, G. (2011). Positive fantasies about idealized futures sap energy.?Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,?47(4), 719–729.?

5. Pritchett, P., Tichy, N. M., & Cohen, E. (1998). The Leadership Engine: Building Leaders at Every Level. Pritchett & Hull Associates, Incorporated.