What’s the most overvalued trait in leadership today? I believe it’s vision.
We often glorify the ability to paint an inspiring picture of the future—to imagine a five-year plan that charts a course for greatness. But here’s the problem with that – according to Korn Ferry, 90% of senior executives admit they fail to achieve all the components of their vision due to lack of action and poor implementation.
Don’t get me wrong, vision isn’t inherently flawed—it’s essential. When articulated well, a great vision provides direction and inspires others to rally behind a cause. But as we start 2025, where AI integration, relentless innovation, workforce upskilling and economic fragility command attention, vision alone won’t be enough. Effective leadership this year isn’t just about dreaming big, it’s about delivering results in a world that shifts daily.
I believe it’s time to challenge the obsession with grand vision-setting alone and instead focus on micro-moves—the small, deliberate actions that create momentum and tangible impact for our teams and customers throughout the year.
Why Big Vision Feels Like a Big Problem
The truth is, disruption and instability rule the landscape today. According to recent studies, the rate of change across several key factors has accelerated by 183% in the past four years, largely driven by emerging technologies, including generative artificial intelligence. And this momentum shows no signs of slowing. So the strategic plans we meticulously crafted just last year may quickly feel irrelevant as geopolitical tensions, inflationary pressures and rapid technological advancements rewrite the rules. In many cases, the rigidity of a long-term fixed vision can paralyze most teams rather than energizing them.
Think about it. How often does the overwhelming weight of the “big picture” pull you away from immediate opportunities for impact? A bold vision is inspiring—until it blinds you to the smaller, critical actions that need attention today. This isn’t to say that having a long-term vision is pointless, but it’s crucial to recognize that it’s only one piece of the puzzle. Vision without movement isn’t leadership—it’s stagnation.
But what if there’s a better way to lead?
The Power of Micro-Moves
Instead of clinging to grand visions alone, what if we made them living processes? What if execution became the driving force of insights, letting data, feedback and realities reshape goals in real time?
According to research published in Harvard Business Review, lasting, long-term change is most effective when it unfolds through a series of smaller, manageable micro-changes. Why? Because micro-moves create a continuous rhythm of progress. They adapt as circumstances shift, build momentum and empower teams to act with more confidence.
Instead of asking, “How far along are we in our 5-year plan?” ask questions like:
- “What small steps are we testing this quarter and what are we learning from them?”
- “What opportunities have emerged that we didn’t anticipate?”
- “How can we adjust our approach to stay aligned with our overall goals?”
Batching your progress into micro-moves allows you to be responsive, experimental and adaptable—everything this year demands.
When execution, not just vision, takes center stage, everything changes. Here’s how to start turning vision into action with three key shifts.
1. Focus on Experiments, Not Milestones
Forget obsessing over rigid milestones. The most successful organizations today treat their strategies as dynamic experiments. In fact, research from Harvard Business School on companies like Microsoft, Netflix and Amazon shows that businesses conducting a higher number of experiments consistently outperform those with fewer tests. Why? Because every plan won’t be perfect. Many ideas won’t yield results, but a broader volume of experiments increases the likelihood of discovering impactful changes.
So encourage your team to ask the hard questions. Prioritize quarterly experiments that allow them to test and learn. Pivot when necessary. Evolve with your findings. Over time, this approach won’t just drive small wins and quick adjustments—it will also organically shift your culture in ways that may surprise you, fostering innovation and adaptability at every level.
2. Collaborate to Empower Your Team
Top-down decision-making doesn’t belong in a modern organization. In fact, research shows that leaders in a typical Fortune 500 company squander more than 500,000 days each year due to ineffective, top-down decision-making processes.
In today world, success is all about harnessing the collective brains of your team. Gartner research reveals that organizations adopting an open-source transformation strategy—leveraging cooperative input from employees and management—can increase success rates by up to 22% and cut implementation time by one-third.
This means you need the courage (and the desire) to involve your team in the decision-making process. It shifts their mindset from “waiting for direction” to “owning actions.” The result? A more empowered, engaged and agile workforce ready to act on opportunities you might not see on your own.
3. Redefine Success as Progress, Not Perfection
When was the last time you celebrated incremental progress? The reality is, success stories often focus on the big win—the product launch, the market expansion, the achieved milestone. But there’s immense power in recognizing the steady drumbeat of progress. In fact, increasing the frequency of recognition associated with small milestones often helps organizations see incremental gains in retention, engagement and performance, which compound over time.
So acknowledge and celebrate every small step forward. Doing so reinforces a culture of responsiveness and keeps teams motivated to continue delivering. The vision will never matter as much as the execution. The ultimate goal is progress in motion.
Start Small, Think Big
Vision gets the headlines, but action wins the race. Leaders who obsess over big-picture aspirations alone risk losing focus on the immediate steps needed for momentum. Moving forward, success won’t be defined by the loftiness of your strategic vision or your long term goals but by your ability to adapt, execute and evolve.
This is your challenge for the uncertain year ahead. Set your vision—but don’t stop there. Break it into small, meaningful moves that empower your team and reshape your organization one step at a time. Momentum begins with action, not vision. Progress is built on the back of micro-moves.