Leading With Vision: Three Steps for Communicating a Successful Future

We have a dream of heaven on earth
Where we all work together and know our worth
Where joy and laughter and love and affection
Will keep us movin' in the right direction – Future Days song by Thompson Twins

Have you ever tried the exercise where you close your eyes and envision a successful outcome – a presentation you’re going to give, the healthy body you’ll achieve from a new wellness plan, or passing an exam you’ve been studying for? In these exercises, we don’t just write words on a page, but experience that success by fully imagining it with all of our senses. We conjure imagery, sounds, and feelings to make them more realistically achievable and create an emotional motivation that helps us more fully commit to getting there.

Effectively engaging others in an organizational vision (whether it’s your team’s, department’s, or the full organization’s) takes more than just words — whether on a page or spoken by a senior leader. Getting others to more fully “see” — understand and internalize — that vision of success includes that fuller emotional component.  It’s that component that engages — not just you but others in your orbit. It invites others to take part.

Here are three steps for conveying an engaging vision:

Understand that a vision is different than a mission. Your mission is your who, what, and why. Your vision is “What does our successful future look like?” Not everyone needs to memorize and regurgitate the exact same sequence of words, but taking that “pie-in-the-sky” feeling of where you want to be and putting it into concrete terms is essential.

I love Nike’s vision statement, “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world”. Talk about pie in the sky! Will that literally ever come true? Probably not. But it’s something to shoot for.

Keep your vision alive. This is not a one-and-done message, and it’s not just for your website or orientation. Weave that three-dimensional experience into frequent communications by:

• Telling stories that show the vision in action — and keep doing it

• Training your leaders and managers to use the vision in navigating their decision-making, and then talk with their team members about how the vision helped steer those decisions

• Coaching and modeling how to use the vision in team member one-on-one conversations. Address how individual roles are aligned with those of the team, the department, and the organization – and how that’s all moving us closer to that beautiful future – the vision. Teach your managers how to make that connection come alive by talking about those links -- the alignment -- and how each team member’s actions aligned with the vision bring us a step closer to our successful outcomes.

Ask a question and listen. Communicating is more listening than talking, and that goes for communicating your vision, too. Ask “What does our team/department/organization need to achieve our vision of success?” “What are you seeing that will help or hinder our progress?” Pushback is feedback! Welcome pushback – including from peers outside your organization. Constructive feedback shines light on potential opportunities and barriers to achieving your successful future. It points to areas that may need more attention and are likely outside of your awareness. Try not to be defensive. Ask for more details!

In one of my first jobs, I had a boss who was a visionary and also a humble “person of the people.” He explained vision as “the star we sail our ship toward.” He was a big proponent of involving all levels of employees in the strategic planning process, and knew we needed our employees to clearly understand the vision as key to their effective involvement. When we had everyone on the same page regarding “what success looked like”, it allowed all levels of our employees to participate in the planning and created alignment and emotional buy-in to our shared objectives.*

I credit that boss (here’s looking at you, @Bill Wood) for drilling the essentialness of a clear vision to sail the ship by – and being able to talk about it easily so everyone can envision themselves as a part of that successful journey. 

Where are you steering your ship to, and how well are you communicating the direction?

People & Culture Leadership Group works with organizations to help define or refresh their vision statements and work with their leaders and managers to improve their communication skills. Let’s chat!

*We all know alignment is important to maximize our success, and research backs that up.