Think of vision as the lifeblood of an organization, any organization, and like the lifeblood of any organism, it is the critical component that keeps the organization moving forward to meet the challenges that each day brings including setbacks, steps forward, more setbacks, and leaps forward that are part of the daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal grind of what real life is.

In any depressed economy, especially the one we have been in the middle of for almost three years, focus on tactical business strategies become extremely important to organizations simply trying to survive, and what worked during better times past, might not necessarily work today, it is important to realize that what works today, just might not work tomorrow, as decisions become a matter of fact.

Having to maintain survival mode for extended periods of time naturally starts to wear on people, as they begin to question the importance of their efforts, and loose the connections of their individual actions to the larger “story” they are part of, and by questioning their activities, their work they might have been inspired by at one time, slowly becomes a matter of just going through the motions, day to day, week-to-week, and paycheck-to-paycheck.

This is where the importance of qualities of leadership becomes most evident, and most needed, and we realize that leadership is becomes the difference between continuing to build on what matters to survival and success, and failure. It is about painting the vision of a better future, defining the path to successes waiting in the future, and encouragement of individual and organizational efforts towards achievement.

It is most important to understand that vision at all levels including individuals, small business and organizations, local, state and national entities, is easily lost during economically challenging times, and without it recovery becomes elusive and random at best, and recovery and maintenance of our vision of future successes is the critical component before any improvements and desired successes can be achieved.