The hidden cost of moving fast without a vision

On the surface, being a CEO and being an evangelical preacher don’t appear to have much in common. One builds companies. The other builds congregations. Look closer, though, and the similarities are striking. Both spend their days asking people to believe in something they cannot yet see. Both stand before a room, describe a future that does not exist, and then ask everyone to organize their lives around making it real. Both rely on charisma, conviction, repetition, and a certain sanctioned irrationality. After all, what is a startup but a congregation with stock options? Leadership, at its core, is an act of faith. The future has always belonged to leaders who could see beyond the horizon and persuade others to walk toward it. Steve Jobs saw a computer as an extension of human creativity. Melanie Perkins imagined a world where anyone could design, not just designers. Howard Schultz saw a neighborhood gathering place inside a cup of coffee. At Motto, we spend our days helping leadership teams define and operationalize vision. We’ve learned that the strongest organizations aren’t necessarily the fastest. They’re the clearest. Their people understand where they’re headed and why it …