Reverse-Engineer Your Vision
In a recent article, a person suggested that IT leaders need to sell the vision of a future, one that’s focused on the use of technology. It is also a common theme in the current Netflix show I’m addicted to with my wife about the dawn of the personal computer, Halt and Catch Fire.
I take issue with two concepts within this advice.
First, if you are selling vision, you haven’t listened to needs. There is a critical distinction between the leader who seeks to convince of a direction, and the leader who connects a preferred future to current, felt-need. Vision is a viable solution to a critical issue. It may require sacrifice and effort to attain, but it’s worth is inherent in its answer to a problem. The first question of a visionary leader is “Have I listened and heard a need?”
Second, vision is focused on the end result, and technology is positioned as the best means. You know this is true because you recoil at vendors who are trying to sell you on features rather than on benefits. Yet, many leaders take the same distaste they have for “being sold” and regurgitate it to their own team and customers. People are glad that your technology is cool. But unless it gets me what I want, I don’t want it.
Vision isn’t an idea that seeks an audience and then tries to prove its place. Vision is a solution with a result in mind based on a need it’s heard.
