Vision:The Essential Ingredient of Leadership

Vision,
as I see it, is a clear, inspiring, practical, and engaging picture of your
organizational future. It doesn't have to be 10 or 20 years from now,
although it might help. I'm talking about an imagined future—usually just
three to five years—that's greater than the present, that motivates you,
guides day-to-day strategy and decision-making, and around which your team can
br />join.

Without
you are effectively voting for the status quo. Your organization does
need a leader unless they want to change. It doesn't take a leader to maintain
the status quo. A competent manager will do just fine. If, however, you find
the status quo unacceptable and want to focus your efforts, energize your team,
and grow your business, you need to be a vision-driven leader.

By
formulating a compelling vision of the future, leaders can achieve what was
previously considered impossible. They can develop meaningful strategies,
attract A-plus talent, and take their organizations to new and exciting places.
But for many leaders, it's not as easy or straightforward as it it seems. You
could be one of them, and I really can't blame you.

In his book What You Don't Know About Leadership But Probably Should , Baylor professor Jeffrey Kottler defines vision as the “initial task” of leaders. This is the first thing, the absolute priority.

But
in my experience as Chairman and CEO of Thomas Nelson
Publishers, one of the largest English-language publishers in the world before its
2011 acquisition by HarperCollins, and Now as the CEO of my own
leadership coaching company, I find that more leaders lack vision than those who
have it.

Through
no fault of their own, they are often dismissive, confused, and
ill-equipped to create compelling visions for their organizations. Why? Here
are three issues that leaders typically face when it comes to vision.

1.
Leaders minimize the need.

I have
seen a tendency to be eager to develop a vision among some of the
business owners and leaders I have coached over the years. I even worked for a
CEO like that. He wouldn't take time for the vision. He didn't think it was his
strength or even his responsibility.

Instead,
he appointed a committee, put me in charge of it, and said, “You do the
vision thing. Come up with a vision for where we're going, then let me know
what you've decided. Instead of sending us ourselves, he could
have – should have – joined us at the table. If he had, his leaders might have
asked him the kind of probing questions needed to arrive at a vision he
could approve of.

my
the old boss is not alone. Contemporary leadership suffers from a vision deficit.
According to a study of 466 companies, respondents identified the following
as one of the most felt business deficiencies:“Leaders who can
compelling vision and engage others around her. Additionally, this “need was
both a top priority and also seen as the most
next generation leadership skill.

One of the
things we need to do as leaders is to create or point to a greater
purpose and story. Our teams want something that demands their best,
that requires innovation in their thinking, that inspires their imagination.
And it's up to us to ask ourselves, Does we're trying to do as an organization
create that kind of inspiration? Is this something that is
difficult or just business as usual?

2.
Leaders are confused about the vision.

One
reason why there is such an absence of visionary leadership these days stems
from a misunderstanding of vision. Vision is not the same as mission. Ni est
is the same as strategy.

Vision
is an act of seeing what the future could be, and then articulating that
potential in an inspiring, clear, practical and engaging way – what I call a
Vision Script – which the leader's teams can then follow in the future. This is
what visionary leaders like George Eastman did with photography, Henry Ford
did with the automobile, and Steve Jobs did with personal computing. They
knew instinctively that people are looking for something to believe in, an outcome to embrace, a winning aspiration.

Leaders
also make the mistake of thinking of vision as a static quality or personality quirk; either you have powerful vision or you don't. But a compelling
vision of the future is really something anyone can develop if they know how.
And it's something vital to develop, because our success and our ultimate failures are
on the line.

When
we have a compelling, unifying vision for the future, and when we communicate it
to the team with passion and purpose, it can inspire people to achieve
amazing things. Those who lack vision—or, more accurately, won't give it the proper attention—are not ready for the challenge of leadership.

I have
witnessed this transformative power of vision while coaching thousands of
business leaders to win at work and succeed in life. But a vision will
only work if you're willing to put in the work to create one.

3.
Leaders don't feel equipped.

One
reason why leaders minimize vision or fail to see the need for
self-protection. They feel ill-equipped to create and cast a compelling image
of the future. Like my old boss, the prospect leaves them uneasy
or worse.

No one likes to do something that seems alien to their skill set, but this challenge is especially difficult for leaders. Why? Because we assume they are supposed to have all the answers. They are supposed to be the most competent, the most commanding. When leaders lack vision, it's like admitting a weakness or a shortcoming. It seems easier to downplay “the vision” and move on to the tasks they excel at:strategy, execution, team building, whatever.

I
often hear from men and women who have started a business or found themselves
promoted to leadership positions and are now feeling the pressure
up. They know it involves a vision, but they don't feel prepared. Some feel
they are impostors – as if it is only a matter of time before they are discovered and
lose everything. But if you're not trained in crafting a vision, how can you be
should craft a compelling one from scratch?

I
been there. I get it. I started at square one to learn the art of crafting a
captivating vision, and now I'm so passionate about it that I've created a
myriad of resources to help others do the same. But as you begin to do the hardest
but the work involved in crafting a compelling vision, be encouraged – a compelling vision
is the essential ingredient for successful leadership. This single building
block can and will guide your business forward with intention and energy. You
can be a visionary leader.