When beginning a leadership role, most people are excited to make decisions, have an impact, and create change. In the beginning they are optimistic about driving change and producing great results. Likewise, their team as well as those who hired them are equally positive in anticipating strong momentum ahead.
Fairly quickly the leader can become consumed with the day-to-day tasks of operations, reports, and meetings. At the end of the day, they are surprised that even though they were productive, their to-do list did not get any shorter. In fact, on some days it is longer than when they began. All thoughts of their mission and values are a distant memory. They are too busy to worry about that now. They believe that after the current crisis there will be more time to consider how to reach their mission.
The reality is that there is no ideal time to focus on our mission, vision and values. Instead, successful leaders like our most recent podcast guest, Teresa Toland from Tandem365, know that weaving your values throughout your decision making and culture is critical. Your vision must be integrated into your everyday responsibilities. A strong leader helps everyone to see their work and priorities through the lens of that mission and culture.
Successfully integrating your vision and values into daily activities has a number of benefits. First, it allows you to supervise your team without micromanaging. They understand how you make decisions and why you chose a certain approach. Therefore, they don’t need you to tell them what to do every single time there is a decision to make. It also allows everyone to be confident in knowing where the team is headed and how they can support those initiatives.
Focusing on these critical factors also allows you to push through challenging times. It drives us to new solutions because we are focused on the possibilities and the vision of what we are trying to accomplish. Listen in to our latest Leadership Bits & Bytes podcast to learn more about how you can have a culture of vision and endless possibilities.
