62 Leading with NLP
How do we deliver results?
How do we cope with change?
How do we get a competitive edge?
Business success demands high performance using distinc-
tive abilities and processes that have value to a defined set of
customers. A vision forms a focus for this, an established
point for the business to organize itself around.
How do you build a vision in an organization? In four
ways: telling, selling, consulting and creating. A leader will
use whichever best fits the situation.
Telling
No surprises here. Telling is exactly what you would expect:
you tell others the vision and expect them to follow it. ‘This is
what we will do!’ For this you need leadership based firmly on
authority and what you say needs to be direct and truthful.
Telling is useful in that it may be the only way out of a cri-
sis. A company in trouble needs a strong top management
team and chief executive to lay down a clear pathway to re-
covery. Generally speaking, the worse the situation, the more
likely the company will use the telling way – no time to do
anything else and it would be a dereliction of duty for the
top management to avoid their responsibility. If the plan
goes wrong and leads deeper into the wilderness instead of
to the promised land, then top management will be blamed
and heads will roll.
Telling needs credibility and authority, however, or it will
seem oppressive or paternal. Used too often, it may create
resentment and dependence and stifle creativity in the busi-
ness. Unadulterated telling no longer works as a
management style; it’s the paternal wing of command and
control. It does not create a shared vision, it just createsavi-
sion and people will not feel they own it because they have
not been consulted.
Usually, telling accompanies the next style – selling.