The importance of shared vision

For today's leaders, the past year has presented more challenges than many of them have experienced in their entire careers. These challenges have been relentless for many leaders as they have attempted to navigate their organizations through the intense economic negativity and uncertainty we have all witnessed in this past year. Leaders are being tested as they never have before; some are not able to rise to the new challenges, but some continue to succeed at all levels. What is the difference from one leader to another? Although there are many answers to that question, my belief is that one of the most important elements of sustaining leadership excellence is the ability to create and nurture a shared vision in an organization.

An organization is a collection of individuals. Therefore a significant challenge in leadership, and one of the most critical, is how to create a shared vision amongst all those whose passion, skill and commitment is required for an organization to be successful. This shared vision must ensure the passion and energy of this collective group is directed and sustained towards a common desirable future. As Senge (2006) reminds us in The Fifth Discipline; The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization:

A shared vision is not an idea. It is not even an important idea such as freedom. It is, rather, a force in people’s hearts, a force of impressive power. It may be inspired by an idea, but once it goes further-if it is compelling enough to acquire the support of more than one person-then it is no longer an abstraction. It is palpable. (p. 192).

Creating shared vision is the domain of leadership, not the domain of just the individual leader, but the collective leadership that exists within the organization.

To create the vision of a company, emotionally intelligent leaders need to move beyond a solo scrutiny of an organization’s vision to drawing on the collective wisdom of followers:

Side by side with the rest of the organization, leaders co-create the vision that will serve to rally and energize the group as a whole. Involving people in a deliberate study of themselves and the organization-first by looking at the reality and then at the ideal vision-builds resonance and sustainable change. (Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee, 2001, p. 206).

The responsibility of leadership is to foster the ongoing pursuit and continued development of this vision, managing the creative tension that exists between it and current reality. In today's uncertain times there is both challenge and opportunity. The ability to meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities that arise is, to a great degree, dependent upon how well your organization follows a shared vision that encourages everyone to work in concert to create the powerful force that can drive success.

The emperor has no clothes?

I have always found it both fascinating and confusing that people will spend the better part of their careers striving to augment their professional skill sets in preparation for the day when they will elevate to a position of leadership, only to immediately terminate the need to further develop their capacity once they achieve this objective.

When the business climate is favorable (i.e. a strong economy, a "hot" industry, a monopolistic position, etc.), people in leadership positions are not often forced to further enhance their capabilities in order to "succeed" in their roles. However, when the favorable climate dissipates and no longer hides the imperfections that inevitably arise in every organization, the onus is on the leader to find a way to extend beyond these imperfections and leverage the company's core strengths. Unfortunately, the problem is that in many situations it is the leadership of the company itself that now falls outside of the company's list of core strengths. Thus, when the company is most in need of a clear strategy and a definitive plan on how to move forward, it is often found that it's "emperor has no clothes". Or at the very least, not the right ones.

The most successful business leaders that I have encountered over the years working with both entrepreneurial and established organizations are those who continue to challenge themselves to broaden their portfolio of skills, regardless of how the company is currently performing. They always prepare for the worst case scenario and in their minds that is the scenario where the difference between their company's success or failure effectively comes down to the leadership skills (i.e. coaching, communicating, etc.) that they are able to call upon when the times are not so forgiving.