Leaders, Followers and The Vision

In the post Leaders Know And Communicate I wrote about the need that leaders help people remember why is that they are in the organization. Warren Bennis in his book Learning to Lead: A Workbook on Becoming a Leader talked about Commitment to Vision.

“While leaders come in every size, shape, and disposition… there is at least one ingredient that every leader shared: concern with a guiding purpose, an overarching vision.They were more than goal directed, they were vision directed.”
– Warren Bennis and Joan Goldsmith. Learning To Lead.

According to Bennis and Goldsmith, a basic ingredient of leadership is passion. A leader is passionate about his or her job and most important the leader loves what he/she does.

That passion and commitment to vision is what helps the leader to align others in his or her vision.

“If you can dream it, you can do it”.
– Walt Disney

Once and again, it’s great if you dream something. But you have to let the world know it. You have to communicate. How on earth you expect your team knows where your corporation is headed to if you don’t communicate it?
My Remedy: Tell, integrate, communicate your team why your organization is asking them to do what they do. If something has a meaning, it’s better that everybody knows the meaning. In that way everybody can commit.

On the other hand, if you’re not the formal “leader”, Do you know where you’re going? Why?
My Remedy: Ask, ask, ask.. to know the vision, ask to know where you’re going, ask why you’re doing what you do, or suppose to.

I think we are always leaders and followers at the same time, we do have different roles in our lives. When we follow, we must ask to know the vision. When we lead, we must communicate the vision.

If the vision of the company is known by all members of the organization, is easier to achieve the goals, because people knows they work for a purpose, bigger that themselves. A good leader strives to make every one “VISION DIRECTED”.

LEADERSHIP ACTIONS

1. Leader: be sure you have communicated the vision and every knows it.
   Follower:be sure you know your leader’s vision, and you are committed to achieve it

Remember, Be Alert, Be A Leader