More Than Sharing a Vision

For my Leadership class, we were tasked with speaking with someone that we work with, or are close to (or both, if you're just fortunate like that) about their vision for the company they work for.

I noticed a trend.

And it was very counterproductive to my assignment.

Because people around my age don't seem to be developing visions for organizations.  They develop visions for themselves.

After the first individual failed to give me the information that I needed I decided to seek out additional help.  And was met with the same lack of organizational vision.

I don't know if this lack of vision is related to any one specific variable, but I have a hypothesis of a few that I will share here:

-Having lived on this earth for a while now, it seems very easy to believe that an individual cannot change the world.  Or the country.  Or their organization.  Or their own family, even.  It is a dominant state of mind amongst my colleagues to believe that the only real thing you CAN control is yourself.  So why hope and strive to change something else if 9 times out of 10 it is going to be fruitless?  You're much more likely to get a higher rate of return if you invest in yourself than if you invest in an organization.  Only in very rare circumstances can an individual make a large, lasting difference (usually made into a movie or a book or both).

-I associate with a lot of individuals who are lower on the corporate totem pole.  It is hard to develop a vision FOR the organization when you don't even have proper vision OF the organization.  So it is easier to develop a vision for yourself.  Where you will move in the organization and how you and your life will change along the way.

I can relate to both of these things, even if I don't fully accept them as truth.

The takeaway from this?

I need to associate with higher-ranking people.

After all, you are what you surround yourself with, right?