A recent post titled “How’s Your Vision” has been the most commented on post in the short history of this blog.

Clearly, many people regard vision as a critical leadership issue. But it should come with the warning – “Handle with Care”.

One of the drivers of employee motivation is people understanding the connection between their work and the organisation’s vision and purpose. People perform best when the vision and purpose makes them feel that their job is important. However, vision is insufficient to grow and sustain outstanding performance.

The ability for senior leaders to promote a compelling vision, and for frontline leaders to consistently remind people how their work contributes to the mission, vision and values of the organisation, is critical. But it is only part of leadership.

If we consider Kouzes and Posner’s work, the act of inspiring a shared vision is only one of the five practices of leadership they identified. If there is a failure to also model the way, challenge the process, enable others to act and to encourage the heart, mediocrity is inevitable.

By way of example, many years ago I was headhunted by an inspirational entrepreneur whose ability to inspire a shared vision was exceptional. Unfortunately he engaged in no other effective leadership practises that I can recall. The upshot was that he got six to 12 months hard work out of people before they gave up. Over time his company experienced high staff turnover, inadequate revenue, and low profitability. He burnt through large numbers of very talented people who deserved better, and who would have given much more if they had been well led. Eventually he was kicked out by the venture capitalists who had invested in his business.

Avoid getting hung up on vision. While important, there is much more to do.