Leadership Focus:  the Importance of Vision

by Chaplain (COL) George Pejakovich

"Where there is no vision, the people perish."   Proverbs 29:18, KJV 

Vision clearly distinguishes leadership from management.  As the citation from Proverbs indicates, having a vision is essential to the welfare, even the life, of the people.  While the New American Standard translation renders "the people perish" as "the people are unrestrained," the meaning remains the same:  without a vision, the life and welfare of the people become unfocused and endangered.  So too, any attempt to lead, at any level, without a vision of where you are going is a prescription for ineptitude and eventually, disaster.  

The single most important thing a leader can do for his or her followers is to provide the vision.  How well the leader articulates the vision and how well the followers understand the vision are key to the success of any endeavor.

At the strategic level, the National Military Strategy defines the objectives towards which the economic and military strength of the nation is directed.  On the operational level, the "endstate" of the campaign determines how to proceed and what combination of measures and forces will be used.  On the tactical level, the critical piece of information needed by all is the "Commander’s Intent."  

It is the vision of the leader that gives focus and meaning to the organization ...

At all levels, the "vision," whether one calls it the national strategy, the endstate, or the commander’s intent, is absolutely essential to the process.  And everyone in the unit or organization must know, understand, articulate and, hopefully, affirm that vision is the vision of the leader that gives focus and meaning to the organization, and gives direction, authenticity and power to the actions of everyone within it.  Organizations with clear and concise vision are successful and have high morale; organizations without clear and concise vision are unfocused, unsuccessful and problem-plagued.  

The Chief of Chaplain’s White Paper, Unit Ministry Team XXI, published in 1995, is the vision statement for the Chaplain Corps to point us toward the year 2010.  It is a vision that looks out over almost an entire generation and tells us that there is where we need to go.  Every Chief of Chaplains must do this:  publish a vision statement that helps us see the direction the Chaplain Corps must take to get to the future.  

... the vision is greater and more profound than the preferences of the individual.

The Corps needs a vision statement that looks out, at a minimum, five years in the future, even though the tenure of a chief is guaranteed for only four years.  Thus, the vision is greater and more profound than the preferences of the individual.  The leader must look out to the future and say, "Here is where we should go, and this is what we should be."

The vision statement must contain not only the direction but also the character of the organization.  A new leader can incorporate mid-course corrections, and slightly different emphases if the vision is sound, clearly understood, and accepted by the majority of the organization.  This is possible only if the vision statement, containing both the direction and the character of the organization is, in fact, congruent with the professed core values of the organization.  

The size of the organization and the scope of its interest (or work) will determine how far into the future the leader needs to look to shape the vision of where and what the organization should be, and how complex the vision statement should be.  From the vast complexities of the National Military Strategy, in which the vision of the National Command Authority is detailed, to the eloquently simple vision statement of LT Rico in Starship Troopers — "Everybody fights, nobody quits!" — the vision statement describes the goals and affirms the values of the organization.  From national to platoon level, the vision statement describes not only where the leader thinks the organization needs to go, but what the organization should be when it gets there.

Even in complex organizations, the leader’s vision should be clear, concise, easily understood by all within the organization, and accessible to those outside of the organization who interact with it.

When the Chief of Chaplains assigned me as the commandant of the school, he challenged me with getting the school back into the Army and bringing it up to TRADOC standards and, "Oh, by the way, get the school ready to move to Fort Jackson and build a new building."  

The vision statement we devised was "Lean and Green."

Faced with a need for a revolution in both the content and method of training, as well as all the intricate planning for the move, I called an off-site conference of the senior school leadership to help plot the course of the next two years.  The vision statement we devised was "Lean and Green."  

This simple vision statement said it all:  we would down-size as the Army down-sized, even as we prepared to move, and we would do all things, to include what and how we trained, according to Army standards.  The vision statement incorporated not only where we were going over the next two years (a smaller and more efficient school), but what we would be when we got there (an Army school with Army standards), incorporating both the direction and the values of the institution.  

A clear and concise vision statement enabled us then to define the objectives we needed to achieve along the way.  These included a "relook" of every course, a clear understanding of our students, a need to train only essential skills, the enhancement of training through the use of electronic instructional media by building a state-of-the-art school, and raising the standard by presenting a technically and tactically proficient faculty to the student.

As we moved to Fort Jackson, everyone knew we would get leaner and we would get greener, which would be the process and the endstate.  Those who made the transition from Fort Monmouth to Fort Jackson knew exactly what they had to do.  The clearly understood vision statement allowed the staff and faculty to use individual initiative to create new and efficient processes:  vision empowers everyone.  

Yet, organizations evolve and the leader needs to provide a fresh vision when the evolution outpaces the former vision.  The vision remains a dynamic force that both directs and defines the organization, changing as circumstances and time dictate.

Having successfully moved to Fort Jackson and opened a world-class school for the Regiment, the men and women of the lean and green Chaplain Center and School needed a new vision to lead them to the future.  The leadership once again gathered in an off-site conference to reevaluate USACHCS’ vision.  What emerged was a vision statement with three objectives: 

The head of the Chaplaincy, of course, is the office of the Chief of Chaplains, but the heart must be the regimental home that embodies the values, culture and excellence which comprise our professional ethos.  The USACHCS’ vision takes the Corps into the next century, giving us both a goal towards which we strive and a description of what we will be when we achieve it.

All leaders in the Regiment need to have a vision for the team, organization, or office they lead.  Without a vision, we remain mere managers.  With a vision, we give direction and focus to those we lead.  We empower them to take the initiative, to work with limited supervision and to make decisions on their own.  They know our intent and are working toward the same goal.  Leaders should publish and publicize their vision so that all can understand it, affirm it and work toward it.  

At echelons above division, the impact of a vision statement on the Chaplaincy as a whole is much greater than at lower levels.  Corps and MACOM chaplains need to take the long view and be looking forward for a minimum of three years.  Within the context of the broader National Security Policy, they articulate for the installations and activities they supervise where the corps or MACOM is going, and what they need to be when they get there.

The division chaplain must look out from two to three years, looking forward to what the UMTs across the division should be beyond his or her tenure.  The vision should be the basis for the UMT training plan as well as the basis of support for the installation and corps programs. Chaplains in TOE units must describe where their team is going, and what they are to become, in the context of the unit mission essential task list (METL). At brigade level, the focus should be for eighteen months to two years, and should incorporate the brigade chaplain’s vision for the battalion UMTs, and support the vision of the division chaplain.  For battalion level chaplains, this would be a clear statement of the goal of the UMT for the year, clearly in support of the METL and the vision of the brigade and division chaplains.

At all levels, a clear, concise statement of the leader’s vision is essential to focus the efforts of all on both the goals and the values of the organization.

"Where there is no vision, the people perish."  Where there is no vision, the organization, unit, or team flounders from one crisis to the next with no understanding of goals and objectives.

"When you don’t care where you are going, it doesn’t matter which way you go" (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll).  But, if we as leaders know the vision of our superior, recognize the core values of our institution, and understand the way our organization functions, we can point the way to the future, and empower all to work in concert toward the common goal.   

Chaplain (COL) George Pejakovich serves as Commandant of the U. S. Army Chaplain Center and School (July 1994 to present).