The Vision Idea For Managers

Vision in that the future must be seen and communicated to the team; Values in that the team needs a unifying code of practice which supports and enhances co-operation. 

 Verve in that positive enthusiasm is the best way of making the work exciting and fun. 

If you do not think your work is exciting, then we have found a problem. 

A better word than Verve might be Chutzpah (except that it does not begin with a "V") which means "shameless audacity". 

Is that not refreshing? Inspiring even?

A manager should dare to do what he or she has decided to do and to do it with confidence and pride.

VISION

One of the most cited characteristics of successful managers is that of vision. 

Of all the concepts in modern management, this is the one about which the most has been written.
 


Of course different writers use it in different ways. 

One usage brings it to mean clairvoyance as in: "she had great vision in foreseeing the demise of that market".


 This meaning is of no use to you since crystal balls are only validated by hindsight and this article is concerned with your future. 

The meaning of vision which concerns you as a manager is: a vivid idea of what the future should be. 

This has nothing to do with prediction but everything to do with hope.


It is a focus for the team's activity, which provides sustained long-term motivation and which unites your team. 

A vision has to be something sufficiently exciting to bind your team with you in common purpose. This implies two things:

• you need to decide where your team is headed
• you have to communicate that vision to them

Communicating a vision is not simply a case of painting it in large red letters across your office wall (although, as a stunt, this actually might be quite effective), but rather bringing the whole team to perceive your vision and to begin to share it with you.

 A vision, to be worthy, must become a guiding principle for the decision and actions of your group. 

Now, this vision thing, it is still a rather nebulous concept, hard to pin down, hard to define usefully; a vision may even be impractical (like "zero defects").

 And so there is an extra stage which assists in its communication: once you have identified your vision, you can illustrate it with a concrete goal, a mission. 

Which leads to the creation of the famous "mission statement". 

Let us consider first what is a mission, and then return to a vision. 

A mission has two important qualities:

• it should be tough, but achievable given sufficient effort
• it must be possible to tell when it has been achieved

To maintain an impetus, it might also have a time limit so that people can pace their activity rather than getting winded in the initial push. 

The scope of your vision depends upon how high you have risen in the management structure, and so also does the time limit on your mission statement. 

Heads of multinational corporations must take a longer view of the future than the project leader in divisional recruitment; the former may be looking at a strategy for the next twenty-five years, the latter may be concerned with attracting the current crop of senior school children for employment in two-three years. 

Thus a new manager will want a mission which can be achieved within one or two years. 

If you are stuck for a mission, think about using Quality as a focus since this is something on which you can build. 

Similarly, any aspects of great management which are not habitual in your team at the moment could be exemplified in a mission statement. 

For instance, if your team is in product design, your mission might be to fully automate the test procedures by the next product release; or more generally, your team mission might be to reduce the time spent in meetings by half within six months. 

Once you have established a few possible mission statements, you can try to communicate (or decide upon) your vision.

 This articulates your underlying philosophy in wanting the outcomes you desire. 

Not, please note, the ones you think you should desire but an honest statement of personal motivation; for it is only the latter which you will follow with conviction and so of which you will convince others.

 In general, your vision should be unending, with no time limit, and inspirational; it is the driving force which continues even when the mission statement has been achieved. 

Even so, it can be quite simple: Walt Disney's vision was "to make people happy". 

As a manager, yours might be something a little closer to your own team: mine is "to make working here exciting". 

There is no real call to make a public announcement of your vision or to place it on the notice board. 

Such affairs are quite common now, and normally attract mirth and disdain.

 If your vision is not communicated to your team by what you say and do, then you are not applying it yourself. 

It is your driving motivation - once you have identified it, act on it in every decision you make. 

Best Wishes.