What Leaders Get Wrong About Vision
Many years ago, I was about to take a position leading an organization for the first time. I went to an executive I respected and asked him what I needed to know to be a good leader. His response was, “You’ve got to have a vision. The Leader has to have a vision.”
I have since learned that advice was only partly correct. It is not enough that the leader has a vision. You need the right kind of vision and it has to be shared.
In his book Fatal Illusions, author James Lucas wrote, “Vision is the quality that elevates the mundane into higher realms of achievement. Vision excites passion, brings meaning to otherwise routine or dreary tasks, gives direction to goals, and provides guidance for daily decisions. Without vision, organizations wither, and people lose interest. Yet most organizations don’t have it.”
After two decades coaching leaders and helping organizations create strategic plans, let me share seven key mistakes that leaders too often make.
Mistake #1: Confusing Mission and Vision
A mission statement tells who we are and what business we are in. It defines who we serve and what value we create for those stakeholders. Mission tells what we stand for, the values that we will uphold even when the going gets tough.
Vision on the other hand, telling where we want to go. It is what we aspire to become in the future; the possibility that we are reaching for, stretching for, that motivates what we do. When we confuse mission and vision, we confuse ourselves, and our co-workers, as well as those we serve.
The most important aspect of an inspiring vision is storytelling. Vision tells a story about the future that we aspire to create in a way that is relatable to everyone in the organization. A great vision inspires great stories, stories that move the heart.
Stories can engage, inspire, and change even the most sophisticated and skeptical personalities. The simpler the story, the wider the appeal and often the deeper the impact. Many people simply won’t invest at a visceral emotional level unless the message is in story form. Vision statements, to be worth anything, have to differentiate our organization from the competition so that anyone who interfaces with our organization will be able to identify the statement with us even if our name or logo isn’t at the top of the page.
Question for leaders: Take a look at your vision statement. Is it inspiring and energizing. Does it tell a story you want to be part of?
Mistake #2: Thinking Vision Is a Bumper Sticker
Very often in the strategic plan, organizations will have a short, pithy 5-to-7 word vision statement that they believe will make a good slogan — a good way of remembering what the organization aspires to be. In fact, such a short statement has almost nothing to do with reality.
The difference between a vision that inspires and a vision that goes up on the wall or on a coffee mug, is the ability of that statement to paint a picture of possibility that will cause people to say, “I want to be a part of creating that!”
Ron Lippitt, one of the early pioneers of systems change theory, wrote an article called “Future Before You Plan”. In it he coined the term “preferred future”. Preferred futuring asks clients to imagine they could travel ahead in time 3–5 years and see what it would look like if their goals had been achieved. The vision puts us vividly in that preferred future picture.
If you can put your vision statement on a bumper sticker it’s too short. Vision is a picture of the future that draws us, pulls us, into the future with enough detail to make it real.
We don’t know who we are because we’ve developed a vision statement; we know because we live who we are. That means taking the time to work through the clichés to get to the core of what’s important to all of our stakeholders. Brief vision statements are invariably non-directive. A one sentence vision statement gives the illusion of saying something when it has all the substance of a cloud. It needs to have enough detail to give guidance to the planning process. It has to flow from our understanding of the daily life of our employees, customers, distributors, and suppliers. All of our most important values ought to be reflected and given life in our vision statement.
Lesson for Leaders: Look at your vision statement again, and this time see if you can visualize the future. What does “better” look like?
Mistake #3: Thinking You Don’t Need a Vision at All
Some leaders have the idea that you don’t need a vision. “Just do your job” is their motto and the rest will take care of itself. Without a vision, effort is scattered, and people will set their priorities based on what they think is best for themselves and their team.
Empowering people, ordinarily a good thing, when there’s no unifying vision only leads empire building, silo creation and the diffusion of energy. It also leads to a “ready, fire, aim” reactive approach and a flavor of the month fixation with whatever seems to be in fashion at the moment. We need to keep in mind that making a profit is a result of good leadership, not a vision or a goal. Lack of vision also leads to a kind of disabling inertia caused by people moving in different directions. To fight this that we must think differently.
This lack of direction and aspiration is most often found in organizations that have been successful in the past and are playing not to lose instead of playing to win. This has been true in American higher education now struggling with disruptive change as well as large previously successful companies.
The U.S. auto industry in the 1990’s was losing market share to foreign car makers and while they were worried, there was no vision of what success would look like after decades of dominating the domestic market. When I was consulting to the auto industry at that time, there was an obsession with “taking cost out” as a strategy. Not very inspiring.
Eventually both GM and Chrysler were forced into bankruptcy and Ford barely avoided it. That near death experience, new leadership, and a change of mindset has renewed the vision of the car business. Now these companies tell a story of being in the mobility business instead of the car business. They have embraced the move to autonomous, electric vehicles and the result is a new burst of innovation.
Lesson for Leaders: Have you treated your vision statement as an afterthought or as the unifying story that engages hearts and minds?
Mistake #4: Thinking Bigger is Better
Leaders who think that growth is an end in itself are making a mistake. Think Block Buster, Borders Books, and a host of others who have fueled growth that was not sustainable. Many executives at fortune 1000 companies have said that growth was their most important goal. After all, growth keeps the stock price going up. However, growth is a miserable measure of success.
Bigger is not necessarily better. Better is better.
That means creating value for all stakeholders. The obsession with growth leads to an acquisition strategy to capture top line revenue, often at the expense of organic growth, innovation, and sustainability. Growth is a result, not a goal. There are lots of ways to be #1. Being number one in quality, number one in consumer value, number one in employee retention, or number one in industry innovation are better goals than being number one in sales.
Unfortunately, executives are often compensated based on their ability to generate quarter over quarter growth in revenue and so they pursue strategies that create short-term gains at the expense of longer-term sustainability. Of course, we want our organizations to grow; but by what measure?
An organization may need to grow to achieve some economies of scale that make it competitive in the marketplace. An organization may need to grow to reach new markets. Obsession with growth for its own sake, regardless of the means or method is not likely to end well. Growth has multiple meanings. It can mean getting bigger, but it also can mean developing more complex connections and more agility. The growth of an organization can be the mark of its maturity as well as of its size.
Lesson for leaders: What is your definition of the role of growth in your strategy?
Mistake #5: Thinking Vision Must Have Lofty Platitudes
One of the most common mistakes about vision is the belief that the statement must speak in abstract global concepts.
IKEA, for instance, says its vision is, “to create a better everyday life for many people”. Hilton Hotels says its vision is, “to fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality.” Both of these are nice sentiments; but do they speak to the people that do the work every day? How do these visions describe a world that is different from the present?
Compare those with the vision statement of Southwest Airlines, “to become the world’s most loved, most flown, and most profitable airline.” When I worked for Chrysler years ago, the vision statement was, “to be the company that makes the cars people choose to buy, love to drive, and want to buy again.”
Notice that these last two are grounded in the work of the organization. Lofty language often has no meaning for customers or employees. While we may think that we’ve produced a masterpiece for the ages, what that language evokes on the frontline is indifference or ridicule.
Lesson for leaders: Is your vision of the future anchored to your mission? Will your people believe it? Will they commit to achieving it?
Mistake #6: Thinking that Everyone Understands the Vision
A survey asked executives what their greatest challenges were. The number one answer: “Getting the vision to the front line.”
As leaders, we see the big picture. We have access to lots of information, so the future of the organization seems obvious to us. Down in the weeds, things are different.
The priorities and interests of the people who work for and around us are as varied as their personalities, needs, and desires. We must look past their seeming agreement to the reality of what they really need and want. We can’t connect our organizational priorities with what people see as important until we know what their priorities really are.
If we create conditions where an individual must choose between their personal career goals and supporting the organizational vision, they will choose the former every time. Our work as leaders must align individual interests of our people with the collective vision for our organization. Yes, communication is essential; but what we really need is two-way communication. For leaders, the ability to listen can be the most powerful tool in the toolkit.
Getting people to support the vision is a process that has distinct stages that each person must pass through. These are five stages on the adoption path:
- Awareness — I’ve heard about it
- Understanding — I know what it is all about
- Belief — I think it is a good idea
- Compliance — I will do what is asked of me
- Commitment — I will do what it takes to make it happen!
Lesson for leaders: How much do you know about where different people are on the path to commitment? How can you help them move toward commitment?
Mistake #7: Thinking That We as Leaders Must Create the Vision
If we want vision to mean something, we shouldn’t “issue” a vision statement. We should ask for people’s input to get both their input and their “buy-in”. Then we have to do the hard work of working it through together. Vision does not come by inspiration; it comes from knowledge intelligently cultivated.
If a vision doesn’t inspire our people to do something greater than we are already doing, it isn’t really a vision at all, and we should admit it.
To lead an effective vision development process, don’t assume to know what employees and customers want from leadership. We should assume that we don’t know, and we probably don’t. So, we have to ask.
Wise leaders involve everybody because we know how easily our biases and preconceived ideas can cause us to mislead ourselves.
Employees, consumers, and vendors are not usually involved in this process, nor is their input welcome. What we ask for is “buy-in”. The best we can hope for is compliance and not commitment. Vision is how we connect individual purpose and meaning to the organizational future we’re trying to create together.
One of the most neglected components of vision is feedback. How do people feel about it? Do they care? Do they think it relates to customers? Is their visceral reaction to say “wow,” or to make cynical comments? Feedback is an indispensable part of the communications loop. Leaders have an obligation to make certain that not only is the vision worth embracing, but that our people are eager to keep it alive every day.
Lesson for Leaders: Do you believe that people support what they help to create? What are you doing to practice that belief?
Final Thoughts: The Leader’s Vision Checklist
Here are five questions to ask about your vision statement:
1. Is it big enough? Does it speak to the possibility of doing something to make the world a better place?
2. Is it inspiring? Does it energize people and make them want to work to achieve it?
3. Is it a stretch, but possible? Does it pull us into the future with a promise of something great? I often ask clients, “Where is the call to greatness?”
4. Is it grounded in the mission? Does it speak in enough detail so that people can see themselves in it?
5. Does it invite sharing? Will people be proud enough to enroll others in working on the vision?
If you are able to answer yes to all of these questions, you will have taken the first step to becoming a truly visionary leader. The next step is to develop a plan to move your organization toward that vision. But that is a conversation for another day.