Lesson 13
Come back a few years
and picture you and me standing beside my fighter that is capable of speeds
near twice the speed of sound. You’re
about ready to crawl into the rear cockpit for a ride with me as your pilot-in-command. Before climbing up the side of this sleek,
needle nosed, high performance fighter, you might have a few questions. The first is, “Which way are we going to take
off?”
“We’re parked in this
direction," I answer. "We
might as well take off the same way."
“Which way are we
going to go once we’re airborne?” you
ask.
“This direction’s as
good as the other 359 available to us,” I respond.
“How high are we
going to go?”
“Until the jet quits
climbing.”
“How far are we going
to go?”
“I guess until we run
out of fuel.”
That’s when you would
quit using the word “we” and instead ask, “What are you going to do when
you run out of fuel?”
“Maybe there’ll be an
air field under us.”
Then you’d ask, “What
if there isn’t?”
My response would be,
“Look, I don’t even want to think about that! Go ahead and get in.”
Would you? I don’t think so.
Many managers plan like
that and can’t figure out why they can’t get a long-term commitment from their
team.
To build a strong, committed high performance team, each individual must
be able to describe in detail what the leaders’ vision is for the organization
and how it will be accomplished. Equally
important is the vision the team members have for themselves.
The vision we invite our people to share with us is the future as it best suits the organization
and the people who make up the organization.
Helping your people experience the future through their own eyes is
critical to effective leadership. Do you
know what you’re working for? Can you
see it in great detail? If you can’t,
how can you help your people to see what they’re working for? Helping your people truly see what they’re
working for is one of the greatest, life-long gifts you can ever give
them.
The great Mad Magazine cover boy philosopher,
Alfred E. Newman, said, “Most folks don’t
know what they want, but they’re pretty sure they don’t have it.” Leading your team blindly without clear goals
renders all of your sophisticated navigation equipment useless. Being driven by a sense of dissatisfaction
with the present is not enough if there is no clear course established. A clearly charted course or plan is the
second best thing to having a distinct goal. With a clearly charted course, you
and your organization know in which direction you want to go. You are intending toward something, even if the something is not well defined.
Here are four
important questions that will help you get started in setting goals:
· What do I really want?
· What will it cost me in time, money, and energy?
· Am I willing to pay that price?
· When should I start paying the price?
“Deciding not to have a specific
goal is a specific goal.”
