Every business starts with a vision, but leaders often make the deadly sin of straying from their business’s vision after a certain level of success. I see this frequently with highly successful clients. There are several reasons why this happens: confidence becomes ego, satisfaction turns into complacency, which quietly turns into a lack of desire to build, innovate or adapt. The excuse I hear is, “I am way too busy to sit down and do this.” Sound familiar?

As a result, many leaders lose focus on their company’s vision. Losing focus is serious, as they risk confusion and dysfunction among staff and the sales team. When I go out to a client’s office and interview the entire team, hearing a clear and compelling direction is a hit and miss. In time, this lack of clarity will destabilize your team and cause conflict, and team members will jump ship. When everyone on your team or your company knows and supports the picture, there is no stopping you: client and team satisfaction increase, and amazing things begin to happen.

How to recalibrate your vision to give it a newfound purpose
A business vision is how your company sees the relationship between its customers, employees, market position and industry. It brings focus and clarity to your company’s purpose and provides context for everyone’s organization efforts.

Your company’s vision is the anchor point for making strategic choices and fuels the search for innovative solutions to inspire growth.

Your company should understand a clear and compelling vision among all organization members, as the vision unites everyone for a singular cause. It activates the potential of your team, because it inspires people to contribute to something greater than themselves. That unifying power is the greatest asset you can have in an organization, and it begins with a clear vision that is continually at the forefront of executive decision.

A vision is not a vision statement
It’s a huge misconception that a vision statement is a business vision. A vision statement is just one of the many pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. The picture you create for your business must outline the key objectives, high-level tactics, and long- and short-term milestones that best describe what your business is about and where it wants to go. Alternatively, a vision statement is a headline to a much deeper story about your company. It is the tagline of the company’s mission, but it’s not the whole story — the vision is the full story.

Craft your vision through collaboration
As a business leader, it’s essential you understand the power of different perspectives. Leaders sometimes fall into tunnel-vision thinking, so it’s crucial to invite the critical people in your organization to contribute to your company’s future together. Sometimes, the most exciting ideas come from various departments and perspectives with varying awareness that others can overlook, especially the owner.

Collaboration in the realignment of your company’s vision unifies those who are a part of it. There’s a heightened level of engagement to those who contribute to the image, enabling a strong sense of accountability to achieve the company’s high-level objectives. Powerful beyond belief!

The criteria to craft a strong, clear and compelling vision
The concept of your company’s vision is all-encompassing. It includes the supporting factors that make the dream real, the steps you need to take to realize the idea, and the challenges and opportunities that you may face on your way to achieving your vision.

A high-quality, practical and inspiring vision for any organization should have the following key characteristics:

• It describes why your company exists
• It states where the company wants to be soon
• It contains a level of inspiration and excitement
• It details the bold steps by which to achieve the vision
• It describes how your company behaves
• It outlines what is crucial right now
• It includes a one-sentence statement that captures the essence of your overarching vision

As a leader, it’s imperative to exercise continued awareness of how decisions, actions and even day-to-day tasks contribute to your high-level vision. A good leader asks this question daily: Does this action, activity, experiment or project get us closer to realizing our vision? If the answer is no, then don’t waste time, energy and money on it. The leaders that let success get to their head and stop revisiting their company’s vision are the leaders that will eventually see their company stagnate among its competitors.

I can’t stress this enough. My years as a high-level hockey coach taught me that the team must work toward a shared vision. If team members are unaware of the direction, don’t agree with the approach or are more concerned about themselves (neglecting the team), the chances of moving forward are dismal.

I’ve created a helpful guide that includes a “vision canvas” that will help you craft a compelling, crystal clear vision to position your business for lasting success: https://vision.coachken.com Stay strong. Keep visioning.

Coach Ken Goodfellow
Ken@CoachKen.com
www.CoachKen.com