In the rapidly changing retail automotive landscape, dealership leaders often feel overwhelmed with daily tasks such as managing inventory turnover, monitoring service bay utilization and meeting monthly sales quotas. However, in a recent Lessons in Leadership episode, Leadership Expert Dave Anderson emphasizes that developing and communicating a compelling vision is an essential responsibility that leaders cannot delegate.
While discussing the 10th Commandment from his series 15 Commandments for Organizational Peak Performance, Anderson explains that vision is not merely a poster hanging in the break room. Instead, it acts as the operational compass that helps successful organizations thrive while others merely drift along.
Seeing farther and more clearly
Anderson asserts, “This is a big part of leadership. You’ve got to see farther, see more, see sooner than your people.” He believes a true leadership vision should stretch, inspire and unite a team rather than simply maintain comfort within existing routines. It should make team members slightly uncomfortable because achieving that vision requires them to improve in certain areas, develop new skills and grow beyond their current capabilities.
While modern executives are often advised to delegate tasks that do not require high-level oversight, Anderson warns that establishing the organization’s vision is not one of them.
“And I believe in delegating a lot of things that you don't need to be doing. This isn't one of them. We don't vote on vision. We don't take a poll. We don't take a census. We cast it.”
For Anderson, casting the vision is only the beginning. Leaders must continue communicating it until their teams understand the direction, commit to it and remain focused on achieving it.
Keeping the vision alive
A compelling vision can lose its impact when it becomes something employees hear once and then forget. Anderson argues that leaders must keep the vision in front of their teams, communicate progress and show employees how the organization is performing along the way.
That ongoing communication also helps employees connect the organization’s larger objectives with their daily responsibilities. Without a clear sense of purpose, routine tasks can become repetitive and disconnected from the broader goals of the business. A compelling vision provides that context, helping employees understand how their individual contributions support the organization’s larger objectives. According to Anderson, that is what can ultimately change the way employees view their work.
The 10-card test
Additionally, Anderson offers a simple exercise to determine whether an organization is actually aligned around its vision. He suggests giving 10 random index cards to 10 employees and asking each person to independently write down the vision for their department, leadership team or business. He notes that employees should not confer with one another before answering. Once the cards are collected, leaders can compare the responses.
“If you collected the cards, you’d be amazed and maybe sickened, even in your own organization, how many of the answers are different,” Anderson says.
However, if employees have dramatically different ideas about where the organization is headed, the problem may not be with the employees. He believes that leadership may not have communicated the vision clearly or consistently enough for everyone to understand the same destination. Moreover, a shared vision creates alignment, while a lack of clarity can leave even highly capable teams working toward different objectives.
Turning a job into a cause
Ultimately, Anderson’s message is that a compelling vision should do more than set a destination. It should give employees a reason to pursue it and help them understand how their work contributes to something larger. For dealership leaders, developing a vision is only part of the responsibility. They must continue communicating it, keep employees engaged, and show the team how the organization is progressing toward its goals.
As Anderson puts it, leaders must “develop a compelling vision and then keep it alive.”
