Top 3 Reasons Leaders Fail to Create a Vision
...and how you can avoid them once and for all!
Congratulations and give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back. You’ve made the decision to pursue visionary leadership in your organization, engage your team, and give your career a welcome boost! And more than that, you’re seeking out information to keep you from making mistakes and streamline the process. As a leadership coach of executive healthcare leaders, I can tell you with certainty that this will serve you extremely well in the long run. When I begin coaching new clients, we always begin with a lot of background work. I call this “Step Zero”, because most executive coaching programs tend to miss this step and spend a lot of time later on making up for that mistake.
In Step Zero, I take my clients through common pitfalls, help them get in touch with their own core values and THEN we begin to build a vision and implement visionary leadership at the organizational level. Today I’m sharing the top three reasons leaders fail to begin.
It seems like an easy train of thought -- A healthcare leader, like yourself, is promoted to a new leadership role in their organization and begins to learn more about leadership. You do lots of research and quickly realize that creating and implementing an organizational vision has been a tried and true method for huge companies and organizations for over 30 years.
So, naturally, you begin to think about developing your own vision. And here’s the first of many proverbial forks in the road.
What next?
Precisely, what is next? And while I promise to answer that in short order, first I want to address toxic mindset traps many leaders fall into when attempting to create and implement a company-wide vision for the first time.
Without further ado, here are the top three reasons leaders fail to create a vision.
1. It’s not a priority.
Without a firm due date or accountability, creating and implementing a vision for your healthcare organization’s future can easily be postponed, procrastinated and pushed off until tomorrow.
2. Ruts are DEEP.
Workplaces have a certain rhythm that’s deeply ingrained into everyone’s daily life. This can be tough to disrupt -- you’ll definitely meet resistance along the way. If your organization doesn’t explicitly support and nurture growth and change, it can be extremely challenging to change this culture.
3. Cynicism and Elitism.
This one can be tricky. There may be deep seated cynicism and elitism about the word “vision”. Like John Rock, once the general manager of General Motors’ Oldsmobile division put it, “a bunch of guys taking off their ties and coats, going into a motel room for three days, and putting a bunch of friggen’ words on a piece of paper – and then going back to business as usual” (Ivey Business Journal). Oftentimes, “weekend leadership retreats” become something dreaded and laughed at, instead of something that can change your company’s future.
But let’s not end on a down note -- how can you avoid these top three pitfalls for healthcare leaders and make a change in your organization, implement a powerful vision and engage your team so they’re fully on board as well?
Let’s break it down:
1. Make it URGENT
Creating a vision for your company or organization is no easy task. It’s not something that happens overnight, and certainly not something that happens quickly. As Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahnemann describes in his book, Thinking Fast and Slow, developing a vision is a slow thinking activity. It never feels necessary for survival. And in truth, it’s not necessary for survival, but it IS necessary if you’re looking to thrive and live a life beyond mere survival. We so easily get caught up in our fast thinking pathways that tapping into our capacity for long term deliberate thinking gets sidelined. Creating a compelling vision is the kind of activity that’s easy to push off to another day, because there’s no concrete deadline, no client demanding their deliverable, no boss breathing down your neck. Our DNA is hard-wired to address immediate needs, wants and desires FIRST, and once those are covered then look for other ways to spend our time. Making vision building a priority, carving out time for it and treating it as a task vital to survival are all ways to combat the lack of urgency that most leaders lack.
2. Don’t be Discouraged
Whether explicitly stated or implicitly insinuated, many workplaces actively discourage vision building and implementation. It sometimes feels easier for everyone to just go with the flow and do what’s been done before, like we discussed earlier. Expect to meet resistance from your team -- don’t let it discourage you or dim your desire for change. When you’re doing something new in your workplace, people will naturally be skeptical. Stay the course and don’t give up. This will demonstrate your commitment to your vision and eventually, others will jump on board as well. Give them time. Practice that patience.
3. Get Down and Dirty
To combat the idea of elitism and cynicism from your team, demonstrate early and often that your vision isn’t something you’re telling everyone else to do, but something everyone is accomplishing together as a team. Be honest with everyone about setbacks, frustrations, and achievements. Get in the muck with your team, becoming the leader in the trenches with mud on your face, rather than sitting at the back of the battle lines with a cup of tea and a hot bath. If a team sees their leader willing to make changes and be vulnerable about how difficult and awkward growth can sometimes be, they will be willing to join you.
When embarking upon a new journey with your team, remember that people change and grow on different timelines. 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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