“In dreams begins responsibility.” – William Butler Yeats
The ability to dream is one of the great responsibilities of leadership.
Everyday the noise of the world is wanting to engage you in the short term focus of the day. Yet the work, the real work is to hear the vision of the dream. Once you hear and see the dream you can help others focus the conversations, behaviors and actions to bring the vision to life.
Building the vision of the dream…the Longview …is for the courageous few. Leaders are not rewarded for having a Longview. Today they are rewarded for the smart ideas they have to show short term growth.
Yet the truth of the future is held in nature. The strongest trees glow slow, steady and thick, fields produce more when they lay fallow one year, it takes years to raise a child, and the examples go on. To engage in growing good ideas, teams, businesses, etc takes the ability to see the Longview and it takes tenacity.
Having the Longview requires:
The ability to make decisions for the Longview, the vision/dream vs short term gains
The foresight to align activities and communications with the distant future
The strength of communication skills to help others stay on target when the winds of “short term” change try to move you off course
The wisdom to know the vision will require you to ignore the “tried and true” and to pave a new way to create a better outcome
The practice of “leaning into your values” to guide you and others to achieve the vision
The ability to discern questions from yourself and others as ideas or doubts….
The Longview is not an easy journey, yet a rewarding one. You can take the road of making short term gains happen, be like others, make things happen to have day to day success…..or you can focus on the Longview. It is all a matter of what feels most true to you.
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.” Robert Frost
See past the horizon,
Bobbie Goheen
