Is your leadership vision at risk?
Managing an organization can be complicated, taxing and require great energy. Ask any leader caught up in day-to-day operations. That’s why leadership vision is vital for success: it sets the course and direction for an organization. (I wrote about this in my last post, here.)
Over time, many leaders lose track of their vision and simply hope to keep their heads above water. According to Andy Stanley, in Making Vision Stick (Zondervan, 2007), complexity can kill an original vision. Attention is diverted from fundamentals to details. Crises often precipitate this. When vision gets lost in the shuffle, the organization veers off course.
In some cases, leaders see so many opportunities that they dilute their company’s efforts by trying to pursue them all. As they chase too many dreams, their original vision becomes covered with dust. Like a whirling weathervane, an organization that points in too many directions points in no direction at all. When leaders are tempted to take sudden opportunities, they send their people on paths they were never planning to take. Without proper plans and resources in place, chaos renders one’s original vision unrecognizable.
I have also seen some leaders changed by the level of success they achieve. They enjoy the feeling of winning and controlling, and let it go to their heads. Personal rewards are no longer appreciated, but expected. It’s very tempting to rearrange certain aspects of the operation to deliver personal benefits (if not emotional, then certainly financial).
Ultimately, top leaders are responsible to plant the vision and cultivate it throughout the organization. Vision dies when a leader’s support dwindles and goals are no longer emphasized. Leaders must intentionally and consistently keep their vision at the forefront of everyone’s mind, or focus will gradually disappear.
What do you think? How do you keep your vision from getting lost? I’d love to hear from you. You can call me at 561-582-6060, let’s talk. And as always, I can be reached here or on LinkedIn.
