Where there is no vision, the people perish

Observation

Great matters!

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

Proverbs 29:18

Fifteen years ago, I took the opportunity to reflect on leadership lessons from the first fifteen years of my coaching career. I wrote a document I am still proud of called ‘So You Think You Are A Great Leader – Reflections Of A Leadership Coach.’

Over the summer we had no opportunity to visit William our grandson in Atlanta and so I decided to update my thinking. The writing process helped me distil my leadership thoughts and I am pleased with the outputs. They are currently being formatted, along with these reflections and I hope to share them with you soon. I can sense your excitement!

During the writing process, time and again I found myself using the word ‘great’. At one point, this led to a crisis of confidence, thinking that all I was doing was writing about some mythical great leader who does not exist, meaning the insights would have little or no practical value.

On reflection, I realise this is nonsense. Great, certainly the way I think about it, is not a fanciful delusion but rather a very practical articulation of what we are aiming for. For me it is the best description of what we think will work and create the most value. It needs to be context specific and grounded in reality but it also needs to give a sense of hope and direction, generating both belief and practical action.

It is a vision of the future which is both aspirational and credible. It can be used to describe leaders, but great leaders also use it frequently to describe the future, whether it is the business as a whole or their expectations of a specific event, interaction or output.

‘What does great look like?’ is a very practical question for leaders to ask.

As the proverb indicates, for our colleagues to have hope and a sense of direction, they need their leaders to help provide an answer.

That need has perhaps never been greater than it is now.

Challenge

‘Fake it till you make it!

It is that time of year again.

I usually look forward to September. Refreshed from their August breaks, clients have a spring in their step and are keen to share their breakthrough insights of the summer and reinvigorate their teams. Practically the planning season is rapidly approaching and the need to get their ducks in a row is high.

Given the challenges of the last 18 months, the stubborn persistence of Covid, the continuing lack of meaningful face to face time and the uncertainties of 2022, the need to engage with, direct and reassure your teams is paramount. Somehow though I expect that this September I will get fewer calls to help with reinvigorating my client’s leadership teams.

I suspect that this will be for all the reasons above; the current lack of energy in the system, the future uncertainties making it difficult to plan and the practical challenges of getting together (and it is tough to have these conversations over Zoom or Teams). I can understand leaders being reluctant to engage in conversations which at times might seem like grasping for certainty which doesn’t exist, that perhaps requires them to draw on levels of confidence and energy which they are not feeling and means pushing the team to interact in a way which some may still not be comfortable with

…. and yet I suspect for many this is what is needed! With or without me!

‘Fake it ‘til you make it’ may sound more like a sad line from ‘The Apprentice’ than a meaningful insight from an experienced Leadership Coach and yet I am surprised how often I use it.

Here is a more eloquent articulation of why it may be very relevant this September.

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.

Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans - that the moment one commits oneself,

then providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issue from the decisions, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no person could have dreamed would have come their way.

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

Begin it now”.

Goethe

Practical Action

Before you start, know what is important.

If I was looking to reinvigorate the business this autumn, this is where I would start.

What Only I Can Decide

Team - the membership and structure of the leadership team may well be the single most important lever that drives the creation of value. Too often I see fudged structures and mediocre players tolerated. I would want to absolutely reassure myself that I had the team around me that is up to the task.

Narrative - of course, the Leadership Team will add to and build on the Narrative but the level of ambition, the shape of the story, the emphasis on what is important and the call to action all emanates from the leader.

What I Need To Think About With The Leadership Team

Priorities - the direction of travel, the immediate focus, the tempo and the follow through all needs to come from the collective view of the Leadership Team. Surprisingly I hardly ever find this difficult to create. However, turning that into reality is really tough including; maintaining focus, allocating appropriate resources, stopping activity and making the necessary trade-offs. It requires an aligned Leadership Team that ‘hustles’ to make it happen.

Role - each member of the Leadership invariably has multiple roles including; member of the leadership team, leader of their own area and individual performer. I am continually surprised how little attention is given to clarifying these roles and perhaps as a result, I find that leaders often operate at too low a level, stifling their teams and not creating the value that they could do if they leveraged their leadership. NB A common exception to this can be leaders in scaling businesses, especially if they come from larger businesses and as a result find it difficult to get the right balance of direction and ‘hands on’. I would want my team to be very clear on what is required to maximise the contribution of their role, individually and collectively.