Leading With Vision Starts With Seeing & Believing

Today’s topic is vision.

Why am I revisiting this topic?

Because it’s really damn important. :) 

Honestly though, leading with purposeful vision is a leadership competency, and I often have leaders hungry to understand how to flex this muscle more.

The other reason I want to revisit vision is leading with vision is not a skill taught in manager basics, but if you want to move up the leadership ranks, it’s mission critical to your effectiveness.

What you see in the chart below is an illustration of what shifts as you move up in your management career.  There’s a transformation that happens.  A “transformation from manager (prioritizing and executing) to leader (strategizing and motivating).”  (Source: Culture Amp)

Why wait until you’re a Director, VP, or in the C-suite to begin honing these skills?  The answer is you shouldn’t. 

“Vision is personal...it is the act of articulating and acting in pursuit of a vision that flows from our personal commitment to higher purpose.  Vision is the picture of how that purpose wants to actualize in meaning and tangible ways.  Vision describes the specific direction our soul longs to go.”  Mastering Leadership 

Before you can have a vision for your organization or your team, you need to have vision for yourself.

What follows below is intended to help you start with your personal vision.  When you’re done, imagine thinking through these prompts in relation to your team, your organization, your customer’s experience, etc.

But it all starts with you and your vision.

Before we can achieve it, we need to believe it.  

Before we can believe it, we need to see it.

And so begins our vision party…

Today I invite your best self to our Vision Shindig. 

I invite your creative, wanting self to put on their best attire and to strut in this Vision Soiree.  And, I’m going to deliberately provide a brief invitation to your inner critic.  They’ll have a “drink and dash” role to play, and I want to name I’m intentionally doing it.

Let’s start with the wants...

• What are you wanting for yourself?

• What do your dearest friends want for you?

• What do your children want for you?

If this is hard, this makes you human.  We, particularly women, are not conditioned to really think about, let alone, listen or take action on what we want.   

So really, pause here, what are you wanting?  

When I asked myself this 8 years ago, my answer was I wanted to run my own gig consulting on corporate training.  I didn’t have it all flushed out, but I knew I wanted something that would challenge me and enable my full creativity.

When I asked myself this 3 years ago, my answer was I wanted to be a mom who was available for school pick up AND I frankly didn’t want to work 45+ hours/week.  I had a particular airplane flight that I sat with a notebook and began to draft potential names for my business and even offerings that excited me and I knew would fill a need.   

When I asked myself this 1 year ago, my answer was I wanted more space and wanted out of California.

Ok, now your turn, what will you be daring enough to say you want?

When you step into this vision, what’s it like?  What do you see?  What do you see in yourself when you’re in this version of yourself?

When I started to step into my vision of working less, working on only work and projects that energized me, I became more ME.  I could see myself being more creative.  I could see myself laughing more.  I could see my son’s smile walking out of school.  These feelings and images became my purpose.

What will help you believe in this vision?  What will your purpose be?

Ok..here’s the “drink and dash” part I warned...What is your self doubt telling you about what’s possible?  What narrative is running through your head telling you this vision isn’t possible?  Who is in your way?  What are you assuming to be in your way?

Here’s a sampling of some narratives I’ve experienced in the last 3 years as my vision got more clear and I began to take action towards my vision:

• You’re the breadwinner, you can’t make a career change.

• You’ll never get enough clients, who will hire you?

• You’re putting your family’s financial well being at risk.

• You’ll miss your family too much to move away.

• Your friends will forget you.

So to you, I ask again, what narrative is slowing you down?

This is where leadership tendencies to comply, fit in, belong, get along, and please tend to rear their ugly head and begin to diminish your vision and ability to drive forward.

Notice the story.  Frankly, write it down.  Look at it in black and white and repeat after me, “Thank you for showing up, Self Doubt, I got this.”

What will you do to take action towards achieving?  Today.  Not tomorrow, not next week or next year, today, what action will you take?  Who will you tell?

My first action towards my vision?  I emailed 5 friends and told them I was launching my business.  And the next day, I announced to 5 more.  And then 5 more.

Small actions can equate to great progress.  And starting now, at whatever level of leadership you’re in, will enable you to flex your vision muscles when they’re critical to your organization’s success.

See it.  Believe it.  Achieve it.

Now repeat this exercise as you think about your leadership impact, your team’s brand, and your company’s mission.

“For vision to be useful it needs to be specific enough to set direction, focus strategy, drive action, and guide decision-making.  We need to specify the result you have in mind, in enough detail that everyone knows when the vision is attained.”