Visionary Leaders Invest in Themselves

Reinventing Sport Leadership - Part 5 of 16

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Leaders with vision see through the mind’s eye things that are still to happen. They are not hampered by the physical environment and what their senses tell them what to do. They are challenged by pursuing dreams and ideals until they materialise and change the way things and life was. Great and visionary leaders achieve their dreams because they invest in themselves to keep up with the dreams, they have that are shared with those that they lead. For example, Bill Gates was known to take a week off each year that he called “think week” in which he would visualise where his company should focus on and to anticipate what competitors would be thinking about and working on. In this manner, he kept his company way ahead of the rest.

In this article, I will be arguing that great visionary leaders invest in themselves in order to stay ahead of the pack. About investing in oneself, Robin Sharma states:

“investing in yourself is the best investment you will ever make. It will not only improve your life; it will improve the lives of all those around you.”

So, how do we get to stop dreaming ourselves into a character, but hammer and forge ourselves into one (Henry David Thoreau)? In other words, to be an impactful leader who leaves a legacy and a sustainable organisation, one must try to be a better leader than when he/she was appointed. Greatness does not get bestowed on a leader without the leader going to great length to be a better leader.

Visionary leaders are perpetual learners. This is something I have noticed with some of the visionary leaders I have worked and networked with during my career in sport. I have noticed and learned that they will try to learn about the job they are expected to do, and if and when given a new job or responsibility to do, they invest time and energy in learning about the new and expected job. They would buy books to read on their new responsibilities with some of these leaders even enrolling in courses in order to master their new roles. They ascribe to journals as well as keeping up to date on current affairs by reading newspaper and published articles.

I have come across visionary leaders who empower themselves through mentors and coaches. They associate with people who challenge their thinking and push them to be introspective and self-critical. They ensure that they associate with people who add value to their lives as well as their work. When taking on new challenges, visionary leaders know that they will be expected to manage situations and make decisions they have never encountered before. Therefore, they know that they would benefit from the perspective and experience of someone who has been a similar path before. As a result of establishing mentorship and coaching relationships with retired or former leaders, they can accelerate their learning which helps them cope with the challenges faces in new leadership roles and environments.

Leadership implies leading others and the organisation towards achieving their goals and sustainability. Therefore, leading others require that the visionary leader is self-aware by knowing his/her skills, abilities, values, strengths, and weaknesses. I have discussed the issue of self-awareness in Part 3 and will not do so here. Suffice to say, a visionary leader will know him/herself and would be capable of leading her/himself before she/he attempts to lead others, teams, organisations, and society. By knowing one’s skills, abilities, experience, values, and failing, a visionary leader will be able to use the resources available to him expertly, and also know when she/he does not know.

By being self-aware, great, and visionary leaders fail quickly and move on. Failing quickly means that once there is the realisation that something will not work, there is no hesitation in stopping and changing the direction without holding prisoners for the mistake. J.J. Aguhob (President of Viddy) states that he thinks 100 percent of innovation is driven by one’s ability to fail quickly and the ability to learn from it and evolve. John Maxwell concurs when he states that “fail early, fail often, but always fail forward. There is a lot to learn from failure as almost all innovations that make life easier today result from failing repeatedly.

Linked somewhat to failing quickly and learning from it is the ability to embrace change. Visionary and great leaders embrace change. Such leaders are agile in how they respond to the ever-changing environment in which they operate. This allows them to set the right tone for their organisations because by being agile, that is, not prone to sticking to ideas and processes that hinder progress and advances, they take calculated risks because they are always well informed and well prepared for all eventualities. Hence, they can anticipate change and set new directions with confidence.

Occasionally, opportunities arise to appoint new or promote people into more senior positions in organisations. In South Africa, due to patronage politics, those elected and/or appointed are deployed without care for their qualifications, knowledge, experience, and skills. One is attempted to say that the same approach takes place in sport and results in dysfunctional organisations. Visionary and great leaders, however, surround themselves with people who are better than them in specific areas of their organisations. They have a greater vision of their organisation and ensure that they do not jeopardise it by appointing people who are not up to the job. I have participated in meetings to elect leaders of sport organisations where from just entering the room in which the meeting is being held, one feels an environment devoid of trust among those with the responsibility to make their organisation a great one. There is this faction supporting this leader and that one supporting another leader. In the end, the most popular people, rather the most experienced and skillful are elected or appointed. Visionary and great leaders will work hard that people able to add value are elected and/or appointed so that the organisation keeps on growing and delivering excellent service to its members. One of the greatest visionaries of the 20th century, Steve Jobs said that:

“it doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”

There is no other way of explaining what Steve Jobs is saying except to state that by hiring, appointing, or electing smart people, some of whom must be smarter than the bosses, the latter are investing in themselves as much as they are investing in their organisations.

Visionary and great leaders broaden their networks. They know that by networking their lives as well as their knowledge, experience and skills get enriched because through this process they connect, build and nurture relationships with a diversity of people that they share information, experiences, and knowledge that they can use to change their organisations. Through networking, they connect with people from different backgrounds to have at their fingertips mutually beneficial relationships concerning their jobs and their lives. Therefore, participating in conferences, joining professional associations, and associating with people who add value by challenging the leader’s thinking is an excellent way of investing in oneself.

The list of things to do to invest in oneself so that one can become a visionary and great leader is too long for me to be able to talk about in this article. Let me conclude by summarising the few key points I have discussed above:

Visionary leaders:

· Are perpetual learners.

· Have mentors and coaches to accompany them especially if they are newly appointed in the jobs.

· Have a strong sense of who they are and understand their strengths and weaknesses.

· Learn from failing quickly and redirect their efforts and those of their teams in a new direction without incurring too much cost in time and funds.

· Embrace change because they know that change is an ever-present constant in life and business.

· Hire better people than themselves, and empower these people to pursue their ideas for the benefit of the organisation; and

· Have a broad network of people and organisation through whom their ideas and vision can be tested.

“You are far too smart to be the only thing standing in your way”

(Anonymous).

Therefore, invest in yourself so that you can become the leader that will be remembered for having developed and nurtured people to be the best they can be, and organisations that change lives for the better.