Vision done right is a resource
I wasn’t expecting this week’s vision exercise to have the impact it did.
My church elders have been encouraging me to share my expert ability to create practical, qualified and inclusive business operations systems and processes with other local businesses and associations. So I’m looking at my recent consulting work and forming a new company, e3ops.com
One of Michael Hyatt’s many books, The Vision Driven Leader, is a resource I’ve utilized a few times but this past week, using it resulted in a vision I was not expecting.
A clear vision
There are four focal points in Hyatt’s vision script template: team, products, marketing, and impact. Each section must be clear, practical, inspiring and “sellable” to internal teams and external partners. Here’s what I learned from creating my own vision script for e3ops:
- I know the kind of people I want to work with in this business;
- My initial financial thresholds were way below reasonableness!
- The process revealed a core bread-winner service;
- Ways to find folk that fit my initial niche target market (oh, such lofty jargon!) became obvious, and
- It was totally worth the pain of handwriting first, then transcribing my scrawl into legible typed text.
As a result, I am truly inspired by the 3-page vision for my new company. I am still tempted to distill it down to one paragraph, though.
Don’t skimp on vision
My two big mantras in life right now are:
- Managers manage things, leaders lead people, and
- Do you know what actually needs fixing?
Many authors and gurus talk about vision and share multiple methods of creating one. Leaders are supposed to have vision but many don’t. I think that’s OK. You know why? Because it is easy to generate one.
However, a lot of leaders avoid giving vision its due prominence.
And yet, without a vision of what you would like the near future to look like, literally, how can you make fruitful decisions, fulfill your mission, or adjust your heading to navigate around a storm?
I do like what (and how) Jim Rohn said: “Five years from now you will arrive somewhere. The question is: where?” It is far better to arrive at a destination you choose ahead of time. Imagine a cargo ship floating on the ocean without a destination: It will arrive somewhere, eventually… maybe even where there are paying customers!
If you don’t have a clear vision for your company or your life, it’s probably something that actually needs fixing sooner rather than later.
Questions to ask yourself:
- Do I know what I want my life to look like in 3-5 years from now?
- Why might it be important for me to create or revisit a vision statement?
- Am I living a life someone else has designed for me?
If you want to know more about my own journey, send me a message.
