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March 2005

March Madness And That Vision Thing

March Madness reminds me of an important point about leadership: Leaders must always have a clear, compelling vision of where they want to take the organization.

(For my readers outside the U.S., March Madness refers to the crazed enthusiasm people have for the NCAA Tournament, which determines our country’s best college basketball team.)

March Madness illustrates how simple a vision for the future can be. From the beginning of the season in the fall, each college team (over 300 of them!) has a clear vision, and that is to be the National Champion.

This vision of being the best is both clear and compelling.  It’s what drives these college basketball teams, and it’s the same in any sport. In business as well, you must have a vision.

Strangely enough, many companies and organizations in the business world don’t have a clear and compelling vision. I think it was the first George Bush who said he wasn’t much on “the vision thing.”

That “vision thing” is simply what you want the organization to be three, five, or ten years down the road. It must be a specific description of what that picture looks like. I find that some top leaders find it difficult to explain what their vision is.

But, if the top leaders can’t explain their vision for the
organization, how can they ever expect their employees to know what that vision is?

I recently talked to the president of a company who complained about employees who are, in his words, “just here for the paycheck.”

Those types of employees are not really engaged in their work, they aren’t energized or enthused, and aren’t doing their best work. Every organization has at least some employees like these.

When large numbers of employees in an organization fit this description, it’s often because they don’t have a clear, compelling vision, other than that paycheck.

The vision should be so clear, so compelling, and so pervasive that every employee knows it, and can explain it. All those college basketball teams have a clear, compelling vision.

If employees can’t tell you what the vision is, it’s probably because the top leaders haven’t done a good job of getting the message out. Sometimes, it’s because the top leader doesn’t have a firm grasp on what the vision is.

Other times, the top leader has a good grasp of it, but the other members of the senior management team aren’t aligned with that vision. You’d be surprised how often this happens.

So if you’re the top person in your organization, the CEO, President, or the head of a division or department, you need to carefully think about, and then define, your vision.

Once you’ve got the vision, you must make sure that the rest or the organization understands it, expresses it, lives it.

How does this relate to you if you’re not the top person in your organization? I believe leadership is EVERYONE’S business, regardless of position. I define leadership as: The ability to get others to do things they might not otherwise do, without someone to guide or lead them.

With that definition, you are a leader even if you’re a
frontline employee, because you are continually trying to get people to do things they might not otherwise do without your guidance and influence.

So, even if you’re not the official leader, you’re job is to
help the official leader define and articulate that leader’s vision for the organization.

And here’s something else for you, regardless of your position in the organization, and regardless of whether you’re employed at all.

I believe that you should also have a personal vision for what you want to be three years, five years, or ten years down the road. A vision will keep you focused and energized as you strive to achieve it.

The college basketball teams of March Madness have a vision. What about you? What are you doing to define and articulate your organization’s vision? What are you doing to define and articulate your personal vision?

Until next edition, keep leading the way!

Copyright (C) 2005 by Terry Wall

 

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