Page 40 - HBR Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level

30 HBR Leader’s Handbook

Finding the capacity to do this isn’t easy, particularly since most lead-
ers already are starved for time. Carving out additional time to devote to
vision is hard and can easily be put off until later. So set aside a particular
time each year to reflect on your vision and think about whether it still ful-
fills its purpose. For example, Gary Wendt, the former CEO of GE Capital,
used to ask all his business leaders to conduct “dreaming sessions” with
their teams each year in advance of the strategic planning process. Each
team had the opportunity (and the luxury) of stepping back and dreaming
about where the business could be in a few years and how it could be sig-
nificantly different and better, which would then force the team to assess
whether the current vision would get it there.

When to stay the course
Don’t be too fast to reset your organization’s path. Many visions will last for
years and don’t need to be changed significantly. The amount of time and
work it takes to create a vision is significant—and can actually be destruc-
tive if you are pivoting too quickly—so it might be that all you need to do is
make sure that everyone understands it.
If you do want to retain the existing vision, at least for now, convey
your decision to your team and the organization. Often, new leaders feel
that they have to make a big splash and reshape their unit’s or company’s
vision right away, or others may expect them to do so. But since the vision
is an aspiration that requires years to achieve, it is perfectly legitimate to
say that it’s still the right direction but “we’re not there yet.” Then you can
focus your energy—and everyone else’s—on what’s needed to keep moving
forward, pick up the pace, or go about achieving the vision in some new
ways. The key is to be explicit about your decision and not leave people
guessing or wondering when the big announcement will come.
Finally, even if you and your team are convinced that you need new
vision, that might not be the first thing you do as a new leader. Some- times
there are more urgent issues to tackle, particularly relating to the survival
or stabilization of the firm. Louis Gerstner, the former CEO of IBM who
took over the company in the early 1990s when it was experi-