Vision Casting or Hype?

This article was first published November 16, 2009, at members.characterfirst.com.

Whenever a new program begins in a team, or organization, an individual or two usually becomes the “evangelist” for it. They strongly see the desirability and talk it up. Without people like this, we would probably forget some valuable things, but when they talk too much, it can get annoying. What makes the difference?

Sometimes we perceive these individuals as promoting something with no substance, or want to see an idea confirmed from multiple sources. But we do need people constantly “casting vision”—keeping important goals in our minds even when we don’t see it happening yet.

Employees might tend to react more negatively when a manager brings a character program in with a flourish instead of simply starting to manage them with character. In fact, if employees see the whole program as management hype, they might just decide to prove it wrong.

• If you’re the “evangelist,” make sure you present more than just you and your opinions. Check out these tips on persuasive leadership.
• If you tend to be skeptical of new, untested ideas, ask yourself how things could be better than they are, and how might people be motivated to pursue that. Consider how you can see things from another’s perspective.

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Luke Kallberg manages website content for the Character Training Institute.