Photo by apes_abroad
Burt Nanus in his book “Visionary Leadership” provides the following warning signs of a lack of vision:
- Is there evidence of confusion about purpose?
- Do your employees complain about insufficient challenge or say they’re not having fun anymore? Are they pessimistic about the future or cynical about the present?
- Is the organization losing market legitimacy, market position, or its reputation for innovation? Are new competitors emerging who are better serving your customers or constituents?
- Does your organization seems out-of-tune with trends in the environment?
- Are there signs of decline in pride within your organization? Are some of your people working only for their paychecks without a real sense of commitment or belonging?
- Is there excessive risk avoidance, with people abiding by their narrow job descriptions, unwilling to accept ownership or responsibility for new projects or resisting change?
- Is there an absence of a shared sense of progress or momentum? Is it difficult for some of your managers to articulate how much things are improving? Do they still feel they have an attractive future with the organization?
- Is there a hyperactive rumour mill, with people constantly trying to find out through the grapevine what is in store for them or the organization? Do people truly trust and respect top management?
This is a great list of questions that you can use to test the level of commitment, understanding and buy-in to the vision.
- How effective is your vision?
- Do you need to focus on re-aligning or re-invigorating your organisation or teams vision?
Technorati Tags: Vision, Leadership, Business, Management, Purpose, Passion, Tool, Assessment
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I got a 100% on that one!!
Vision is essentially a spiritual and poetic matter, and these qualities are missing from much business. Asking old-school business to have vision is like asking a toad to grow wings. This is why mission statements are normally fake fake fake and many organisations keep hopping around in the mud
M
A nice summary. One way to know when you need a new vision is to analyze your old vision. A vision outlines where you want to be. Eventually you’ll get there and when you get there you’ll need a new vision. If you still haven’t arrived, over time, then maybe that’s another good sign that your vision isn’t working. Just a few things to think about.
Good points.
Hopefully it’s the approach, not the vision. Ideally, the vision is the compelling place folks want to go. But if you do climb the crow’s nest and find it’s not the right place, then yeah, time for a new vision.
The other scenario is when your vision ends up tainted. It’s got a black cloud that won’t go away. Then it’s a good idea to swap out and get folks jazzed again about a new adventure.
Successful Leaders see the opportunities in every difficulty rather than the difficulty in every opportunity.
Leadership Phrases
I would like to share some my thought on leadership “True leadership development demands developing integrity-coherence of thoughts, words, and actions.
The challenge is: “When leader don’t follow, others too don’t”
I love that vision has to be a core value in leadership. If you can’t set a vision for a team, they wont follow you into battle.
I just found this site and I think you have great content.
I see lots of signs pointing to a lack of unified vision in my environment, but I know there is a clear vision … it is just so “visionary” with a complete lack any tangible ties to the day-to-day reality. Hard to find any value in it.