What is your ambition or aspiration or winning vision?
The red triangle
In the red triangle, you have a vision that defines your desired future aligned to your core ideology. Any one can have a vision. However, few achieve them. One of the reasons why leadership with a vision is failing is the lack of competitive dimension in a vision.
‘Vision’ is like a political statement. Leaders focus is on something that is very big as opposed from something that is a critical milestone to achieve. So, people come everyday looking at a ‘vision’ that is too abstract.
Take a vision like “To be a successful football club.”
On the surface, it looks as a well-crafted vision. It should be short enough to be easy to remember, but clear to provide a guiding focus for team effort. The problem is the vision lacks a winning dimension. It is difficult to look back and say whether the football club is successful or not because success is relative.
But look at Manchester United’s vision:
“to be the best football club in the world, both on and off the pitch.”
The word ‘best’ adds a winning dimension. You are able to examine several variables of successful football club and compare against other clubs to assess whether Man U is the best or not.
As you write your ‘vision make sure you qualify it with winning dimension.
The blue triangle
In figure 2, the core ideology is anchored on two key things: the desired future and competitive dimension. You must ask yourself: who are you winning against?
Also read: What is your position
To dream, envision within context, personal challenges and environment. Your dreams will have specific practicalities for their attainment. Dream while awake (within context), so that you achieve.
Winning aspiration is something pressing enough to wake you up very early in the morning to go to work. If it can make you wake up, it has reasons to impact your life.
When I was a small boy, my dream was to go to secondary. When I joined secondary, my dream changed to go to Makerere University. After my admission at Makerere University, I dreamt of travelling to Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai. When I achieved this, am now thinking how I go to Massachusetts Institute of Technology and speak to all these Engineers. My ambition keeps changing to align with my new awareness, understanding, exposure and knowledge of what great looks like.
When you get a clear winning aspiration, you need to align it to the focus areas. Just like a house, you have a roof, ring beam, pillars and foundation. The roof is the winning aspiration. The focus areas are the choices you are making to achieve your winning aspiration. The foundation is your personality, culture, and background. Take time and ask yourself; who are you? Which kind of values do you need to deliver your winning aspiration? For example, if you want to travel to Dubai, what kind of people do you need to network with? How much money do you need and where will you get it?
Once you put your winning aspiration clearly and articulate it, I can guarantee you will begin seeing success in ways you never knew existed.
