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Leadership Strategic Vision

visionary leaders Graphics courtesy of UC SolutionOpens in new window

What Is Vision?

In the literature concerning leadershipOpens in new window, vision has a variety of definitions, all of which include a mental image or picture, a future orientation, and aspects of direction or goal.

Seely describes vision as a goal-oriented mental construct that guides people’s behavior. Vision is a picture of the future for which people are willing to work.

Vision provides guidance to an organizationOpens in new window by articulating what it wishes to attain. It serves as “a signpost pointing the way for all who need to understand what the organization is and where it intends to go.”

By providing a picture, vision not only describes an organization’s direction or goal, but also the means of accomplishing it. It guides the work of the organization.

As the Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland eloquently states,

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.Lewiss Carroll

Viewed from the organization’s perspective, if leaders have no idea where the organization is going (i.e., no vision), because they have no clear direction or goals (e.g., destination) whatsoever, then you can bet they won’t have a strategy either.

StrategyOpens in new window is the road (e.g., journey) that leads to the organization’s direction. Put another way, Carroll’s quote is saying,

If you don’t have goals, your strategy can be anything and you will succeed at reaching non-goals or be satisfied with reaching any goals.

”If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there” is not a good quotation for leaders to cite if they expect their organization to be successful.

Over the years there has been much thought given to its deeper meaning. What can leaders learn from the saying with respect to vision, clarity, setting goals and purposeful action in organizations?

According to PhilosiblogOpens in new window, there is a deeper dialogue behind it. And, according to the author of the post, this is the exchange that gave birth to the paraphrased quote:

  • Alice said, “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
  • ”That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
  • ”I don’t much care where—” said Alice.
  • “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
  • “—so long as I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation.
  • “Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

Alice only knows she wants to get somewhere other than where she is, but she is not sure what she wants her ultimate destination to be. Therefore, just getting busy and moving in any direction will take her somewhere, anywhere other than where she is. But is that really what she wants?

Even if she puts forth all the time and effort to change her current situation, will the new destination be a better place to be—or a place she wants to be?

How many leaders have found themselves in a similar frame of mind with their organizations? They talk in vague terms like bigger, more clients, more sales, and more revenue as goals.

And they think that working harder or longer will get them there. If leaders just get busy, put in the long hours, and keep their nose to the grindstone, IT will happen … success is assured. But what is IT? What does that success look like for leaders? Do they know their targets or goals? Are they even setting goals?

It is great for leaders to want growth for their organization, but it would be better to be more specific. This might include that they want to grow by 15% and want the organization to become more diversified. Want more market shares, sales, and customers? How much market share and sales and how many customers?

Management guru Peter DruckerOpens in new window (and Abraham LincolnOpens in new window) said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” One would likely find few leaders who would disagree with this statement. Leaders most often have a goal of wanting to make a difference and strive to create a thing that never was before (something new or different).

Perhaps the most important function of a leader is to develop a clear and compelling picture of the future, and to secure commitment to that idea. An excellent example of a leader painting a picture of the future is that of Henry FordOpens in new window. He communicated his vision to make a car for the massesOpens in new window:

I will build a motor car for the great multitude . . . constructed of the best materials, by the best me to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise . . . so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God’s great open spaces.Henry Ford

Like many other successful leaders, Ford’s leadership began with a vision. To this, he added a strategyOpens in new window to succeed. A strategy is the science of planning; the process of giving a definition to a vision, of focusing people and resources on specific objectives that can be measured.

Three ideas brought Ford’s vision to life:

  1. the moving assembly line;
  2. paying workers not as little as possible but as much as was fair; and
  3. vertical integration, which led to the Ford’s River Rogue plantOpens in new window, a wonder of its time.

Henry Ford strongly believed that a vision should not be just about making money. He saw profit as the by-product of a vision achieved. Ford wrote:

  • A business ought not to drift. It ought to march ahead under leadershipOpens in new window. The easy way is to follow the crowd and hope to make money. But that is not the way of sound business. The right way is to provide a needed product or service. Try to run a business solely to make money and business will die. Profit is essential to business vitality. But a business that charges too high a profit disappears about as quickly as one that operates at a loss. Short-sighted businessmen thinks first of money, but the quality of a product or serviceOpens in new window is what makes or breaks a business. Without these, customers soon go elsewhere.

As evidenced in Henry Ford’s vision, today’s leaders can more easily answer the question of “What is Vision?” beyond our earlier definition as follows:

Vision is a mental picture of the future. It is an idea of what the future can hold, but has not yet happened.

Vision is the thing inside of us that guides us. It creates a desire to grow and improve. Vision embodies our hopes and ideals.

It gives us a sense of purpose. Visions bring us flashes or glimpses of what is possible. Vision is when leaders dream of growing their business or organization.

By providing a picture, vision not only describes an organization’s direction or goal, but also the means of accomplishing it. It guides the work of the organization.

A vision is a positive and future-focused image of what could and should be that focuses and energizes people; an essential requirement for effective leadership.

A successful vision is leader-initiated, shared and supported by followersOpens in new window, comprehensive and detailed, and uplifting and inspiring.

However, vision is more than an image of the future. It has a compelling aspect that serves to inspire, motivate, and engage people.

Vision has been described as “the force which molds meaning for the people of an organization.” It is a force that provides meaning and purpose to the work of an organization.

Vision is a compelling picture of the future that inspires commitment. It answers the questions: Who is involved? What do they plan to accomplish? Why are they doing this?

Vision therefore does more than provide a picture of a desired future; it encourages people to work, to strive for its attainment. According to Pejza, vision is “a hunger to see improvement.”

What Vision Is Not

As important as it is to know what vision is, it is also important to know what vision is not. Nanus states that vision is not “a prophecy, a mission, factual, true or false, static, [or] a constraint on actions.”

Fullan warns against visions that blind and states that there is a tendency for “overattachment to particular philosophies or innovations.”

To assist leaders in developing an appropriate vision, Nanus (1992) maintains that the “right vision” has five characteristics:

  • attracts commitment and energizes people,
  • creates meaning in workers’ lives,
  • establishes a standard of excellence,
  • bridges the present to the future, and
  • transcends the status quo.

See also:
  1. Carroll, L. (1865). Alice’s adventures in wonderland. London, England: Macmillan. P. 89.
  2. Peterson, R. (2013, December 22). The best way to predict the future is to create it. 12 reasons why. p. 1.
  3. Ford, H. (1922). My life and work. New York, NY: Cosimo Classics, p. 89.
  4. Nanus, B. (1992). Visionary leadership: Creating a compelling sense of direction for your organization. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, p. 9.
  5. Seeley, D. S. (1992, April). Visionary leaders for reforming public schools. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA.
  6. Manning, G., & Curtis, K. (2019). The art of leadership (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
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