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How You Can Have Vision in Uncertainty

Looking up at starry sky

Fatigue & Being Vision-Less

You are feeling fatigued. You’re not alone; likely every single one of us is. COVID into the Great Reshuffling into the Great Resignation into elections into a recession is not a great timeline. Fatigued is also how I, many of my friends and fellow leaders are feeling, so chances are you are as well.

I want to offer a suggestion of why you and I are so fatigued. 

THIS SEASON HAS FELT LIKE YOU SIGNED UP FOR A MARATHON ONLY TO GET TO MILE 26 AND THEN BE INFORMED THERE IS NO FINISH LINE, NO WATER, NO SNACKS; JUST THAT YOU NEED TO KEEP RUNNING. 


When there is no clear expectation aside from uncertainty, it is nearly impossible to have vision. That is a big reason you and I are so fatigued. Where there is no vision the people perish, after all. 

Vision Gets Impacted

Something helpful occurred to me today as I was preparing for the Lead Together cohort that Kim and I lead for couples in leadership. I was thinking through the place of vision amongst the classic organizational categories of mission, vision, values, and purpose and realized that vision has a unique attribute that the others do not.

Mission, vision, values, and purpose are each intrinsic to the team or organization — they are self-awareness codified. Therefore, they rarely, if ever change.

VISION, HOWEVER, CAN BE HEAVILY IMPACTED BY CIRCUMSTANCES. 


Because it is a description of a future state, rather than of inherent traits, it is more malleable the others. 

  • Vision gets impacted by success because you can start to lose focus and creep toward other ends outside of your purpose and mission. 

  • Vision gets impacted by loss or failure because you begin to panic or toss it out altogether. 

  • Vision gets impacted by change and uncertainty because you get mired in self-doubt or surviving what's immediately in front of you rather than looking out ahead.


So, it makes sense if you feel vision-less and fatigued because the vision you had in February of 2020 has been impacted ever since with no finish line in sight.

Make it to Sunrise

Great, you may be thinking, that is true but what do I do?

Here’s my suggestion in two parts, the first negative and the second positive.

First, this is likely not a season for long-term vision and that is OK.

The Harvard Business Review puts it like this:

But there are instances, and lots of them, when formal shared visioning is better avoided. It could be that the organization is simply not an intrinsically inspiring place. Or it could be that the timing is wrong. Don’t try one when a business is in the midst of a painful restructuring, or when you are planning to make major changes in your team. 
—HBR, Vision Decisions


Part of your fatigue may be the compounded effect of the loss of a prior vision and also the pressure to have vision for your team right now, in the dark. It's not only OK to lack vision right now but it's likely not the best season or circumstances with which to cast it anyway.

However, I do think there is a positive approach you can take. Yesterday, I was sharing my discouragement and frustration with a friend who is in Special Operations. He said that during their selection and qualification process, the majority of the time, the guys who quit were the ones who thought, “I have to put up with nine more months of this?” It wasn’t the physical aspect of the challenge that broke them but the mental and emotional — the scope and duration of the challenge overwhelmed them to the point of quitting.

On the other hand, my friend said, the few guys who made it to the end were those who focused only on getting through one tiny step at a time — get through this exercise, get through this swim, get to lunch….just get to sunrise.

Perhaps the best vision you can have in these circumstances is some version of, “We’re going to get through this together.” That meets the criteria of good vision in that it is clear, simple, repeatable, and motivating. Most of all though, in this season, it can be enough.

Make it to sunrise.

Nick