A vision is a target that beckons. When John Kennedy set a goal of putting a man on the moon by 1970, or Sanford Weill aimed to make American Express the world's leading investment banking company in five years, they were focusing attention on worthwhile and attainable achievements. Note that a vision always refers to a future state, a condition that does not presently exist. To understand why vision is so central to leadership success, we only need reflect on why organizations are formed in the first place. An organization is a group of people engaged in a common enterprise.
Individuals join the enterprise in the hope of receiving rewards for their participation.
Just as the individual derives rewards from his or her role in the organization, so too does the organization derive its rewards from finding an appropriate niche in the larger society. So, on the one hand, an organization seeks to maximize its rewards from its position in the external environment and, on the other hand, individuals in the organization seek to maximize their reward from their participation in the organization. When the organization has a clear sense of its purpose, direction, and desired future state and when this image is widely shared, individuals are able to find their own roles both in the organization and in the larger society. The issue of our newsletter that we just sent was mailed for us by the University's Alumni Services Office. The Director of Alumni Services is an advocate for Greek Organizations and, I believe, is a former National President of Tau Kappa Epsilon.