The 10 Elements of Leadership - Element 4: Vision & Strategic Thinking

We've been talking about the 10 Elements of Leadership. Today, we're going to talk about vision and strategic thinking.

I wrote a blog on this called "Taking Time to Think" that can be found under the Resources tab on the Wynstone Partners website.

One of the first questions that I ask clients when I start an assignment is, "Are you taking time to think?" Are you taking about 20-30 minutes two times per week, whenever that is, to think about what success looks like for you?

I get this kind of weird look where they say, "Yeah, where am I going to get that kind of time with all the meetings and calls that I have going on?"

Think about what these leaders are saying to me. If you imagine a ship, they're saying, "I'm in the engine room, and I've got to make sure the engine runs. It's a daily activity, and there's always something to do."

But they're in the engine room! They're not on the deck determining where the ship is going. They're just involved and concerned in the minutiae of running a business. They're not taking time to imagine what success looks like for their organizations.

Let me give you an example to help solidify this concept. Let's say it's January, and the mayor of your city comes to you and says, "I want you to put on the holiday concert in December. Whatever you want to do. Go." Well, the first thing you have to do is determine what does my concert look like. What do I want to do? And you immediately go to the end and imagine what a successful concert looks like. What's the music, what's the venue, what's the audience look like?

Is it going to be classic? Country western? Is it going to be rock? Is it going to be a children's choir?

You have to take time to think about what the concert looks like and what a successful evening looks like. Once you know that, then you assemble the right musicians. If it's a classical concert, you probably don't need banjos and tambourines. So you put your team together, and then you break it down into project milestones, or KPIs. What has to happen each month to make sure each member is practicing their sheet music in an effort to get us to where we need to be by December.

Well, business is the same thing. You imagine what success looks like one year from now -- the vision. And maybe your vision is actually three years out, but there has to be a one-year milestone. So why not imagine what does success look like one year from now? And rather than sheet music, which is what the concert organizer would do, you're breaking your project down to KPIs and every month reviewing how are we doing getting to the ultimate vision.

The process to get there is strategy, which changes frequently. It's kind of like a trip out. We know where we're going, but construction takes us all over the place to get to that end destination. That's strategy.

Thanks for taking the time for some thoughts on vision and strategic thinking. In our next video, we'll discuss operational excellence. For more leadership thoughts, subscribe to our YouTube channel, visit us on LinkedIn, or visit our website wynstonepartners.com.

Remember: better leaders, better business.