20/20 leadership vision

In a better economy, the absence of 20/20 leadership vision may not be so apparent to an organization, but you can sure tell during times like these. If your company’s vision needs tweaking, someone might suggest using the most basic sort of eye chart, one that has two simple reference points. But first, just exactly whose vision are we talking about here?

In business, it’s the owner’s vision that counts. Even if you work in a publicly held company, someone acts as the “owner”. This is almost always the CEO, but if you are not sure, find the one or two people in your organization who actually owns the problem of whether the company will exist in a year. If you are fortunate, this leader sees clearly the first reference point: the sources of your organization’s value, its core capabilities – not your products and services, but the distinctive wherewithal that brought about these outcomes in the first place.

But what if an owner’s vision is not 20/20? It’s probably because the second reference point has not come into focus. The second reference point being your customer’s own top-level vision for what they can become and what they would become, were they to discover within your company a like-minded vision and mission for what can be collaboratively achieved.

JB