A close friend of mine, Josh Rowell, recently spoke on vision. I am borrowing some of his bullet points and adding mostly my thoughts to his framework on vision. Vision is one of those things somewhat nebulous things, a noun, a verb, is abstract to many, but it is real to those who lead, if they maintain vision along the way. To effectively lead, we need to be more than people with vision; we need to be people of vision. A large part of this vision needs focus on what others do not see as current reality and needs to be outwardly focused and not focused inwardly toward our personal gain. Yogi Berra said it well when he stated, “You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there.” People of vision know where things are going and recognize it when they get there.
People of vision evoke and produce things from themselves and others. Four of these things are emotion, motivation, sound decision making and purpose. How many times have we been successfully convinced to do something by a person with no emotion? Not many, if any, I’d guess. Vision gives a person emotion that is easily seen and spills over to those they lead. Emotion driven vision gives love of a process, ownership of situations and conviction to carry through on a task. Emotion allows us to gain support from our co-workers, gives us strength to continue on despite setbacks, and attaches us to the job to be done.
Motivation is also produced through visionary leadership. Vision helps each person see the incremental task as being essential in the production of the goal and even the mundane tasks become something one wants to do with enthusiasm knowing the vision and the end product. Vision allows the participants to realize that the sum total can’t be done in short order or piecemeal and that motivation is needed to give the carry through that it will take to reach the desired outcome. Motivation is contagious and as each person in your workplace catches the vision, it will be seen outwardly by their co-workers and help motivate the whole group.
If you have vision, your decision making process will become more sound. With vision, problems can be seen as opportunities and be evaluated in the light of the vision. Decisions can then be made on the basis of whether they help achieve the vision, inhibit the vision, or have no effect on the vision. Through the sound decision making process, you will also be able to establish clear priorities on workload.
Purpose of action and purpose of thought can also be produced when a leader and an organization has vision. Actions, much like decisions can be evaluated better utilizing vision. A company can judge their actions and thought processes through focusing on their vision. Vision for the common good gives clear purpose to one’s actions. This purpose invades one’s being and gets self out of the way to allow the greater good to be achieved for the organization. The act of selflessness if allowed to pervade your workplace gives a clear road to achieve the vision that will benefit all involved.
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Vision is not easily attained and does take hard work to keep it fresh and active. Vision, if used properly can create a motivated, purposeful, emotion filled, properly driven workplace. Vision like so many other things lies within us if we choose to utilize it. Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung said it well, “Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.”
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