October 2, 2009

One often hears about the 'vision' thing in corporate corridors. Many times organizations witness shake-up and chaos because a new 'vision' has dawned upon the leader. Nothing wrong is having a 'vision' and doing what it is necessary to realize the vision in reality. Leaders are ultimately worth their 'vision' and its meticulous execution.

The worrying aspect about 'vision' is that it is useless if all the 'visioning' is confined to a select group of leaders at the top. 'Vision' must percolate down to the bottom of the organization if it has to become a reality! And this is one aspect where the leadership often fails and induces unnecessary confusion and chaos in the organization just because everyone is not aligned to the vision.

If the leader develops a new 'vision', his most important responsibility is to educate everyone in the organization from shop-floor worker to salesman at the lowest rung to the administrative clerk to the senior managers about his 'vision', how he is going to turn the vision into reality, and how everyone in the organization has a part to play in realization of the vision. Unless everyone in the organization, irrespective of the hierarchy, is aligned to the 'vision', it will remain a chimera in the head of the leader!

The 'vision' has to be vociferously and enthusiastically communicated to the extent that it is embedded at the back of the mind of every spoke of the wheel that keeps the organization running. In the end, the power of a 'vision' is as good as the power of persuasion of the communication that helps the 'vision' being owned by one and all in an organization!