Great piece, Roman. The corporate poster trap is real and I've seen it kill team morale more effectively than any reorg.
One thing I'd add the cynicism you describe doesn't usually build slowly. It crystallizes in a single moment, early on, when the vision gets its first real test.
A stakeholder pushes for a shortcut. A deadline creates pressure to skip the quality gate. The leader hesitates and the team is watching. If the vision bends in that moment, it's effectively dead. Engineers are remarkably good at reading that signal, and once they've seen it, no amount of repetition in team meetings will bring it back.
The flip side is also true. One early moment where the leader holds the line delays a release, pushes back on scope, absorbs the pressure rather than passing it down does more for vision credibility than six months of communication.
Your point about using vision as a tiebreaker is exactly right.
But I'd go further the team doesn't fully believe the vision until they've watched you use it under real pressure, not just in planning sessions.
Integrity is one of the most important quality for a good leader. We need to do what we say. By violating integrity we can easily ruin the vision. It is a very fragile creature. It is very easy to kill, or irreversible damage by just “being practical”.
From my perspective, what’s incredibly important is finding that thin sweet line between an ambitious, inspiring vision and one that is over-ambitious and has no real foundation. A team always feels the difference. They know when the end goal, who we want to become, is bold but real and something we can actually relate to. And they also know when it’s just a detached dream of top management or a founder, a dream we are all expected to burn for without ever really getting closer to it.
This is even more sensitive in the nonprofit world, where we so often see grand, almost megalomaniac visions without any grounding
About the founder's vision. I think it is a very common trap, some founders also genuinely think that everyone should share it. It is not realistic. But individual or team vision can be derived from the organizational vision so that it makes sense to the team.
Some random example of a toy company. Org vision: "Our toys in every family's house." Some local development team vision can be: "Products our team develops get top reviews, they help kids develop and they are safe."
Very random :) I know nothing about toy development but you hopefully get the gist of what I am trying to say.
The insight on nonprofits is very interesting.
In my world, software development teams are almost always undershooting. The vision is not articulated, but the unspoken version goes something like: "We are a bunch of dudes who write code from 9 to 17 on working days." Extra bonus: "We somewhat enjoy each other's company and make a 'good team.'"
Maybe I am exaggerating — there are definitely people who want to develop themselves and actually achieve something but it is an individual person's vision - not a team's or organization's vision.
Great piece, Roman. The corporate poster trap is real and I've seen it kill team morale more effectively than any reorg.
One thing I'd add the cynicism you describe doesn't usually build slowly. It crystallizes in a single moment, early on, when the vision gets its first real test.
A stakeholder pushes for a shortcut. A deadline creates pressure to skip the quality gate. The leader hesitates and the team is watching. If the vision bends in that moment, it's effectively dead. Engineers are remarkably good at reading that signal, and once they've seen it, no amount of repetition in team meetings will bring it back.
The flip side is also true. One early moment where the leader holds the line delays a release, pushes back on scope, absorbs the pressure rather than passing it down does more for vision credibility than six months of communication.
Your point about using vision as a tiebreaker is exactly right.
But I'd go further the team doesn't fully believe the vision until they've watched you use it under real pressure, not just in planning sessions.
Thank you for reading Diamantino!
Integrity is one of the most important quality for a good leader. We need to do what we say. By violating integrity we can easily ruin the vision. It is a very fragile creature. It is very easy to kill, or irreversible damage by just “being practical”.
Integrity is very important.
Wonderful article, Roman!
From my perspective, what’s incredibly important is finding that thin sweet line between an ambitious, inspiring vision and one that is over-ambitious and has no real foundation. A team always feels the difference. They know when the end goal, who we want to become, is bold but real and something we can actually relate to. And they also know when it’s just a detached dream of top management or a founder, a dream we are all expected to burn for without ever really getting closer to it.
This is even more sensitive in the nonprofit world, where we so often see grand, almost megalomaniac visions without any grounding
Thank you for reading, Danil!
About the founder's vision. I think it is a very common trap, some founders also genuinely think that everyone should share it. It is not realistic. But individual or team vision can be derived from the organizational vision so that it makes sense to the team.
Some random example of a toy company. Org vision: "Our toys in every family's house." Some local development team vision can be: "Products our team develops get top reviews, they help kids develop and they are safe."
Very random :) I know nothing about toy development but you hopefully get the gist of what I am trying to say.
The insight on nonprofits is very interesting.
In my world, software development teams are almost always undershooting. The vision is not articulated, but the unspoken version goes something like: "We are a bunch of dudes who write code from 9 to 17 on working days." Extra bonus: "We somewhat enjoy each other's company and make a 'good team.'"
Maybe I am exaggerating — there are definitely people who want to develop themselves and actually achieve something but it is an individual person's vision - not a team's or organization's vision.