ragmatic or aspirational is a preoccupying paradox for leaders in these challenging times. Uncertainty brings an urge to control, to proceed with caution, to keep our heads down and focus on the task in hand. It’s a useful strategy, to an extent. Things still get done, the practical day-to-day stuff.
Yet it can also be a dour, colourless, spirit-sapping way of operating. Work becomes more and more of a slog. As we stick safely to the ‘knitting’ the sense of demoralisation and potential for burn out grow, irrespective of workload.
Being pragmatic doesn’t preclude being aspirational (and inspirational). We need both…ensuring the work gets done and framing a future that is worth aiming for and working towards.
One of my favourite quotes, from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, encapsulates this and/and approach incredibly. ‘If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.’
Essentially, if we can get those we lead to connect emotionally with both journey and goal, the hard effort required becomes more of a labour of love. Where are we caught in the detail when we should be expressing the bigger picture that detail is a part of?