“Would you tell me please which way I ought to walk from here?” asked Alice.
“That depends on a good deal where you want to get to.” said the cat.
“I don’t much care where-” replied Alice.
“Then it does not matter which way to walk.” said the cat.
Leaders are dreamers. Leaders are idealists. Leaders are possibility thinkers. There is no better way that it could be framed than how Nobel Prize winner Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than intelligence.”
Beginning with the end in mind is a habit that determines a vision of the future; where you want to see yourself at. For leaders, it is not so much at an individual assessment, rather at a collective one.
Organizations have core values that they live by -- as discussed in a previous article -- and those are the blueprints of their defined success. However, numerous organizations rarely stick to their shared values, and its a conscious effort that must be made.
Janus, the Roman God
“The human being is the only animal that thinks about the future,” wrote Daniel Gilbert, a psychology professor at Harvard University. That’s because human beings have an innate trait of what they want. But looking in the future also means that you must look at the past.
Often times, we are told to forget about the past and only look at the future. Even though that may work in some scenarios, majority of the time you must look at the past. Understanding from previous experiences the correct and incorrect approaches guides you to a better future.
A pharmacy team felt frustrated and discouraged at work since the department was not doing so well as expected. Andrew, the senior pharmacist of the team, motivated them by recalling stories with positive experiences. He recalled a moment when an old woman had difficulty walking, and Andrew offered her a chair to sit near the store entrance. That woman later became the company’s most loyal customer. The message was this: that the team needed to enhance their customer service performance. By looking at the past, Andrew was able to communicate instances that the team could recreate to uplift the pharmacy department’s goals and visions.
This is called “the Janus Effect” named after the Roman God with two faces, one that looks backward and the other forward. The ability to look both at your past and future guides you to more possibilities. When you gaze at your past, you elongate the future.
Attending to the Present
While it’s important to look at the past, it is as important to attend to the present. You must look around and notice the environment you are in. If your team members are lacking motivation, then you must envision them for the future.
As a soccer coach of children ages 6 to 12, I am faced with numerous cases where my team does not want to do any training -- the present. All they fancy is a soccer game. To envision this value, I motivate them by having short, mini practices where they dribble the ball, pass, and shoot. I always tell them, “If you guys do this (training) well, then you’ll be able to beat the other team.” This motivation of winning the game if training is done builds a new standard where they are no longer bored or annoyed at training sessions. They will do so to win games -- the future.
Final Thoughts
Raising your head and gazing out towards the horizon is a value that all team members admire. From my previous article about credibility, forward-looking is one of the traits of the foundation of leadership. If leaders don’t envision the future, then we might as well not have one. There is no progression of growth.
Note: All knowledge and ideas are attained from the book "The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations 5th Edition". This blog summarizes the content from the book, but may unintentionally contain the same wording.
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