Leadership Principle 2 – Ask “Where are we headed?”
Is it clear where your organization is headed?
THE NORMAL SITUATION
In most organizations, few employees can answer the question, “Where are we headed?” In fact, a recent Booz, Allen & Hamilton study revealed that only 37 percent of senior officials think other key managers clearly understand business goals. Well, that’s not so good. However, it’s normal. How does this happen? Because no clear direction has been established by the leader.
Or if one has been established, it hasn’t been communicated forcefully, or memorably, enough for people to know where they are headed.
A leader without a direction in which he or she wants to take the organization is simply not a leader.
A leader without a vision has no rallying cry. Therefore, inconsistent messages are uttered every time the person opens his or her mouth. No one really can answer with any clarity or conviction the big question: “Where is our organization headed?”
THE SECRET TO CREATING A VISION
Once organizations absorb the obvious wisdom of defining shared values first, then the next logical question:
”Where are we headed with all these people who want to work together?” Too often, however, the question “Where are we headed?” is asked too soon.
There’s almost no discussion, at least in a formal sort of way, of the key question
that I believe comes first: “What’s important around here?”
At a recent Vision Quest I was conducting; I asked all the key players a simple question: “How big do you want to be in dollar volume in three years?” And I added, “OK, tell me your current annual sales so that we can have a benchmark for where we’ll be moving from.”
To my astonishment, of the thirteen people in front of me, only four knew the current annual sales. Two of these were the owners, so only two others knew where they were now-let alone where they wanted to go. (By the way, these thirteen people were the key department heads of a 128-person company.)
The two owners were flabbergasted. They also quickly learned that their communication to the troops of what’s up lately had been sorely lacking.
Once we got the current annual sales established, we moved on to “What do you want that number to be three years from now?” Everyone thought. Some took out calculators. Some looked puzzled, as if they had no control over the issue to begin with.
Then I went around the room, got everyone’s forecast, and put the numbers on a flip chart. Everyone was amazed. The range was from essentially no growth over three years to slightly more than doubling in size over those same three years. Some valued aggressive growth as essential, while others saw it as downright stupid.
People were either elated or scared because what was important to them was being challenged by asking “how fast should we grow?” when starting to define “where are we headed?”
I’ve played out this example more than 100 times in the last fourteen years as I’ve conducted Vision Quests for organizations.
If you choose to violate this principle, you’ll define a vision that will not be supported by everyone. And some people will work actively to sabotage your vision, because it is not based on what is important to them.
WHAT’S A VISION?
A leader needs to possess a spark of genius-the ability to assemble from a wide variety of inputs and historical data a clearly articulated vision of the future. This vision needs to be:
• Simple
• Easily understood.
• Clearly desirable by all
• Energizing
Warren Bennis describes a vision as a condition that is better in some important ways than what now exists. John Nesbitt, in Reinventing the Corporation, calls vision the link between dream and action.
A vision has a wholeness about it. It is not just a sales forecast. “We’re going to reach $350 million in sales in five years! Isn’t that exciting?” is not a vision.
But a vision must also be realistic and salable to the team. Some time ago, I had as a client a company whose president had a vision of growth that far outstripped what anyone imagined could be achieved. It simply seemed totally unrealistic. In addition, the president made the initial mistake of trying to force people to believe it.
When that obviously was not working, we held a Values and Vision Quest. His key people redefined an achievable vision based on their mutual values-and because they believed in it, it became achievable.
Lee Iacocca is an outstanding example of someone who created a vision of success that mobilized large factions of employees to align behind it. He empowered them.
So, we can see that a vision is the second step to leadership. Without it, there is no focus. A good vision grabs. Its passion helps transform purpose-where you want to be-into action almost automatically.
A strong vision is compelling. It pulls people toward it. It commits people to action and converts followers into leaders.
Vision gives an organization a glimpse of its collective potential. It gives meaning to why you belong to an organization. It answers the question, “Where are we going?” It defines direction.
No one has expressed vision more clearly than Fred Smith, CEO of Federal Express, in the book Absolutely,
Positively Overnight! That’s a crystal-clear vision. A stake in the ground. A rallying point.
To summarize, a vision:
• Grabs
• Focuses
• Arouses passion.
• Transforms purpose into action.
• Compels
• Pulls people toward it
• Commits people to action.
• Drives a stake in the ground.
• Says “That’s what we’ll be!”
• Becomes a rallying point.
WE HAVE NO MUTUAL VISION!
About five years ago I was holding a Presentation Skills Workshop for Gardner Advertising, a large national advertising agency in St. Louis.
The agency’s top eight people were at the session. One specific presentation exercise was to answer the question, “Why am I hanging around Gardner Advertising?” (The purpose was to allow each presenter to present from the heart.)
The first two presenters did a good job talking about the people they loved to work with, the creative challenges, etc.
Then a bomb was dropped!
The third presenter (who happened to be the senior client services person in the agency) said, “The reason I’m hanging around is because we used to be good. We’re not good now. We still have great people, but we have no mutual vision! I’m hanging around in case we define our mutual vision because it would be so exciting being good again.”
Each of the next four presenters echoed the exact same thoughts, all using the term mutual vision.
But they never did define their mutual vision. The president never wanted to take the time to discover what was important to his people and in what direction they wanted to be headed. He was always too busy handling the current business.
It’s sad, but since this company never decided where it was headed, based on shared values, today it is literally out of business. The doors are closed. Hundreds of people are out of work.
BENEFITS OF A MUTUAL VISION
The most compelling reason for a crystal clear mutual vision is that it gives all the people in the organization a point on which to focus their skills and brain power. It gives them the chance to be as good as they think they are.
The keys to developing a mutual vision are to understand that:
• You cannot mandate the vision or impose it on potential followers.
• Like any other product, your vision is something you must sell.
It does no good to go to the mountaintop and dream up your vision all alone. If you do, you’ll find you’re also all alone in buying into it and trying to make it happen.
Therefore, you need to begin with what you want and what your key people want and need. And you’ll have to understand that the only reason any of us do anything is “What’s in it for me?” (WIIFM). Your potential followers have WIIFM on the brain.
• A strong vision can link a person’s job with that person’s purpose in life.
• The office will not be a sleepy place.
• People will achieve goals more easily.
• People will experience ownership of the vision; therefore, they will really know what they should or could be doing and why.
• Day-to-day activities will make things really happen.
• Growth will be focused, and therefore easier.
• There will be a good balance of work and fun.
• An organization’s vision will free people to manage themselves.
The key to having happy campers working in your organization is giving your people the chance to grow, both personally and professionally. People beg to make a difference with their lives and add a meaningful contribution.
A mutual vision that states where you are headed gives your people the responsibility for getting the organization to where you want it to be. Once a vision
is accepted, the responsibility for attaining it is shared. In other words, you’re not going it alone as a leader.
For Bill Gore, the founder of Gore-Tex, “Commitment to a vision, not to authority, is what produces results!” Leaders want results, so allow your people to create a mutual vision to which they can become committed.
ONE MORE TIME: WHY HAVE A MUTUAL VISION, ANYWAY?
The whole reason for creating a vision can best besummarized in this story.
Two stonecutters were chipping square blocks out of
granite. A visitor to the quarry asked what they were doing.
The first stonecutter, looking rather sour, grumbled, “I’m cutting this damned stone into a block.”
The second, who looked pleased with his work, replied proudly, “I’m on this team that’s building a cathedral.”
A worker who can envision the whole cathedral and who has been given responsibility for constructing a portion of it will be far more satisfied and productive than a worker who sees only the granite.
A true leader is one who designs the cathedral and then shares the vision that inspires others to build it.