The Visionary


"The power of vision is incredible!"

Stephen R. Covey (fff)


Renald Hennig

Was Jesus a visionary? Well, if not he, who else, some might ask. For a change, I will use just two examples of his visionary outlook. Especially since they transcend all the way down (or up?) into our time:

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations." (102)

"Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.' (103)

He was talking to a small group of followers with no standing in the world and very little education. But he had trained them. They had been in his presence. And now he gave them something larger than life itself.

It was his vision, transmitted powerfully into the hearts of his disciples, planted and growing, that let the preparation come to fruition. They had now to stand on their own. And stand they would.

Vision and visionary leadership have been the hubub of the nineties. I was not able to locate any publication though, that measured the performance of companies with 'Visions and Missions' against those that didn't really care about them. So back we are to a number of ideas from prominent and not so prominent names, backing the importance for vision in a leader.
Birkenbihl:

"Only go-getters like Lee Iacocca can master crises, because they have mainly three characteristics: A power urge, the ability to live a vision, and the determination to never give up." (ggg)

Senge states (hhh) that the first element within the discipline of Personal Mastery (the second of his five disciplines) is: personal vision.

Guillory and Galindo (hhh) see the vision as part of their very definition of leadership: "We define leadership as the impetus which drives an organization in achieving its vision. If the vision is challenging and ambitious, the corresponding level of leadership commitment will have to be equally great."

And Covey makes this practice of (in his case) mission statements central. It is the second of his Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. (iii)

I do not feel very comfortable with all this hype, frankly. Even though I do have my personal mission statement. There is too much talk and too little substance, substance here in the sense of a measurable and sustainable impact on performance. Do we need visions?

We do need to know where we are going. That to define is in the end the job of the leader. I like this little parable from Stephen Covey:

In the words of both Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis, "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

You can quickly grasp the important difference between the two if you envision a group of producers cutting their way through the jungle with machetes. They're the producers, the problem solvers. They are cutting through the undergrowth, clearing it out.

The managers are behind them, sharpening their machetes, writing policy and procedure manuals, holding muscle development programs, bringing in improved technologies and setting working schedules and compensation programs for machete wielders.

The leader is the one who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells, "Wrong jungle!"

But how do the busy, efficient producers and managers often respond?

"Shut up! We're making progress." (jjj)


Next: Conclusion