(Photo above | Cascade Business News)
What is the best possible outcome for your business ten years from now? Will it be international, franchised, purchased by a larger entity? Will it have started numerous spinoff companies or contributed greatly to the community? Without a clear vision, how will you get there?
The goal of a Visions Statement is to inspire, motivate, and stimulate. Leaders, employees, and all stakeholders share a vivid mental picture of what they are working toward, what your business will look like in five to ten years.
An inspiring Visions Statement is a vivid description of a desired outcome that motivates and energizes all involved.
Visions Statements are created over a series of meetings and months. Don’t rush the process. Unlike Mission Statements that are rigid, vision statements are vivid, imaginative, big picture, and evolve with time.
Start with the founder(s.) What did they ultimately envision the business to be in terms of growth, values, employees, contributions to society, and the like?
Involve as many people as possible in the creation of your Visions Statement—leaders at all levels, employees, even key customers. What does each foresee?
The goal of your Vision Statement is to stretch all involved to see and achieve their full potential.
Here are my Top ‘7’ Tips to create your own Vision Statement:
Project five to ten years in the future. What is the best imaginable outcome? Assign individuals or teams to take on segments as: income growth projections; employee’s expertise and growth projections; values; culture; community involvement and contributions.
Dream big. This is not a time to be logical or reasonable. Start big — huge — and if necessary, scale back at a later time. Just how great can you be? Or, if you want to remain small, in what other ways will you flourish?
Be concise and use present tense language. Don’t complicate the process with technical or highly-detailed language. Keep it simple, vivid, exciting, easy to actually envision.
Infuse your Vision Statement with passion and emotion. This is a great stretch for those of you who like to think of things in terms of black and white. Can you think of a better way to engage employees than to draw them in emotionally to why they come to work each day?
Get creative. Paint a graphic mental picture of the business you foresee. Get creative with images, words, colors and graphics that will inspire.
Keep your vision alive. Communicate your visions widely to your employees, stakeholders, customers, the public. Let people know who you are and where you’re headed.
Commit time and resources to the vision you establish. Your goals, projects, policies, procedures and action plans will all align with your Visions Statement to guide leaders.
While the task should be taken seriously, the act of preparing your vision statement is a time for creativity, ambition and fun with no holds barred.
I challenge you to create a Visions Statement for your business that will inspire excitement and creativity.
Master Executive & Leadership Coach Ann Golden Eglé, MCC, has steered highly-successful individuals to greater results since 1998. President of Golden Visions & Associates, LLC, Ann can be reached at 541-385-8887 or subscribe to her newsletter at www.GVAsuccess.com.
