Your leadership vision will save you
Recently, I've been talking to school leaders about the importance of writing a leadership vision. Knowing who you are and where you are going are great advantages especially in times of trouble. Having a clear leadership vision gives a person something to hold on to and strive for. What's your leadership vision?
One of the downsides of the present is many of us have lost sight of our vision. We have our reasons for this. And they are good. Where are you going? Ignorance can be bliss for a while. But then we find ourselves stuck in a rut and unable to change tracks. What are some signs of the vision-less? Habits persist without explanation. Your phone becomes an escape into the matrix. Relationships sour in the same ways. You forget who you are and where you are going. You’re languishing. This vision-less approach to life can be self-sabotaging and self-limiting. Are there solutions?
I have argued that part of the answer lies in being prepared to peek behind the curtain of personal melodramas and become more positively self-conscious. Peeking takes some bravery because you might not like what you see and you may notice that switch is stuck on auto-pilot. Peeking behind the curtain means taking radical responsibility for your everyday choices and not lashing out. Even though there are other variables to blame, it is clear that you are the most efficient mechanism for keeping your life on course. So, how do we do this?
We start by being more positively self conscious. Imagine driving down the road. Someone swerves in front of you at high speed and then unwinds their window to hurl abuse. What would you say? If you find yourself chasing down the driver, swearing back at them, there's a good chance you are negatively unselfconscious – at the mercy of your programming. On the other hand, if you recognise that you have a choice in that matter and you can choose to respond in a way that aligns with the best version of yourself, you'd be acting in a more positively self-conscious way. There's a good chance you'll keep your peace and avoid unnecessary conflict.
Auschwitz survivor, Viktor Frankl, refers to this as the gap between the stimulus and response. As Frankl writes: "Everything can be taken from a [person] but…the last of human freedoms [is] to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's way". Frankl argued that a person could expand the gap between the world's stimulus and one's response to it. And in that gap, people could make choices that aligned more congruently with whom they wanted to be – with their leadership vision. Expanding the gap between stimulus and response provides an opportunity to choose your way in the world – to determine the leader you want to be.
I know you know that. But what about this? Every second of your “self-conscious” life is structured like that car ride I mentioned. It’s an opportunity to take a breath and stay aligned with what you care about. This does not guarantee what you envisage will happen but it increases the probability that it will. But if every second of your life is acted out unconsciously, you are living life like a road rage respondent – at the beck and call of your impulses.
One of the reasons the practice of coaching works is because it asks us to be more positively self-conscious – to find the rudder to our own life before running aground. And although you didn't choose the ocean you're floating on, nor the vessel you are charting, finding the rudder gives you the chance to change course and select a destination that inspires you, that aligns with who you want to be. Your leadership vision.
It is not easy to stay positively self-conscious in every moment. But it is powerful. In a world marked by turbulence and uncertainty, I encourage leaders to remember that they possess the tools to respond rather than react. I know this seems simple, but the next time you feel triggered, why not take a deep breath and remember your leadership vision?
If you have already created a clear vision of who and what you want to be; under duress, you can allow the vision to speak for you. I call this “referring up” – up to the best version of yourself. For example, when your colleague or child annoys you, refer your response up, and see what happens. If you don't yet have a clear vision, I sometimes ask leaders to respond to the following prompts:
What five words describe your leadership's essence on a great day?
What would you like to be remembered for when they put the nail in your coffin?·
How would you like to behave when the going gets tough?
How do you wish to treat people who disagree with you?
What is something from your personal history that is essential to your leadership?
How does your leadership style resonate with your organisation's vision?
From a workplace perspective, it sure helps when your leadership vision is nested in your organisation's vision of an ideal way of being and an ideal world. One inspiring leader I have worked with, Damian Ramos, has created a model of his leadership thinking and vision that fits with his leadership context in Catholic Education. I have included the model below. When the going gets tough, Damian can anchor himself to this model and refer his decision-making up to his leadership ideal: Jesus. Between the stimulus of life, and his response to it, Damian can consult his leadership vision. It helps him know what he stands for and where he is going.
So what am I saying. A clear leadership vision is necessary because it allows you to outsource your thinking to a higher power when the going gets tough. It enables you to select responses to the world that increase your likelihood of success. Having a clear leadership vision is not a guaranteed strategy to get you what you want but it is your best strategy for living a life in accordance with what you value. And, to finish, a quick question from me. Do you have a leadership vision? Have you written it down? How often do you refer to it?
