Vision Drives Everything
Leaders are responsible to communicate vision in some form or another. Let’s agree on that as a starting point. And if that vision is clear and possible to actually accomplish, people get excited!
Begin with the End in Mind
As Stephen Covey says in 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “Begin with the end in mind”. Mature leaders know it is important to take time to make strategies, plans and processes to support that vision, that end. And even though that takes time and energy, it is well worth it if it unites the team and clarifies the core goal and vision. And when this process goes even farther and there is clarity on roles and what each of the key players are supposed to accomplish, a short time later a team develops and true progress starts being made. Soon that vision becomes reality!
What happens when plans change?
But what happens if the team starts executing what has been planned out, and the plan changes? The vision becomes blurry. This happens all the time. Perhaps one tactic or strategy was doing really well and yielding amazing results, so the team needs to shift to do more of that. Or something was just not going well and that tactic or strategy needs to be discarded. There is wisdom in evaluating and adjusting as you go. Open dialogue for a team and re-calibrating is important.
Cake baking adjustments
Let’s go back to the cake analogy we started in part 1. This time let’s say you own a cake shop and you need to bake 30 cakes a day to keep up with demand. Your vision is to provide people excellent cake or baked goods. Ultimately, your vision is to develop a top notch bakery!
You have an expert cake maker who cranks out those 30 cakes. But you also have tasked a crepe maker to divert her attention and assist in baking cakes to meet the demand. A couple months go by and trends are telling you something. You realize that there is a higher demand for crepes, so you shift and start making 20 cakes and 10 crepes. And you discuss this with the team and they are on the same page. There is agreement and buy-in to change tactics a bit. This is good leadership. And the team still trusts you.
But say you are making 30 cakes and five crepes in a normal day and experience one day where you have a blip in crepe demand. 15 people come in looking for crepes and you have 10 cakes left over. You don’t really know why or if it will be the new norm, but you need to adjust your priorities…so you think. You scramble and have the team scramble after that day is over as well. You tell the team that to expect this will be the new norm. They comply because you are the boss, but they are not sure. They don’t really buy-in or see how this will meet the need they have experienced. It’s only been one day. But they are willing to give it a go and make the change.
The crepe maker goes and purchases extra supplies that night and everyone comes in ready the next day. But, the blip in demand was truly that…a blip you most likely will never experience again. The next three days you have multiple disappointed customers who don’t get a cake they want, and you have many wasted crepes. So, you adjust back. Damage is done with your customer base, yes. The team will most likely be gracious the first time. Maybe even a couple times. But if you start creating a culture of quick changes without reliable data or team buy-in, trust starts to erode. Morale is effected. The team starts to think you don’t know what you are talking about. And, the truth is, maybe you don’t.
And what happened to that original vision again? If you had your focus straight, you may have been making better cakes, since you are a CAKE shop.
What About Leading in a Church or Non-Profit
Churches and non-profits experience this all the time. When a visionary leader gets excited about some possibility, they tend to excite those under them and priorities shift, despite the vision at hand. Sometimes this is a good thing. But sometimes it is pre-mature and then deflating. The team gathers around a plan, maybe even taking time out of a busy day or volunteering on a night away from family. But, a month later, that plan and that time was all a waste. You have dictated an adjustment again. So, volunteers may not show up the next time you want to try to plan the next quarter. They’ll just wait on you to dictate what the plan is. And then, they will expect it to change. Clearly there is not trust in this scenario. You are seeing volunteers leave, or coworkers not bring their “A-game”. And do you blame them?
Blurry Vision Means Trust is Broken. How do you fix it?
As you can see, when priorities are not aligned with a solid vision, trust erodes. Here are 3 major ways leader can avoid this clumsiness:
- Measure Twice, cut once. I am sure you have heard this adage when it comes to construction or building something. If you measure twice, you most likely will not make a wrong cut. But that means taking extra time to consider the right place to start and stop, the tool to use, the way to cut it, etc… The same needs to happen when embarking on executing a plan. The leader must pause long enough to consider the ramifications of the plan, even asking others around her to speak into the situation. Is the vision clear? Will the plan keep it clear?
- Make a plan to evaluate as you go, agreeing to potentially make changes at certain points. This helps guide the ship and gives an opportunity to re-calibrate. It also builds in checks to the process and allows others to participate in the evaluation points. Finally, it also maps out what should be the measures of success. And making this plan needs to happen before the first cut is made.
- Endure! Once the ship starts to sail, you need to agree to have endurance to see it through. This could be as formal as mutually agreeing with all participants ahead of time that everyone will work hard until a certain point. And if you are a culture that habitually re-calibrates, perhaps it could also mean building in rewards for enduring.
Building trust takes time, and that can be ripped down in a matter of moments, especially if there is blurry vision or priorities. If you or your team need some help in setting up some guidelines for projects or campaigns with staff or volunteers, we are here to help! Contact us for coaching options.