Ocean Vision – 5 ways to keep it as a leader

On my bike ride to work recently I passed a large cargo ship with the name Ocean Vision proudly on its bow. It was docked at the Elliott Bay Grain Elevator, much like the one in this photo. Over the next few days it will be filled with grain that comes to Seattle by train from Eastern Washington in order to take it somewhere by sea.

I was first struck by the name of the vessel, as I love the seas and any kind of a vision of it captures my attention. As I thought about the name in the context of the work I do helping leaders achieve success as they define it, I made several more meaningful connections.

1. There is a famous leadership book called Blue Ocean Strategy, by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, about making strategic moves to uncontested market spaces in order to make the competition irrelevant.
2. The commonly used leadership competency of strategic and broad also brings to mind the concept of Ocean Vision.
3. We often refer to famous leaders as visionaries, some of whom have crossed oceans.

I could go on, but obviously the wheels on my bike and in my head were spinning faster. I then began to realize that not only was the name of ship intriguing in terms of leadership but the whole process it was going through at grain elevator was a brilliant metaphor for the work I do with my clients.

As the picture shows, the bridge of these ships is probably 35 feet above the water line, which gives the captain steering the ship from that high up great visibility. He has a bird’s eye view of the water. Yet as the ship takes on more and more grain it sinks further down in the water reducing the height of the bridge and therefor the “Ocean Vision” of the captain at the helm.

The grain cargo ship is obviously designed to do this, but too often I find leaders experiencing this same situation unknowingly. Information they have to absorb piles up in their holds much like the grain that is being put on the ship. The more they take in and take on the harder it is for them to maintain their “Ocean Vision”. It happens all the time, mostly for good intentions on the part of the leader. The challenge is often they don’t recognize the impact it is having on them and the vessel they are tasked with navigating.

So why do many leaders unnecessarily take on too much even if they aren’t a cargo ship? Here is what I find are the five most common traps for leaders:

1. They think it is only right that they know and hold everything. It is a badge of honor they wear, the more they know and do the more powerful they are.
2. They feel guilty or uncomfortable having other people do things for them.
3. They have a hard time letting go and trusting others to do it right, especially if they do it differently.
4. They enjoy the work too much and don’t want to let go of their identity that is tied to doing the work rather than overseeing or managing it.
5. They say “it is faster and more efficient if I do it myself than take the time to teach or show someone else how to do it.”

All of these reasons are natural and in my experience are mostly unconscious for leaders. So how then do leaders resist the urge to take on more than they should hold? Here are my five thoughts for leadership buoyancy and maintaining Ocean Vision:

1. Check your ego at the door so you can be a learner and sharer of information.
2. Trust yourself and your team so they can trust you.
3. Be of service to other’s development wherever and whenever you can.
4. Let go of your individual contributor identity and embrace your role as a visionary that is looked to for establishing direction and focus.
5. Remain conscious of your choices and pause to choose consciously.

Leaders that proactively embrace these qualities and demonstrate these behaviors will find themselves with greater “Ocean Vision” to navigate even the roughest seas they and their team’s encounter. Try them out and let me know what you experience and think.