Archive for the ‘vision’ Category

Spring is a time of renewal, of looking ahead. If you are a gardener, you may enjoy watching the small green things poking up in the soil, knowing that they will grow, blossom, and fruit into something magnificent and useful. It’s a time of anticipating what can be.

However, we often dwell in the past. And more often than not, the past we dwell can be the less-than-pleasant experiences we’ve had. Knowing that, as a leader, you have a desire to move forward, the past is not the place to start. It’s too draining to keep rehashing the bad stuff.

We Need Optimism and a Future to Look Toward

Now, more than ever, your team, organization and peers need you to be positive and forward-looking. The best way to begin looking ahead is to begin with yourself.

So, start fresh – with today. Consider where you are at in your leadership journey at this moment with the following questions:

Consider Now

- What are you doing well in your leadership?

- What can you improve in your leadership?

Consider Your Future:

- If things were as great as you’d like them to be, what would they look and feel like?

- What is your role in creating this great future? What are others saying about you in the future?

- What immediate action can you take to move toward this great future?

Do you feel a positive shift in energy when you start “living toward the future” and stop “dwelling in the past”?

I find that some leaders stuggle with finding a way to look at the big picture, especially in these times. Firefighting and working within “now” is attractive and can reap immediate gratification. However, having a vision can be inspiring and motivating, and many leaders find themselves struggling to get into a mode that will help them to set some goals for the future and move their teams forward.

Yet vision is an over used word. We sometimes feel a loss of energy around the topic, because it has been used, misused and berated. That’s because often the vision is often not big enough to capture the hearts and minds of the people who need to work toward it. It must be bigger than we are.

One of the most useful ways to create a vision is to consider where your organization is NOW, and then (think big!) and consider where you’d like it to be. To be very simplistic, moving toward that big vision is a matter of filling in the gap between now and where you’d like to be.

Some questions that can be asked to help:

• What would it mean for our organization to be great?
• What does greatness look like?
• What will we be doing?
• What will we be feeling?
• What will our customers observe?

If you are facilitating these questions with your team, shut up and listen to their answers. Do not judge them. They can be energetic and inspiring.

Notice that all of the questions can be turned into first-person questions in order to create a personal leadership vision as well.