When my son Lewis was 9 years old he carefully drew up a ‘running away’ plan – clearly something had upset him that day! Probably his Sister
He drew out the road we loved on, and marked his makeshift map up with his plans. It read:
Leave home at 12 o clock
go along Hill Top Road
into Park
then sort something out…
Needless to say the realisation that he was going to have to do a lot more planning once he arrived at the park, meant he never actually set foot outside the door!
Everyone is the same. The journey they embark upon makes much more sense when there is a destination! I am a firm advocate for continual improvement and being flexible so we can respond to a changing environment, economy and customer desires, but I have yet to find an organisation which does not clearly benefit from a clear understanding as to where it is going, and it’s planned destination. This may be in terms of ‘The World’s Number One’ in a given field, or to have a certain market dominance, or simply to have grown the company within a given time frame, but people feel better when there is a future, they understand what you intend the future to hold, and there is a clear path to reach it.
Having a ‘vision’ becomes a mighty issue in many organisations. I believe that stating your intention is all that you need to do as a leader – create a shared destination, state this is where you desire to reach, and collectively work towards reaching it!
Having an overarching goal provides many opportunities for you as a leader. It enables you to launch any number of initiatives within the organisation; incremental step change which deliver improvements, by relating them to your overarching aim. ‘If we implement this together, it will help us achieve what we set out to do…’ We agree that people look for a reason, a justification, for any change and by relating change to the overarching goal or vision, there is a ‘sense’ in doing something. People see its value.
‘Always start with the end in mind’. As a leader your role is to ensure that end is in everyone’s minds, as you provide a clear purpose for your team.
