In Leadership, Dreams Are The Stuff That Great Results Are Made Ofinstant payday loans onlineinstant payday loans online
The importance of motivation in leadership cannot be denied. But most leaders overlook a critical component of motivation, the human dream. The article describes what dreams really mean in the realm of leadership.
By Brent Filson - 2005
Leadership is motivational or it’s stumbling in the dark. The best
leaders don’t order people to do a job, the best leaders motivate
people to want to do the job.
The trouble is the vast majority of leaders don’t delve into the deep
aspects of human motivation and so are unable to motivate people
effectively.
Drill down through goals and aims and aspirations and ambitions and you
hit the bedrock of motivation, the dream. Many leaders fail to take it
into account.
Dreams are not goals and aims. Goals are the results toward which
efforts are directed. The realization of a dream might contain goals,
which can be stepping stones on the way to the attaining dreams. But
the attainment of a goal does not necessarily result in the attainment
of a dream.
For instance, Martin Luther King did not say, “I have a goal.” Or “I
have an aim.” The power of that speech was in the “I have a dream”.
Dreams are not aspirations and ambitions. Aspirations and ambitions
are strong desires to achieve something. King didn’t say he had an
aspiration or ambition that “ ....one day this nation will rise up and
live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal.’” He said he had a dream.
If you are a leader speaking to people’s aspirations and ambitions, you
are speaking to something that motivates them, yes; but you are not
necessarily tapping into the heartwood of their motivation.
After all, one might aspire or be ambitious to achieve a dream. But
one’s aspiration and ambition may also be connected to things of lesser
importance than a dream.
A dream embraces our most cherished longings. It embodies our very
identity. We often won’t feel fulfilled as human beings until we
realize our dreams.
If leaders are avoiding people’s dreams, if leaders are simply setting
goals (as important as goals are), they miss the best of opportunities
to help those people take ardent action to achieve great results.
When Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that
"Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the
governed," he was writing about a dream. Not one European government
at that time was a democracy. There had been few true democracies in
the West since the fall of the Athenian democracy more than 2,000
thousand years before. But Jefferson's "dream" motivated people to
take action. In fact, that dream motivates people to act around the
world today.
Understand the dreams of the people you lead. People will not tell you
what they dream until they trust you. They won't trust you until they
feel that you can help them attain their dreams. Acquiring that
understanding can cement a deep, emotional bond between you.
Dreams are not fantasies. Going to the mountain may be a dream.
Standing on the mountain may be a dream. On the other hand, having the
mountain come to us is a fantasy. Dreams can be realized, fantasies
can't. Focus on dreams, on what is objectively achievable, not on
fantasies.
Dreams are positive, uplifting. The Old English word “dream” means
"joy, music, and noise-making." But that positive, inspirational
quality can have negative effects on an organization.
Negative dreams can damage an organization. For instance,
union/management issues are often particularly inflammatory because of
conflicting dreams, of both sides seeing the other as "the enemy."
Your audience wanting to go back to the "good old days" can be a
negative dream. Only a trusted leader can help people reshape their
dreams.
Most people have a dream for their life and work. Even people in
abject circumstances, such as prisons and concentration camps, dream of
a fulfilling existence beyond their present circumstances. If they
lose their dreams, they lose an essential quality of their humanity.
People won't be transformed by your leadership if you have a low
opinion of and low expectations for their dream and/or if they are
convinced that you can't help them attain that dream.
Many people don't consciously realize what they dream. But that
doesn't mean that they are not influenced by their subconscious dream.
A subconscious dream can motivate people to act without their clearly
understanding why they are acting. Have the people you lead be fully
conscious of the content and meaning of their dream or risk having your
organization's activities be impeded by a dimly perceived yet
none-the-less potent dream.
Each dream has a price. It's one thing to think it. It's another
thing to do it. Know the price people will have to pay to attain their
dream. Have them understand the price.
As a leader, dream with the people! Without hitching our wagons to
stars, the wagons and the stars lose their true meaning in our lives.
Dreams give meaning to emotion and purpose to action. People who
believe they’re living their dream see their jobs as part of a higher
cause and will work accordingly. Conversely, people who see their jobs
as antithetical to their dream, may see that work as oppressive; and
they too will work accordingly.
Dreams are supreme reality. Dream graffiti on a Paris wall during the
1968 student rebellion said, "Be realistic: Do the impossible!"
2005© The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. – Celebrating 25 years of helping leaders of top companies worldwide achieve outstanding results every day. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get his FREE report "7 Steps To Leadership Mastery"