Leadership Lessons -23 : "Where there is no vision, people perish"

 Leadership Lessons -23

"Where there is no vision, people perish"- this is a famous verse from the book of proverbs in the Bible. Of course, this could be interpreted in many ways.

It is interesting that most of the pastoral communities who are always on the move to uncharted terrains in search of green meadows or oasis, often stress the notion of 'visionaries' as those who gave them the important direction or warn them about the dangers or disasters on the way.

Often with out a clear sense of a destination or direction, people and organizations tend to drift and eventually face disastrous consequences. What is this 'vision' all about ? Is it something divine or is it a wild 'guess' or a clear sense of the path?

Some people tend to think that vision is about a 'vision statement' and then a 'mission statement'. In my understanding it is not merely about a politically smart or correct 'vision statement' . A 'vision statement' and 'mission statement' for the sake it of it is not going to make much of a difference.

Vision gives a sense of direction - a clarity of purpose. Such a sense of direction often evolves. There is a saying in the 'Alice in Wonderland ' : " If you don't know where you are going, it does not matter which way you take".

To have a clear sense of vision is one of the most important aspects of leadership qualities. And it is not easy to have a clear sense of vision. It is one thing to a have a vision, but the important point is a clear sense of how to move towards such a vision and how to make that vision viable .

Vision is often an outcome of a lots of factors. These factors include a clear understanding of the world, external contexts, internal context of an organisation , a clear sense of values and ethics, an understanding of what is possible and what is not possible and an imaginative understanding of possibilities and potential of people, organisations and societies.

It is important to have a clarity of perspective, clarity of people and clarity of yourself to evolve a clear sense of vision. Vision has a creative and imaginative element. Vision is all about the imagination of a potential and potential of an imagination: a dream that can drive you.

Imagination is not something that happens over night. It is a result of a lots of informed understanding, experience, intuitive thinking and a creative spark.

And molding a vision requires an ability to dream during the day: day dreaming also requires a lots of creative and fertile imagination and passion to follow the dram.

In many ways a visionary is someone can see thousands of trees growing on a barren piece of land; or a beautiful Taj Mahal in mind before it happened on the shore of a river. It is like someone can see the potential of a landscape and conceive a beautiful building.

In many ways visionary leaders are like architects who could see both the landscape and building in their mind before it happens.

However, this does not happen automatically. Building a vision is not like a mere aspiration or simply a 'wishful thinking'. On the one hand it is like compass that will give you a sense about the direction. Even if you have a compass, it is also important to know where exactly are you going and what exactly do you want to plan.

Few people can see vision beyond themselves and their immediate society. Very few can think through hundreds of year ahead of them. They are often termed as 'prophetic vision'. Such prophetic visionaries see the world through a very large sense of history and paint with big brush about the future that would emerge.

In fact, almost all religions are based on such a sense of prophetic visions. Many political ideologies too are built on such prophetic vision based on certain normative principles. In fact, in many ways Karl Marx belong to this legacy of prophetic visionaries familiar in the Jewish tradition. Gandhi also belong to the legacy of prophetic visionaries.

So one of the most important quality to develop a vision is a clear understanding of the terrain, the society, the power-relations, the multiple options, and scenario building and then doing a clear sense of analysis based on your own strengths, limitations , the opportunities that you will find and the possible threat on the way, An analytical understanding of the past, present and future is important to have an intuitive sense about the potential pathways to future.

Constraints of the present should not be a hindrance to dream about the future.One may dream things that may look so wild and impossible at one point in the history or life. In fact a great visionary can see beyond the horizon and also beyond the writings on the wall. They are those who can internalize a dream and live a dream to make it happen.

JS Adoor

To be continued

23Thankom Arun, Jibin Joy Varghese and 21 others

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