1. Not prepared for the future: No one can see what the future will be like, but the vision can define the future and prepare a company for what will happen soon.
"There is no reason for a person to want to keep a computer at home. In 1977, ken olsen, the founder of Digital Equipment Company (DEC), said:
On the contrary, Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, predicted, "Most people want to buy a computer and put it at home for a convincing reason, that is, computers will be connected to a national communication network in the future. After Jobs made this prediction, it was still four years before the invention of the World Wide Web.
Jobs' vision is not inevitable; There is only one certain inevitable result-there are few inevitable results. However, Jobs is a vision-oriented leader who can imagine what is possible in the future and make preparations in advance. Therefore, the home computer market has become a fertile ground for Apple's future growth.
Olson is locked in the present, and he has no vision, which also means that Digido is not ready; When was the last time you heard about Digido?
I often recall what laurene powell, the widow of Jobs, said at his funeral on 20 1 1: "It is difficult enough to see the present situation, not to mention removing many obstacles to see the clear reality. Steve's talent is even more remarkable: he can clearly see what does not exist now, what may exist in the future and what should exist in the future ..." "
Jobs saw that the computing power of machines at that time was mainly reserved for large enterprises and small companies, and he could feel the deficiency of this reality. So he doesn't follow the example of IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq and Commodus to cultivate small enterprises, and he looks further.
As he said, he saw that "computers will become a necessity for most families" and he wanted to start designing a "home computer". This is the missing part of reality.
He was doing the same thing when he launched the iPhone with a revolutionary attitude; When this kind of mobile phone with touch panel came out, Palm and BlackBerry with keyboard became popular.
Alan Kay, an expert in computer science, famously said, "The best way to predict the future is to create it. Vision is the first step. Without foresight, leaders cannot be prepared for what may happen next.
Second, missed opportunities: unable to prepare for the future, the representative will ignore the important opportunities of the present. Why do you say that? Vision enables us to keep up with opportunities that match the future we see. Without foresight, these opportunities are fleeting.
Third, the priorities are disordered: without a vision, there will be problems. When we don't know where the destination is, we tend to make short-term decisions and try opportunities that look good at the moment; This is a big mistake that my partner and I made when we started the publishing house. We are painfully aware that there seems to be a huge opportunity in front of us, and lengthening the time is likely to be a disaster.
Look at the example of Apple, which proves that the winning formula insists on focusing on creating excellent products that exceed customers' expectations and meet the company's vision. Less is more. It is precisely because of this that Jobs is willing to make good use of the power brought by saying "no" and refuse opportunities that do not meet his vision. Apple's product line expanded to 350 models after Steve Jobs left, and he returned at 1998, reducing it to only 10.
He once famously said, "Most people think that concentration means doing what you are looking at now, but this is not the meaning of concentration at all. You must be selective. In fact, I am also proud of what we don't make, just like I look at the products we really make. Innovation means saying no to a thousand things. He has been advocating this idea and instilled it in Mark Parker, who was about to become CEO of Nike at that time.
It is said that Parker, who took over from Nigel, called Jobs and asked him for benefits. "Well," Jobs said, "I have only one thing to say. Nike has made some of the best products in the world, some products that everyone dreams of, but you have also made a lot of junk products. Throw away the bad things and focus on the good things. 」
The problem is that at present, bad things usually look good or even great; Vision can help you distinguish what is good and what is really good.
Fourth, strategic mistakes: one thing is very simple, but it contains great power-the future has not happened yet, but it is just imagination, but it does not actually exist. There are countless possibilities in the future, and which one will really happen depends on what decision we make at this time. By combing what we have learned from the previous three mistakes, we can know that vision guides our current decision-making, prepares for the future, helps us identify the right opportunities and avoid the bad possibilities.
5. Waste of money, time and talents: When leaders focus on implementation and ignore the vision, they will miss the role that the vision can play in implementation, which will also lead to team frustration and waste of important resources, including their precious time and energy.
Vision is the direction of implementation and the standard of judging performance. Without a vision, the team will focus on irrelevant achievements and unimportant projects. In addition, because there is no external standard to measure progress, they don't even know if they have succeeded, and everyone is spinning around in circles.
If we can focus on a clear and moving vision and make corresponding adjustments, we can avoid distracting or wasting our energy. With a vision, you can minimize or even completely eliminate activities with overlapping purposes within the company, so that you can perform tasks more efficiently.
The team knows this kind of thing. In a survey of tens of thousands of employees, researchers asked: "What qualities do you expect to see in a leader (defined as someone you are willing to follow) that will make you respect? As expected, honesty topped the list.
However, 72% of the respondents said that the second important criterion of a leader is "foresight". If you look at the respondents with higher positions, the proportion of answering this answer will jump to 88%. Team members want every supervisor they work with to be honest, but they especially want leaders to have foresight. Without a vision, they can only watch their efforts go to waste and suffer setbacks.
The problem is that many teams don't see a big and far-reaching vision in their leaders. In a 360-degree evaluation made by herself, Emilia Ibera found that leaders would obviously exaggerate their visual ability compared with the opinions expressed by observers, which she said was "an obvious gap".
It is also worth noting that leaders without foresight will waste a lot of time and energy. Heck bruch and sumantra ghoshal studied 200 managers of Lufthansa. "What we found in management behavior should be surprising."
They pointed out that "a full 90% of managers waste their time on various ineffective activities ... only 65,438+00% of managers make good use of their time with a focused, goal-oriented and introspective attitude. 40% of people (who label these managers as "absent-minded") are extremely busy, but they are divorced from the vision of the organization, so they are short-sighted and overcommitted, and it is difficult to formulate useful strategies.
In other words, what they have done has not achieved the effect that should have been achieved. "They thought they were dealing with an emergency, but in fact they were just doing nothing." Brucci and Gauchard said.
The right vision will constantly remind everyone what they are doing and why it is important. Such a vision can stimulate the internal motivation of members, achieve great achievements together with the vision, inspire everyone in the organization and bring vitality. People will understand their contribution to the organizational vision.
6. Quit prematurely: Wasting efforts will lead to frustration and futility, which means that leaders who lack foresight often quit prematurely, as do exhausted employees. The ultimate goal of a clear vision is to persevere in the inevitable obstacles and resistance until success. Vision can inspire you and the team, make you unite and devote yourself to it, and don't quit until you get paid back.
When slow progress and obstacles force you to give up your route, when breakthroughs are still out of reach, vision can support your mission and lead you to the expected results, but only if you have a vision.
* This article is taken from "Let subordinates follow you willingly: Write a vision script that Apple, Microsoft, YouTube and Netflix are all using to lead the team to the top"
Brief introduction of the author
Michael Hyatt.
The founder and CEO of Michael Heath Company, his mission is to help leaders find the necessary focus in order to succeed in their work and life.
He was the chairman and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, the founder of Full Focus Planner, a best-selling author, and many books were listed in * * *, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Including Free Focus, Your Best Year Ever, Looking Forward and so on.
His works are often reported in newspapers and magazines such as The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fast Company, Business Weekly and Entrepreneurs.
Heath and his wife Gail have been married for more than 40 years. They have five daughters, three sons-in-law and nine grandchildren. They live in the suburb of Nashville, Tennessee.