I’ve experienced some amazing results working with people who have been secure enough to view their leadership or personal capacity through the eyes of collective vision.
In January 2020, I was blessed to celebrate 30 years of service to children and youth in the nonprofit sector. Within that time, I’ve worked with some of our nation’s top youth serving organizations, including the Boys and Girls Clubs, Camp Fire and YMCA. I’ve led and developed some incredible teams through the years and designed high impact youth program initiatives through the communication of a strong and compelling vision.
While working for a large retail corporation I was able to enhance my skills leading teams and creating vision. During that time one singular experience stood out. I knew of a general manager who stepped down in preference to his assistant taking his role. When they changed roles the results were amazing. The company experience growth and profitability and greater synergy and momentum had materialized within the team.
Why?
A person’s visionary capacity will determine the outcome! Leading people or an organization without a clear mental vision is the last place you should be.
Power games, position seeking, and climbing the corporate ladder can never fulfill the requirements of vision. Leading others (whether it be in your own business or in an organization) will most likely bring frustration and a slowing down of momentum. An organization that has not established its core values and vision will unlikely keep visionaries within it. Visionaries will likely take less pay, work longer hours and suffer extreme circumstances that non-visionaries would quit over. Why is that? Because the “buy in” factor, goes way beyond natural circumstances and into the realms of values. Value in a natural sense we put a price on, whereas vision is priceless.
"The amazing thing about vision is that it's not impoverished. It will reward in the end, way beyond our primal anticipation."
What value would you put on vision? Ask Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or maybe Steve Jobs! I can guarantee they did not look for a vision, the vision looked for and found them. It arrested them and consumed their life. They lived within the parameters of their vision and died spent, yet fulfilled by it.
Vision is the awakening of our life’s purpose and the force that compels us to exist! It moves us from here to there in the search for people of similar spirit. It stands for something rather than falling for anything. Vision will either empower you, or expose your vulnerabilities. As for me, I would rather live in pursuit of my life purpose, than exist within the restrictive fences of being average.
Personal empowerment is activated through vision! I had a conversation this week with a visionary. During that conversation I recalled how every organization I have ever led, has drawn people (in the first two years), so full of vision that the “by the book” people would want to pull their hair out. Why? Vision inspires and brings momentum. Visionaries love such an environment as it allows for creativity, (an essential component to release vision) but it does not guarantee fulfillment. Visionaries still need practical, systematic, and analytical support players. However, these analytical individuals can often frustrate visionaries, as they need clear lines of communication and boundaries.
Visionaries break boundaries and are often so caught up with new ideas, that communication is “wrongly expected” to be generated (through each individual player) that has partnered into the vision. Buying into the enthusiasm that is generated out of sharing the vision does not transfer automatically to fact-based people. I can hear everyone that has ever been a part of one of my teams shouting a loud "AMEN"!
Vision is powerful, but it must be measurable, definable and most of all achieved through multiple strategies. If you’ve got great ideas, an enthusiastic mandate and a passion to succeed, you need to heed this one statement!
"You will never achieve your vision without the help of others!"
I can tell instinctively that those who will succeed in their vision, will do so because they are big enough on the inside to recognize their weaknesses, yet strong enough to manage them. That’s why synergy demands momentum and momentum needs a clear strategy.
Remember this, "Good leaders have vision and inspire others to help them turn vision into reality. Great leaders have vision, share vision, and inspire others to create their own." – Roy Bennett