Overriding your brain to create long-term vision
Our brains are skilled at creating elaborate stories from very few facts every day. And this can be amazing as every new product, idea, and invention was first created in someone’s mind before it became tangible for everyone to see. Unfortunately, in other situations, these stories can actually move us and our teams away from our goals instead of towards them. This highlights the importance of creating a clear and strong vision for teams because when used well, it propels them forward together. With a powerful vision, there are no gaps waiting to be filled up with individual stories. But without it, every team member is left to fill in the gaps on their own, which may leave the team running in circles, or even moving in a direction the organization does not want.
A client of mine recently had an issue like this that is common in large organizations. They are a leader in their company and came to our call upset following a group meeting with an executive who was many levels above their team. A comment made by the executive pointed away from all the strategic goals they had worked on for the year which was understandably discouraging. Except, when we zoomed out and analyzed exactly what was said - the only fact in my client’s story was that an executive said seven words. The rest was filled in with what the client made those seven words mean to themself. This is normal. Here are some reasons why it happens.
Your brain is hyper-focused on keeping you safe.
Being a leader requires overriding your brain.
Your brain wants you to work on the urgent.
Society glorifies being busy.
Creating a vision and strategy requires spending time thinking which can seem like the opposite of busy.
Your brain wants to get lots of things done to give it a dopamine hit.
Working on long-term vision doesn’t give it that hit.
Other people can’t see the vision you see at the beginning.
You have to override your brain and believe that what you are creating is worth criticism.
Often the criticism is made up in your own head.
Remember, your brain is trying to keep you safe.
Some thoughts that a client and I recently developed to help overcome the urge to work on the urgent instead of the long-term:
It’s OK that others don’t see the vision yet
It’s OK that my brain doesn’t see the value yet
I know I’m prioritizing the right things
The value of having a coach to discuss these challenges with is that even though it seemed like they were just telling me the facts, the story they created around those facts was holding them back. Working together, we were able to separate the facts from what they were making it mean to continue working towards the long-term vision and strategy.
