Over the last couple of months, I have noticed several common leadership themes being raised by clients during our coaching and training sessions.
And in the next few posts, I want to revisit these topics with a slightly different lens.
It doesn’t matter whether it is an organisation based in Aldershot, America, Asia, or Australia; a similar pattern is emerging.
The last few years have created a shift in expectations of both employees AND employers.
The challenge is sticking with the same old leadership mantras; tools and patterns of thinking you have used previously are coming up short.
Not surprising when you consider poor mental health, burnout, and a greater demand to produce better and faster is happening everywhere.
Time to rethink what we now need as a leader to lead and inspire our teams.
So lets start at the beginning of the foundational leadership model, which is having a vision.
‘Without a vision, the people will perish.’
Recognise these words?
This was originally a statement from the King James version of the Bible in Proverbs 29:18; which has been reworked many times by recognised leaders across the globe.
I’m not surprised.
These powerful words hold the universal truth that human beings are success-seeking creatures who want to feel part of a bigger vision.
The reality is for many organisations; their vision is outdated and both poorly and inconsistently communicated in our current hybrid world.
Such a lost opportunity.
Getting back to the basics of turning and pointing everyone in the same direction with a vision brings people back on track.
So what is critical to consider?
The Key Elements of Visioning as a Leader
As a visionary leader, it is vital to hear what your team members are saying; because your team needs to feel heard by you as their leader.
You aren’t a real leader unless people follow you voluntarily, and for that to happen, your team members want you to listen to and acknowledge what they have to say.
You can achieve this by listening, observing, and then analysing the information you receive and being willing to change your approach as needed.
This is especially relevant when setting a vision for a hybrid team. Agreeing and communicating a vision to team members who may have never met is fraught with challenges which you will need to handle.
It is easy to go into a situation with your vision based on you rather than what the team and organisation need to move forward.
By planning what the vision now needs to be, it is time to be consistent in your approach and how the vision is communicated.
This is where your personal approach and style make a difference.
Having a strategy that you implement in a bold, persistent and inspiring open-minded way is what your people need.
Then having a process to keep this alive and ever-present is the next step.
This is especially important.
We all know the saying that; what you focus on grows, yet sometimes, as leaders, this gets lost. We live in a distracted world, and humans are constantly challenged by their unconscious limbic brain to avoid pain and seek the easiest way to do things.
In other words not to focus on the company vision.
You can read more about this in Prof Steve Peters’s bestseller The Chimp Paradox on managing your mind.
A vision to be a healthcare provider that saves millions of lives is a huge vision that will need to be kept alive through conversations, strategy, planning, goals and taking multiple risks.
How will you improve communication? What about measuring the culture that develops because of the vision you now have in place?
These are some of the questions we are helping our clients and their teams answer in our current leadership programmes. If you want to know more, drop me a note through our contact form here.
Look out for our next blog in the series, where we dive deeper into the expectations conversation.
Until next time,
Julia
About Zestfor
Zestfor specialises in developing leadership Training programmes and resources scientifically tailored for technical markets – including Pharmaceutical, I.T., and Life Sciences.
Our blend of in-classroom, online, and virtual live-stream delivery methods will engage and assure even the most introverted team members from the first meeting – whether face-to-face or virtually. So, to have a brief chat, call us on 0845 548 0833.
