This program is from the Drucker Nonprofit Innovation Discovery Site. The latest issue of Leader to Leader features Robert Knowling on the importance of vision and values in all organizations. In business, as in life, good intentions are often lost. Our everyday practices, not our espoused values, define who we are. To align good intentions with effective practice, leaders need to define a vision, articulate values, and infuse both into every aspect of the business.
Most leaders love to make strategy, but it is vision and values that spawn strategic action.
A true vision shapes your hiring, assessment, and promotion of employees, and your behavior toward customers, partners, and investors. It is a more powerful tool for leading an organization than any market analysis or spreadsheet. The first step in visioning is to assess your organization, your industry, and your sector of the economy. For me, the next step is to take the management team to an offsite to look in depth at these questions. Workshops on organizational assessment for social sector leaders and facilitators.