We all understand the intrinsic meaning of the word leadership and it's likely we've already encountered many kinds of leaders in our life.
A leader is someone who can influences teammates to work towards a shared goal.
But what makes a good leader and why is it important?
Many people tried to answer this question already. In fact, research from 2011(1) discovered that:
The leader of a team accounts for 31% of whether that team performs well or not.
This means that you, as a manager or CEO, can be surrounded by top-tier talents, but that doesn't guarantee your company's success. What can guarantee this, is instead a leader with the ability to create and communicate a clear vision to the team.
In fact, another research (2) showed that the presence of a visionary leader in a team has been proven to increase employee confidence, especially in times of uncertainty, and even represents a positive indicator of how fast a startup can grow.
So how do we leverage these interesting results?
- The first step is to understand what the heck a vision is.
- The second step is to create your vision.
- The last step is to figure out how to clearly communicate it to the team.
Understanding the Vision
A Vision is an action plan.
It describes where we are today, as a company or a team, and in which direction we are going.
A vision must not be confused with the company's mission or the company's values but is something that a leader communicates to the team day by day, through his words and actions.
Creating a Vision
To be effective, a vision must answer three key questions:
- Why does the company exist?
- What identifies the success of our work?
- How should we act to ensure success?
Why does the company exist?
When answering this question, you should identify the core purposes of the company and these objectives must be specific enough to guide employees.
For example, LinkedIn exists “to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful”. This statement captures the company's core purposes immediately and effectively, making it one of the best examples of mission statements.
What identifies the success of our work?
To effectively answer this question, we need to identify who our stakeholders are (customers, employers, and so on) and visualize how their world will improve if our mission succeeds.
How should we act to ensure success?
This question allows us to reflect on the essential values that will guide the choices and behaviors of the team and the company. It is important to include and emphasize these values in our vision because it allows our teammates to be autonomous even in tricky situations while remaining within the limits of the company's values.
In the next article in this series, we'll explore some techniques for effectively communicating your vision. Stay tuned!
Sources:
- DeRue et al., Personnel Psychology, 2011
- Baum & Locke, Journal of Applied Psychology, 2004
- Inspiring and Motivating Individuals on Coursera.