Over the years I’ve been reading a lot about leadership and watching businesses and leaders around me to find commonalities.
I’ve seen great businesses grow fast and fall by the way side because of a lack of vision and sometimes because of an inbuilt fear of defining that vision… any vision.
Because of course, if you define it and you don’t reach it you will have failed… and nobody wants to fail do they?
I’ve tried a lot of formulas over the years in my own entrepreneurial journey and have observed quite a few also. The upshot is “Horses for Courses”.
I’ve seen the great “involver” as a strategy where staff are involved in the direction of the business. And I’ve seen the “dictator” strategy and yep, contrary to popular belief that works too. I’ve also seen it fail of course.
The one thing I discovered though is that whatever the style, there has to be a “leader”. There has to be someone who is charged with holding the vision and further with inspiring those in the organisation to follow that vision. When there isn’t clarity, when that vision is not communicated clearly, easily and succinctly then it is rarely followed. And without clearly communicated vision in that Leadership there is never followership.
People “buy” certainty…
They “buy” belief…
And they “smell” it when you don’t believe…
And if you don’t believe, why should they?
So the first test as a Leader of a successful enterprise is in answering yes to the questions: Do you believe in your vision? Do you have one? Do you feel it in your gut? Do the people around you feel it too? Do they all tell the same story?
And of course, are you willing to do what it takes to achieve that vision? And then how long will it take to get there?
Test No. 2 is finding the people that are in sync with that vision and inspiring them to come on board. And that’s a blog post for another day…
Note: Images courtesy of www.rypple.com and weluvmu.wordpress.com