Yesterday, during practice with a team of 8, one of the leaders stopped me with a good question that I hear all the time. He actually made more of a comment. He told me that his company had invested the last 7 years clarifying their vision, purpose, strategy, and scorecard. AND, he asked me why I thought what I was proposing, that each individual author their own OPUS (Overarching vision, Purpose, Unifying strategies, and Scorecard for significance), was any different. He didn’t completely believe. Most don’t.
Most humans think that visions are for the visionary few, that purpose is for their Pastor and the few that feel called, strategies are for Michael freakin’ Porter, and that scorecards bring accountability and beatings much more often then they bless us with benefits or cause us to celebrate. Most humans believe that CEO’s, Executive committees, and the like, will go off to some mountaintop and come back with our OPUS and we’ll then collectively embrace it with our whole hearts and magic will be in the making. Assuming, of course, that these leaders are magicians.
Gauging from the amount of cynicism, mediocrity, and disdain of most “mission statements” that permeates the corporate world, one might assume that our assumptions might be misplaced. Funny, huh.
So….
I asked the team what they thought. Typical, huh. I rarely answer questions directly as my aim is somewhat strange. I’m trying to get everyone to think.
In that same spirit, let me turn to you the reader and ask you why do you think that having individuals gain clarity of their OPUS is more powerful than having a corporation, a company, or any collection for that matter, gain clarity collectively? Why are we, at BTL, so bent on having Y-O-U author your own?
Tell me more, my friend.
Tell me more…
BUILT TO LEAD 
Personal OPUS is critical because we can’t abdicate our own gifts, story, or vision. We collectively make up the organization and we can’t take others further then we’ve gone ourselves. We must be authentic and true to what we ask of others. We must model the way.
Thanks Brother. Talk about on the money. What about the rest of the Band? What do Y-O-U think…
Great message as always… I think it goes back to the old Dale Carnegie management philosophy that asks whether you are getting Compliance or Conviction from your team members. To get Conviction, the team member must understand their own worldview and vision in order to apply it that of their Company and their leader. Without personal exploration with purpose, you cannot get Conviction. As a leader, however, you better be ready for the awakening as your team make want more than you have…now you have a sprint to greatness…
I LOVE that thought about a team creating a “sprint to greatness.” Very cool.
Thanks, Chris….
It’s the individual OPUS authored from an authentic s.core that will feed pure energy and strength into a collective OPUS that’s integrated. You can’t integrate without an individual Life OPUS first.
yes Yes and YES to all the comments above.
The leader’s we connect with have authored THEIR Overarching Vision, THEIR Purpose, THEIR Unifying Strategies, and THEIR Scorecard — it’s more than a corporate brand, it’s personal. And those are the 4 domains of a CEO.
The teams that are magic are not mules braying the company line. They are mustangs singing from their own heart, inspired by the leader to do likewise.