A leader without a vision is nothing but a manger who’s about to lose his job. And I’m not kidding — a majority of our workforce is blind!
I’ll be blunt here — people are inherently motivated by who and what they love. That could be a job, relationship and definitely your (or the organisation you lead) vision. The challenge is that most of us would rather settle for the substandard than go for the gold. Because it’s hard to keep looking.
The harsh reality is that you and I may not have enough influence or the right authority to paint the big picture for everyone else to see. How do you keep the morale up when chips are down?
It’s saddening to see leaders and HR business partners investing hours strategising about the future of the organisation when they should be in the trenches with the troops who’re fighting for their lives. And no, we don’t need a motivational speech but the truth of the matter and the BIG WHY we’re still fighting the battle. That’s enough to keep going.
This excerpt from John Maxwell’s Developing the Leader Within You 2.0 explains it the best:
I love the way Columbus challenged prevailing wisdom through his bold actions. When he set sail westward into the Atlantic Ocean, the flag of Spain under which he traveled bore the motto Ne Plus Ultra, meaning “Nothing Farther.”
Traditionally those words described Spain’s Straits of Gibraltar, also known as the Pillars of Hercules. But after Columbus’s journeys and his discovery of the New World, Charles V of Spain changed the nation’s motto to Plus Ultra, meaning “Farther Beyond” or “Something More.”
The entire nation—and in fact the entire Western world—changed and mobilized its resources, because people’s vision of the world changed.
As soldiers in the frontline we don’t want to lose sight of the big picture. As leaders we don’t want to stop looking or honing our vision. We don’t settle but keep looking for it until we find it.
For us to go further, we need to have a compelling vision. If we don’t have one or if it has become clouded (it can, that’s life!) we strive to find it. And when we do the vision becomes our inspiration, our fire and our guide.