Multiple priorities.
Duplication of efforts.
False starts.
Wasted energy.
Do any of these working conditions sound familiar? If so, it may be time to revisit your three-part vision:
- What is your purpose?
- What will the future look like if you are successful?
- What values will guide you as you work toward your picture of the future?
I learned the importance of vision from my father when I was still an undergraduate at Cornell University. It was 1959, and Dad had decided to retire early from the Navy as a captain, even though he could have stayed on and been promoted to admiral.
I said, “Dad, why did you quit early?”
He answered, “Ken, I hate to say it, but I liked the wartime Navy better than the peacetime Navy. Not that I like to fight, but in wartime we knew what our purpose was and what we were trying to accomplish. The problem with the peacetime Navy is that nobody knows what we are supposed to be doing. As a result, too many leaders think their full-time job is making other people feel unimportant.”
Dad’s comments made me realize that leadership—whether you’re leading yourself or others—is about going somewhere. Without a vision, you lose direction. As the author and seminar leader Werner Erhard used to say, “You wind up driving your car down the highway of life with your hands on the rearview mirror instead of on the steering wheel, and you have a lot of accidents and a whole big explanation about how driving is very tough.”
My father eventually did become an admiral, because Congress passed a law that said if you got the Medal of Honor or the Silver Star during World War II, the government would “bump you up” one rank upon your retirement. Since Dad got two Silver Stars, he became a retired rear admiral.
Admiral or not, he taught me the importance of having a vision and keeping it up-to-date.
How about you? Are you focused on the rearview mirror—or the road ahead?