I Don't Need a Vision, I Just Need a BREAK!
How creating a company vision can lead to the peace you’ve been craving
“I don’t need a vision. I just need to find peace,” one of my leadership coaching clients said several years ago in her first meeting with me. A physician leader, struggling in her role and motivating her team to be more effective, she was feeling constantly overwhelmed and on the brink of burnout. Our conversation was nearly five years ago, and I’m just as surprised thinking about it today as I was when we originally spoke. Back then, however, I didn’t understand quite as clearly how effective vision-building can be in the workplace. At that time, I was surprised by her vagueness. Now, I’m surprised by my own limited understanding of her frustrations. I remember being a bit annoyed that she didn’t understand how important vision was, instead of listening to her concerns and discerning how creating a vision could actually lead to the peace she so desperately desired.
I made two mistakes in that first meeting (bless my early clients for being so understanding as I learned how to coach more effectively):
First, I used the word vision too loosely. I was using it as a synonym for “what do you want?” When I asked “What’s your vision?” I wasn’t being specific enough or clear in how creating a vision could yield results beyond just, “What do you want?” Building a vision is not a short term goal, and being unclear about it from the beginning can cause a LOT of problems. As Jim Collins and Jerry Porras discuss in the Harvard Business Review, “vision has become one of the most overused and least understood words in the language, conjuring up different images for different people: of deeply held values, outstanding achievement, societal bonds, exhilarating goals, motivating forces, or raisons d’être.”
The second mistake I made was internally dismissing her answer, “I don’t need a vision. I just need to find peace.” I thought her answer was too vague, when in reality my question was too broad. And while it’s true that her overwhelm and burnout had taken away her capacity to be clear about what she wanted, her internal human desire for peace was the perfect place to start building a vision. Working with many physician leaders since then has helped me to realize that most of us show up with vague ideas about where to start building a vision.
Creating clear visions from cloudy ideas is just part of the process.
Assuming you’re all caught up on the 3 reasons leaders fail to create visions that work (head here to read or review before continuing), I’d like to share 5 specifics to keep in mind when building and implementing a vision for your healthcare organization.
1. Acceptance
It’s a commonly said phrase for a reason -- the first step is acceptance. Before implementing any sort of vision, you have to come to accept (and even believe fully) that creating and implementing a vision in your workplace is a viable strategy. There’s extensive research to back up this claim. Far too much to include here in this blog post in fact, however, I often share links to resources via my newsletter -- have you joined us yet?
2. Expect Resistance
As Steven Pressfield describes in his book, Turning Pro, resistance is just part of the process of becoming a professional in any field. Developing a clear vision is part of what turns you into a “Pro” leader. As you step into the fullness of your leadership capabilities, there will be those who doubt you along the way. You’ll have wet blanket team members who think visions are “stupid” or “not worth their time”. You’ll have older team members who insist that “the old ways are the best ways”. This is just part and parcel of changing the culture of your organization. Expect resistance. Power through. Don’t give up.
3. Over Communicate
Lack of communication is the most often cited reason for why visions fail at the implementation stage. You must commit to communicating your vision again and again, in new ways and to new people and once more with feeling before it becomes reality. You’ll need to be clear about what you mean, and gaining clarity comes more easily with repetition. The more often you communicate your vision, explaining it to others and answering their questions, the more easily you’ll be able to communicate it the next time...and the next...and the next. Over communication may seem like becoming an unwilling broken record, but in fact it’s a vital step to your vision’s ultimate success.
4. Be Complete
You’ll need completeness at two levels. First, you must completely understand your own vision on all levels. You’ve explored your core values fully, translated that into what’s important for your healthcare organization’s mission and purpose, and the strengths and weaknesses within your team. Your vision isn’t just “oh this is what I want”, but fully articulated.
Second, you must form a complete plan in order to implement your vision effectively. Who will do what? How do new responsibilities distribute throughout the team? What are the deadlines? (and so on…) When I work with healthcare leaders on an individual coaching level, I use a structured methodology to ensure that each vision is complete before a healthcare organization attempts to implement it.
5. Start at the Beginning
Bring your team in on the vision building process from the very beginning. If you go off in secret to create what you believe to be the best vision for the future of your organization then spring it on your team without any warning...it can create unnecessary backlash. No one likes to feel left out of the creation process. Instead, make sure your team knows that change is coming so they can prepare for it and contribute to the final result. This creates a feeling of camaraderie instead of animosity. It may take longer this way, but like Zappo’s CEO Tony Hsieh discovered (as we discuss in this post -- Why Most Visions Don’t Work) the time is well spent when creating core values and a solid organizational vision.
So, what did I do with the physician leader who wanted peace?
First, I restrained my own frustrations and focused on her. I asked her to describe what “peace” meant for her. She may have started with a seemingly vague feeling, but very soon, we got down to what it would mean in reality. Over the next few meetings, we clarified it and made it more complete. On the surface, I was helping her create a vision, but underneath she was helping me become a much better coach. I learned that it’s perfectly ok to start building what will ultimately be a strong vision from a vague and unclear beginning.
Luckily, with my next client I was much better prepared - he too had very little idea where to start, but this time I knew that wasn’t a problem at all. We started exactly where he was and today, both of those clients have implemented systemic change at their healthcare organizations.
When embarking upon a new journey as a healthcare leader, be kind to yourself if you don’t yet know what to do. It is such a pleasure to get to share my researched and tested methods with you for free every week in these blog posts, but remember that reading about what to do can only take you so far in your leadership journey.
If you’re experiencing specific issues with your team or looking for some neutral advice to help speed along your leadership growth, contact us today to find out what coaching options are right for you.
Looking forward to your feedback in the comments below as well. Let me know what you think!
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