Link between vision and communication

We still hear a lot about the need of strategic vision and effective leadership, but I am thinking that we still are overlooking the link between vision and the leader's ability to powerfully communicate its essence. Maybe it is not in the what, but the why and the how.

The leader has the responsibility to make communication a point of connection and inspiration – not just transmitting information.

I am taking some small steps to get to the basic understanding of what vision is so that I can then create a process that will identify what mine is and how to articulate it.  

Communicating the Vision --

“The task of leadership is to communicate clearly and repeatedly the organization’s vision…all with the intent of helping every person involved understand what work needs to be does and why, and what part the individual plays in the overall effort.” - James O'Toole, author of Leadership from A to Z

I guess that means that vision is tied back to debriefing the day's work, bringing to priority it's relevance.  It means that internal emails, presentations, even posters serve as a reminder of purpose and set goals developed from the vision. Which means the performance objectives and interdepartmental teamwork has incorporated the vision there too and the outcome should be an energized group who are taking action - buying into and then advertising this vision as stakeholders.

It sounds like we are back to basics again - we communicate vision so people can decide if they want to follow us - they cannot make that decision if they do not know the direction we are heading in.

 "There's nothing more demoralizing than a leader who can't clearly articulate why we're doing what we're doing." --James Kouzes and Barry Posner

Leaders having regular contact with their teams and communicating, eliminates chaos. Add to the formal communication we noted above is the informal communication required at the ground level necessary to remove obstacles, strengthen teamwork and make sure the innovations dreamed up by the team are taken seriously and in a timely manner.  Role modelling of that open communication starts with me the leader - I set the tone and create a new cultural norm.

There is another surprising development that comes from a vision communicated well - trust. Trust is a something that any person on any team wants to have before following someone.  They want to know that the leader they are about to follow is truthful and ethical. That does not happen until the leader shares the vision, interacts with them, and effectively communicates - producing the significant ingredient of trust.




Remember the word inspiration that we used earlier - let's bring that back.  So communication cannot be left alone as simply formal or informal, it is more than a speech and  more than a process - it is more than telling your team what do do and how to do it.  It is instead, the ability to inspire your team to want to do the things that are necessary for life of the organization.

So then, we target our communication of vision to each team a little differently - finances being a different breed of a team compared to marketing for example - so translation is important. Then the logical layout with sound reasoning is given with an emotional bent in order to inspire. It is the emotion that brings in buy-in and shifts the team response from "I have to," to "I want to."  If you are a spiritually inspired organization and call yourself a ministry, then you can go one step deeper than most everyone else and bring in prayer as a key component in moving forward.

So today we see leaders as effective strategists, but also rhetoricians energizing through the words they choose to use.  Managing is no longer by dictate but by inspiration - and your new leader that you are looking for has the ability to craft and articulate a message that is highly motivating.