by Mike Friesen

It is natural to put the best light on things, especially as a boss responsible for the “state of things.” A leader’s role is to see the environment as he wishes it to be and as it is. A leader must be equally aware of two primary areas: current reality and future vision. Both roles are vital for effective movement toward the better tomorrow. An effective leader will balance seeing things as he would wish them to be (vision) with realizing he must continually diagnose current reality to have a true starting point.

Several years ago, I was flying an Air Force T-38 Talon that was nearly out of fuel. The reason for the problem was due to another crisis: the landing gear would not safely extend (or so I thought). I made repeated attempts to properly lower the gear as normally indicated by three lights inside the airplane. This time only two lights were all to illuminate. Suddenly, I remembered an emergency simulator session where a landing gear light bulb was bad. Upon switching one light bulb for another, I had good indications of a safe landing gear configuration (down and locked).

In this case, my desired vision was to safely land the aircraft but that was greatly threatened by the current reality of an unsafe landing gear indication. Had this emergency continued much longer, I would have been forced to eject from the aircraft as landing with partially extended gear would have been suicide. I had a vision but was forced to deal with current reality to get to the vision. No amount of positive thinking and hopefulness would have made a difference. It was time for action.

There is similar human behavior in organizations. A person occupying a leadership position without exercising real leadership likely has hopes and dreams of a better tomorrow but refuses to recognize current reality. By denying what is, this so-called leader has effectively shut down hope of organizational improvement. The reason is, to quote a mentor, “Bad news generally does not get better with time.” There are very few things that simply improve with the ticking of a clock. Great marriages must be nurtured, fine musicians must practice, outstanding food must be prepared just right, and so on. We could make a long list of what defies the it-will-get-better-with-time argument. Strangely though, many organizations embrace this dysfunctional paradigm hoping that a solution will magically appear.

Any organization, large or small, profit or not-for-profit, secular or religious, is not exempt from the vision and current reality dynamic. If I sew the seeds of inaction, I will reap an unwelcome crop. If I intentionally sew seeds to move toward the envisioned future, I will be able to start to measure progress. This requires dealing with “what is” right now and working toward alignment with the vision.

Yes, there can be pain in spelling out current reality. Most normal people would rather be comfortable than uncomfortable. Current reality organizational problems usually fall into two categories: (1) They become invisible, or (2) They become sacred cows. Hard to deal with the former and you had better not touch the latter!

Still, reality is not the enemy, it just is. As a thing, reality has no self-awareness so it is illogical and overly emotional to ignore a thing that will not go away on its own. Further, ignoring reality has just as significant consequences as dealing with reality. The challenge for the effective leader is to properly diagnose reality while keeping hope alive in the movement toward a brighter future.

E-mail contact: LSInfo@LeadingStrategies.net

Copyright © 2007 Mike Friesen. All rights reserved.