How to set your leadership vision!

Do you know how to set your leadership vision or do you get aggravated because your employees don't believe in your leadership vision? I'm sure that most will be nodding their head with a small grin on their face as they read the next few bullets:

• You see tasks eventually getting completed, but everyone, including yourself, knows that they could have been completed in a much more efficient manner!
• Day after day you see your employees "working" however by some mystical phenomenon nothing seems to ever get done!
• When a task due date arrives all you hear about is issues that are putting your project behind schedule.
• Are you deliberately evacuating any thought that remind you of your professional goals?

If any of these statements sounds like you, than perhaps you have missed the first essential step of how to set your leadership vision!

If you want to become the greatest leader you can be, then you will need to stop being like the "leaders" that content themselves with executing orders from their superior.

If you are one that thinks great leaders are born, not made; well, I have news for you! Even if that was to be true and to some extent it is, we are all born! See my article Are Leaders Born or Made for more details on this topic.

Every ideal leader has put and continuously to put in their fair share of practice, experience, enthusiasm and passion, since without it you can't become an authentic leader. Remember, the purpose of a leader is to continually work at studying to improve your weaknesses and share your leadership expertise with others. Understanding how to set your leadership vision is definitely not an exception to the rule!

Don't lose your formal leadership

At first, it more important to make sure that you're not giving any reason to your staff for not following. Most employees will generally be inclined to grant you the formal leadership respect that your position dictated. However, the freebie that they grant you so respectfully is not without an expiry date! Actually, it perishes at the first indication of your unworthiness. What to do if you already lost your employees trust.

Build authentic relationships

Take the time to really understand the people around you and have a clear understanding of what they expect of you. Learn and clarify the degree of official authority that you have. Focus on truly understanding the predominant leadership style of your superior, it will give you an excellent overview of what you should expect in terms of can or cannot do. Another must do, is to sit down with your supervisor, if it's not already done, and fully understand the objectives that you and your team need to reach. Your purpose during this meeting is to fully comprehend the final destination that alone will give you tremendous clarity on how to set your leadership vision.

Connect with the humans that you will be working for; yes you are working for your staff! It's actually quite simple, work for them and they will work for you! So make it a priority to understand their preference, their needs, their aspirations, what irritates them, what worries them. Ask them what they expect from you; how you can help them...communicate on an authentic level.

Finalize "we" vision

Yes, "we" vision, not your vision. Have a meeting with your team, work out the detailed plan on how the team will reach its objectives. Don't do like most managers armed with your vision. Most would naturally go back to their team and share their leadership vision with a lot of enthusiasm, so much so, that they lay out the full details of their plan. After all being a leader is to lead, guide, direct and show the way isn't it? Yes it is!! But you need to lead, guide, direct and show them the way to create a "we" plan, not how to create an "I" plan and spend your time enforcing your leadership vision. Just like this article on how to set your leadership vision, I've told you what to do, not how to do it! Telling your employees the how, when they are not asking for it, of course, will only result in an increasing risk within all your business resources, notwithstanding the reality that your professional life will be plagued with many preventable stressors.

A great follow-up article to understand how to set your leadership vision with minimal resistance.