Being a Steward of Your Vision
Stewardship means shifting from personal ownership of a vision to being a caretaker for a purpose larger than oneself, doing what is right for the whole. Leaders become servants of the vision rather than its possessors.
THE IDEA
BEING A STEWARD OF YOUR VISION
Stewardship is, in the words of one of the young Roca street workers, ultimately about “doing what is right for the whole.” This commitment brings with it a shift in our relationship to our personal vision. It ceases to be a possession, as in “this is my vision.” We become a steward of the vision. We are “its” as much as it is ours. George Bernard Shaw, as noted earlier, expressed the relationship succinctly when he spoke of “being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one.”
Slightly different in tone and focus, but no less evocative, are the words of Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran, who, in speaking of parents and children, captured the special sense of responsibility without possessiveness felt by leaders as stewards of their vision:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself.
They come through you, not from you.
And though they are with you, they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but strive not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and he bends you with his might that the arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness; For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so he loves the bow that is stable.
When to use it
Guiding a nonprofit through a leadership transition while preserving its core mission.
Building a startup culture that revisits its plans as markets change while keeping its purpose clear.
Mentoring a junior colleague to take over a strategic initiative, focusing on the project's success rather than personal credit.
Steering a community project to serve the greater good rather than individual stakeholders' interests.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
CEO as Steward of Company Vision
A CEO treats the company’s vision as a shared purpose and develops leaders who can carry it forward. Decisions about succession and resources focus on the organization’s long-term health.
Team Leader Mentoring Successors
A team leader prepares colleagues to take over a project and invites them to adapt its direction as they learn. The project can continue and change after the leader leaves.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
How can you shift from seeing your vision as a possession to being a steward of it?
What does 'doing what is right for the whole' mean in your current work or community context?
How does Gibran's metaphor of children and archery apply to leading a team or organization?
Often confused with
References
- Man and Superman — George Bernard Shaw (1903)
- The Prophet — Kahlil Gibran (1923)
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- The Fifth Discipline The Art Practice of the Learning Organization (Peter M. Senge)