Vision. Who’s seeing your vision?

Perhaps it was a test. I was responding to a contract management proposal recently and balked at the request “…please include a vision statement for the organization.” Really? Now, it was either a test to see if those responding to the Request for Proposal (RFP) could articulate the big picture of the organization or it was a weak attempt at getting their vision written by some consultant-type. Either way, I wasn’t about to write a vision statement for a potential client organization.

Could I have written a cogent, well-crafted vision statement? Sure. But the exercise of crafting a vision statement should be part of a complete organizational planning process. For a nonprofit organization, the vision statement, mission statement, and organizational goals should be developed with an appropriate group of stakeholders and thought-leaders…not a hired gun so to speak. Only then can the vision be a shared vision; one that unites and adds clarity for the organization.

Burt Nanus and Stephen Dobbs argue, in Leaders Who Make a Difference, that the most effective leaders recognize “nothing else will unite and enthuse people in a nonprofit organization so much as a shared vision.” Such a shared vision provides people with “a sense of common ownership that enables them to cooperate with and support each other in pursuit of their common destiny,” they write. If leaders are charged with sharing the vision, then ideally they will be part of its crafting.

Does your vision add clarity? Does it unite? Are you sharing the vision?