As I have been mentioning, a crucial part in leadership is about moving forward. It is about leading yourself, your people, your business or organisation forward to where you want it to be.

Now, before I ask you if there is room in your vision, I need to ask you if you have a vision for your endeavour? If your answer is yes, let me still remind you briefly why it is important to have a vision.

Developing a vision is one of the foundational steps to start pretty much anything AND to keep it going. It’s about what we see, not with our physical eyes but with our ‘inner eyes’.

You might not have a formal vision statement or don’t even consider yourself as being ‘visionary’.

But if you have ever planned what’s for dinner, where to go on a holiday or renovated or even built a house, you’ve had vision. And in business, if you have seen a need or gap or opportunity and found a solution or way for what the world could look like with your service or product, then you are a visionary.

A vision keeps you, your people, and your business or organisation going.

“Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” (Jack Welch)

Now, the question is, where are you moving towards? What does this vision look like? AND, is there room for your people in your vision?

I would like to see more leaders being aware of the vision of their people. Our people have lives too. They have goals and dreams. And their career would play a big part in that as people spend most of their waking hours at work.

We live in a day and age where people pursue their dreams and change careers all the time.

Unlike previous generations, people might have 5-7 careers and up to 17 jobs in their lifetime.

You might think our main goal should be to keep staff and do all we can to create organisations where they want to stay.

While I am certainly for creating those kinds of organisations, I think we should take a step back and consider where our people are at and where they want to go.

Then, we need to ask ourselves, if there is room for them to develop themselves within our vision.

Don’t get me wrong, their vision needs to be aligned to our vision not the other way around.

But we need to make sure that there is space for them to align their vision with ours.

I’ve worked for organisations where I knew I had no future because they did not see my potential and did not consider where I wanted to go.

While I studied business, I worked for a reasonable sized car dealer. I enjoyed working in the different locations and departments and saw the potential to be working there after finishing my studies.

In my second year there I started hearing comments from the management about where they could see me in the future. I quickly realised they had no idea what I was capable of OR they did not want to see it. Off I went to work for a company that got me into management after I finished my studies.

Another way of thinking about an inclusive vision is picturing a family or group of people planning a holiday together. Instead of only thinking where you want to go, how many rooms you need and what activities you want to do, we need to consider who’s coming.

Of course, the one who pays the bills makes the main decisions. But would you not want to have your family or friends enjoy their holiday as much as you do?

If you’d like to know more about how to develop your vision, sign up to my email list to receive my blog posts straight to your inbox.

As always, feel free to share, comment and enquire about my current coaching offers.

Happy Tuesday,

Desiree