Successful leaders understand they need a company vision, but it’s easy to lose sight of the long-term as you focus on the things right in front of you, those daily tactics and the weekly results they produce.
Leaders know how to create objectives and goals, but they become challenged when asked about their company vision and where they want to be in five, 10, even 15 years.
“Many businesses struggle with a lack of direction; the long-term vision gets swamped by the concerns and crises of the moment,” says Karl Stark and Bill Stewart in an Inc. article.
Lack of a strategic company vision to help you move your business forward can be detrimental to potential growth and long-term success.
Stark and Stewart offer a few ways to tackle the problem.
What is the Current State?
You can’t establish a long-term company vision if you don’t take a look at the current affairs of your business. Gather facts and really analyze your business on the basis of what works well, what needs to be fixed, and what is broken.
Develop Long-Term Priorities and Initiatives
Once your current state has been vetted, it’s important to separate the initiatives that will help you achieve your long-term company vision from the ones that clog up time and space. Create a checklist of everything you’d like to accomplish, then comes the hard part: Pare that list down to the truly important ones.
Align Your Financial Goals
Stark and Stewart recently worked with a new CEO to set the company vision and help him translate that into immediate, tangible action. They aligned the company’s financial goals with a few steps:
- They worked with the executive to understand his long-term financial goals.
- They looked at opportunities for penetration and cross-sell, and up sell within the companies target customer base to validate those goals.
- They broke down the high-level goals into a set of year-by-year financial metrics so they could measure the progress.
Share Your Company Vision
Once your company vision is established, sell it to your employers, investors, and customers. Your vision drives motivation, so make sure it’s clear. It will inspire your employees and give them something to work toward. When team members have a set company vision they believe in, they will feel motivated and challenged to meet quarterly, monthly, or even weekly goals, and be excited to explore how they can contribute to the company as a whole.
A company vision gives employees an opportunity to be a part of something great. Remind them of the big picture on a regular basis and keep them invested in what you want to accomplish.
What other tips would you add?
