Imagine driving in Toronto on a bright, sunny day. The hills are on your right and the ocean on your left. You’re cruising along at the speed limit; the wind in your hair and the music blaring. Suddenly, you come around a bend in the road and there’s a blanket of fog. What do you do?
Most people would say:
“I slow down.”
“I turn my lights on.”
“I turn the music off.”
“I put my full attention to the road.”
Now, let’s say you go around the next curve in the road; the fog lifts and the road is clear. What would you do? You would relax, speed up, turn the lights off, put the music back on, and enjoy!
This analogy is an example of how leaders act when there is a clear vision; and how they should slow down when moments of uncertainty occur.
Find a Common Purpose
As discussed in previous posts, it's important to begin with the end in mind and be forward-looking. However, it's important to acquire the feelings and ideas of your team members. It is unacceptable for visionaries to impose their vision of the future on others. Members don’t want to see the leader's vision come true, they want their own vision, aspirations, hopes, and dreams fulfilled. The key task to this is inspiring a shared vision.
This is exactly what Mark did at his Venture Capital Firm. After seeing the lack of motivation and commitment in his team members’ work, he realized that the team lacked shared values. He asked each of them, one by one, about their future dreams. From those conversations, Mark was able to understand how he could align goals with the team vision. One common vision was happiness and providing for their families. He built that link, and the link led the firm towards their target. Mark explained how the team goal would take them one step further to their destination of joy. By outperforming other firms, they created this commission-based investment-service business.
When beginning with the end in mind, it is vital that your members have a say on what they desire. Whenever I have a conversation with my father about career choices, he always tells me to choose a career path that will make a difference in the world. And that’s exactly why employees work; they want to create a better world. Though money is a component or reward for working, it has unfortunately become the ultimate goal because leaders are not listening to their team members.
The very first step to building a long lasting relationship and success is to communicate with your team about their aspirations and career goals. Once that has been achieved, the next step is to create a blueprint of success considering the factors of your team.
Final Thoughts
Once again, a leader must be able to envision the future. People want to follow only those who have an understanding of a brighter future; and that too not only for the leaders themselves, but for the team as well.
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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