In a recent leadership survey 72% of respondents indicated they were looking
for a leader who was forward looking. At the same time they also identified that
business leaders spend as little as 3 % of work time envisioning. In creating and
casting vision it is critical that there is a shared ownership of the vision.
Effective leadership involves communicating a vision that is inclusive so that
fulfillment does not rely solely on the individual leader. The best way to lead
people in the future is to connect with them in the present.
A leader's ability to create a meaningful image of the future depends on an
ability to anticipate the future By understanding emerging trends, leaders can
acts as futurists and strategists. By orchestrating insights from different
perspectives, a visionary leader is able to position an organization for
meaningful change. A visionary organisation is one where all departments are
aligned with core purposes that have been collaboratively created and
communicated.
This begs some questions.
(a) As a leader, am I forward looking? (b) As a leader, How much time do I
spend on envisioning? (c) How effective is my communication of the vision?
(d) How effectively do I anticipate future trends? (e) Is our organisation aligned
to specific core purposes? (f) Have these core purposes been identified so that we keep the "main thing" the main thing?
At a time when organisations face ever increasing pressure to justify their
existence, it is vital that leaders have clear and concise answers to these
questions.To what extent are you able to give clear answers? Are you surprised by the
results? I would suggest that instead of reactively "firefighting" that leaders
would do well to start looking forward before they end up looking backward- with
regret.
Andy Brough is an organisational and leadership development consultant. He can be contacted on andyb[at]andrewbrough[dot]com or http://www.andrewbrough.com