our top priority as a High Impact Business Owner is to Define and Communicate Vision. Skip this priority, and your teams will have no foundation on which to be successful. The Seven Priorities of High Impact Business Owners are your keys to leading your business beyond mediocrity to excellence.
This article is the second in a series. You can find the introduction to the Seven Priorities of High Impact Business Owners HERE.
This series leverages Carly Fiorinaโs perspective on the essence of leadership, which is: โSeeing possibilities, changing the order of things for the better, and unlocking potential in others.โ
Vision is a picture of your organization and the bright future ahead. It describes your future with clarity and inspires your team to meaningful action. It is a combination of the practical (“We can do this!”) and seemingly impossible (“How will we ever do that?”). It is the vehicle for your organization's aspirations and future reality.
High Impact Business Owners know that Vision enables and accelerates results.
Vision Attracts the Right People
High Impact Owners know that building a great company depends on having the right people in the right seats.
Carey Nieuwhof, a former lawyer, founder of Connexus church, and passionate leadership advocate, says: “Nothing attracts people and resources like vision.“
The implication is that absent Vision, you cannot attract the best resources, the right people, or execute at the highest levels.
If I were to ask you if you have defined and communicated Vision, and that you have attracted the right resources and people, what is your answer? Your likely response is, “Of course I have.“
Just like in the series introduction, there's a better question. “Would your employees say that you define and communicate Vision?“
Next, consider this definitive question: “Is your team performing in ways that confirm you define and communicate Vision?“
Your team will perform to the level your Vision enables.
The Vision comparison between mediocre business owners and High Impact Business Owners from this series' introduction makes it clear how different mediocre owner and High Impact Owners are:
Your Best Vision Resource
One of my favorite business mentors is Michael Hyatt. His book The Vision Driven Leader should be on every High Impact Business Owner's desk.
Michael Hyatt advocates for a Vision Scriptโข over a simple statement. The Vision Driven Leader will enable you to create an actionable Vision using his Vision Scripterโข tool that comes with its purchase.
You can learn more about the book and tools at VisionDrivenLeader.com.
The Vision Driven Leader is the book for High Impact Business Owners.
Who is Vision for?
As a High Impact Business Owner, you must define and communicate Vision outside the organization for your constituencies and inside your company for your teams.
Outside of the company, you bring the future into focus for stakeholders, customers, and every person your company touches.
You want your company to be recognized for the Vision driving the organization. It is a combination of communication backed up by results. You communicate externally through marketing, case studies, speaking, and writing. All of which reference the Vision.
High Impact Business Owners are visible outside of the company, not for themselves, but for the Vision.
An outstanding example of a leader explaining Vision to the public is President John Kennedy. In September 1962, his speech “We Choose to go to the Moon” inspired America to achieve an impossible goal.
Internally, you must define and communicate Vision for your team. Your mission is to bring the future into focus for every single one of your employees. You accomplish this by making the Vision the foundation of every meeting and all conversations.
Every action you take and every effort your team makes must be in pursuit of the Vision. It guides your strategies, all meetings, and each decision.
Why Vision Matters
In the early 1900s, Antoine de Saint-Exupรฉry wrote about the necessity of Vision. He was a French aristocrat, novelist, poet, philosopher, explorer, and pioneering aviator born at the dawn of the 20th Century. He is best known for the book The Little Prince, which he published in 1943.
Saint-Exupรฉry understood how important Vision is to inspire and lead people. He said, “If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work…“
Hold on.
Isn't that counter-intuitive? We know that the way to get things done is to set goals, assign tasks, and measure performance.
We know that, right?
Saint-Exupรฉry understood something more profound about human nature and motivation.
He goes on to say, “…teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.“
For the mediocre owner, those words sound crazy. A mediocre owner's method is task assignment and measurement.
For the High Impact Owner, St. Exupery's words are gold. His entire quote reads:
“If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.“
High Impact Business Owners know that we need to offer a Vision so compelling that those around us long for its realization. That level of inspiration is precisely what John Kennedy did in “We Choose to go to the Moon“
Vision is the vehicle we leverage for meaningful accomplishment.
Defining Vision rather than assigning tasks will repel mediocre people who want tasks over Vision. That's healthy for your organization. In line with Saint-Exupรฉry, Carey Nieuwhof points out “If you want to repel high capacity leaders, give them tasks, not responsibilities.“
Vision also protects your company from decisions that a short term, opportunity-of-the-moment driven.
Define and communicate your Vision. Lead your teams to long for the realization of your Vision. The tasks, goals, and results will follow.
The First Costly Mistake Owners Make
The most significant mistake owners make is bypassing the hard work of defining and communicating Vision. They jump to assignments and busyness that accompanies chasing vague and shifting goals.
Mediocre owners substitute tasks for Vision. Their assignments are measurable and merely masquerade as accomplishment.
When it comes to achieving significant outcomes, teams need Vision far more than they need to-do lists and short-term goals. High-performing teams thrive on Vision. Mediocre teams look busy with tasks, yet do little of real meaning.
If you've attracted the right team, they will know how to “collect wood and assign tasks” while leading their teams to accomplish the Vision. They do not need your direction and interference on a task level.
It is a grave mistake to micromanage. When you choose to get involved in the minutia required to undertake the Vision, you shortchange your team, yourself, and the Vision.
Micromanagement is the sign of a mediocre owner and diminishes your team's capabilities.
In one company with which I am familiar (and definitely not one of my clients), the owner has installed keystroke and screenshot software on employee computers. Their dedication and effort reflect this mediocre owner's suspicious, task orientation. Company performance has fallen far short of potential for years.
The fact is, your teams do need tasks, goals, measurements, and incentives to realize a big Vision. As you grow, hire a leader/manager to manage progress. With an operator in place, you can focus on communicating Vision while they guide and ensure progress.
Trust your people. Empower them. Define and communicate Vision, then get out of your team's way, because they are working on a great vision.
The Second Costly Mistake Owners Make
The second costly mistake owners make is communicating once or occasionally. Vision requires constant reinforcement.
Beyond defining Vision, you must communicate it in a way that your teams can understand. This requires you to know your team members as individuals. You deliver the Vision in group settings, and also to each person in the way they can hear.
Mediocre owners believe that if they communicate Vision once or twice, everyone gets it and is on board. Nothing could be further from the truth.
One client I get to work alongside demonstrates this perfectly.
In most ways, she is a High Impact Owner. Her team performs at an exceptional level.
Like each of us, she is not perfect.
She embarked on significant changes in line with her clear Vision. She expressed disbelief at the leadership team's surprise when she began talking about changes. As we spoke, she produced a memo she had written four years earlier outlining the changes as proof she had communicated.
Four years!
Everything she was talking about now had been outlined in that memo. So, obviously, she had communicated…
As we talked through her team's “shortcoming” on this issue, I pressed her to explain how her one memo was adequate. I asked her to provide me with comparable communication examples where one time was enough.
She protested and pointed out one leader had taped it to the wall above their desk.
Slowly, she let down her defenses as I kept pressing in to uncover her real thoughts.
I get it. The plan is rock solid, but I failed to communicate so that my team could see it in the same way I can see it. It's not my team. I fell short.”
Finally, she said. “We then got to work crafting a plan to communicate the Vision from square one with her team. She and I also outlined how to best communicate with each individual on the team in the way they could best hear it.
We discussed a reasonable time frame to get the message out, reinforce it, and assess her team's attitudes.
She included a clear admission of fault. Also, she promised each team member to be the owner who communicates like her team deserves.
It took some time to overcome her team's hesitation. Now the team is on track to accomplish the Vision.
Defining and Communicating Vision is a continuous effort of High Impact Business Owners. Like my client, do once or twice, or sporadically, and you'll encounter blank stares and resistance.
The Next Article Activates Your Vision
Are you up for the challenge of defining and communicating Vision on a continuous basis? It is the first priority for High Impact Business Owners. How about you?
The next article in this series dives into the 2nd Priority of High Impact Business Owners: Drive Culture.
This article is second in a series on the Seven Priorities of High Impact Business Owners.
The Seven Priorities reflects work I get to do with High Impact Business Owner clients (identities in stories changed to protect confidentiality). The series is aligned with my main speaking and workshop topic on being the leader you company, team, and family deserve.
The first article introduces the series, and the third calls High Impact Business Owners to Drive Culture.
Notes:
- This article was also published on LinkedIn and Medium.
- Carly Fiorina Quote source: (From an interview on Catalyst Podcast #503 โHow to Unlock Potential in Yourself and Othersโ 12:35)
- The link for the book Vision Driven Leader is an amazon affiliate link.
Photo Sources:
Glasses and Focus: Elena Taranenko via Unsplash; John F. Kennedy at Rice University: Source: Public Domain, Wikipedia; Saint-Exupรฉry and Plane: Public Domain, ; To-Do List: Flaviu Lupoian via Freeimages.com; Telephone Handset: Quino Al via Unsplash; Fortune Cookie: Photo by Elena Koycheva via Unsplash (modified to have a clear background).
