Intro
In a previous article on Leadership I introduced the concept of leadership and what, in a very basic sense, leadership is. But of course there is a lot to what makes a good leader, and this blogg looks at the first of 3 key aspects of leadership, namely Leadership Vision.
The Leadership Vision
The vision is all about where we are going and how we are going to get there. The head of a martial arts organisation needs to be absolutely clear on where they are taking the organisation and how they plan to get there. Unless there is a very clear plan about this, the leader will not have anyone who wants to share in where they are going as people won’t know the direction as there is none. How can somebody possibly follow you if you do not know exactly where you are going. If one of you instructors asks you, for example, how many members are we planning to grow this centre to, and what is the optimum numbers in this location. Or the leader may be asked a question like, “are we going to open more centres, where will they be, and how many are we going to open?
These sort of questions are in fact the more basic ones, whereas more complex questions like, “how do we plan to change our program offerings in the future and what are the niche areas we will be pursuing?”. All questions can be answered once the leader has the vision. Because the vision in the roadmap for the future, and even if the leader had not actually decided on a specific question someone asks them, they can answer it because their vision or strategic focus is already thought through.
As senior Martial Arts instructors we talk to children learning Martial Arts about having good concentration, and we even tell their parents that if they train with us they will develop and improve their concentration skills. Concentration to children is the same as strategic focus or vision to a leader in a Martial Arts organisation – a branch instructor, head instructor or master instructor – whatever the leader is called in that organisation.
