Is your business flying in the dark? - The importance of a Clear Strategic Vision

The importance of a Clear Strategic Vision

As the CEO, founder, or leader of a business you will have a clear picture of the future you envision for the organisation. Employees further from the executive level rarely have the same vision and often make decisions in ways that may hinder the actual goals. The misalignment between the decisions or actions of employees and the company vision is the most common cause of slow business growth and even failure. Over the years I have found there are some things you can do to help your organisation achieve its true potential by aligning your employees with your vision.

Mission Statements and Values don’t go far enough

As the business leader, it is easy to blame employees for not investing in or failing to adhere to the company’s plan, but the root cause is often they misunderstand the vision.  We know what the organisation is trying to achieve and how we want people to go about doing it, but have we made it clear to them?

Many businesses use a Mission Statement and Values to communicate what the company believes and where it is going. But take this mission statement as an example, what does this mean to an employee:

“To inspire humanity — both in the air and on the ground.” - JetBlue

I am sure it means something quite different to whoever wrote it than to the person checking tickets at the gate. Are they supposed to tell them a joke? Show them pretty pictures? Up-sell them to first class? I am sure none of that is really what the executive board had in mind when they chose this mission, but it leaves room for a lot of interpretation.

So you can keep the Mission Statement and the Values if you want, but they alone they are not enough. You need to make the vision so clear in the mind of employees that it can actually guide their everyday decisions.

Clarify the Vision

The analogy I like to use is, imagine you were building your dream house. You assemble all the best tradesmen, builder, plumber, electrician, etc. Then all you give them is a vague sentence and a few values and then expect them to build your dream home exactly the way it is in your mind. Furthermore, you expect it delivered within the allotted time and budget! 

Well, you might get a house, but it is likely to require tons of Requests for Information, Change Orders, and cost blow outs, and even then, will still not meet expectations. They need a plan, or blueprint, which describes everything down to the last detail. That is leaderships job. We are the architects that design the organisation and specifies how the organisation is built. We start with the floors and work our way up. Otherwise the organisation falls or stagnates.

The question is, what is the best way to deliver a ‘blueprint’ type plan for our employees?

In pursuit of this answer, my months of research led me to Cameron Harold’s book ‘Vivid Vision.’ I have provided the link to it on audible if you want to read it. It really changed my outlook.

In 'Vivid Vision' Harold explains the only way to ensure that all your employees understand the goals of the business and where the business is going is to paint them a very clear picture (or give them the plans) of what the business looks like at a specific point in the future. The book recommends 3 years. One year is not enough time to make a measurable difference and 5 years is usually too far out for people to really connect with the vision. A clear picture means a 3-4 page written document describing in detail what the business will be, how it will operate, and includes:

• What do you do? What are your core functions/products?
• What won’t you do?
• What are your key markets?
• Who are your customers?
• How does each department function?
• What is the culture and leadership style?
• What types of employees do you have and attract?
• Where are your locations and what do your offices/workspaces looks like?
• How are you viewed by: employees, customers, media, partners, suppliers?
• What are your financial numbers? Sales, revenue, profit, etc

I call this the Strategic Vision. It will be the North Star or GPS that guides all decisions by Management and Staff. You need it to excite and empower your employees, so it needs really jump off the page and inspire. Even hire a Copywriter if want to make it really pop. It is the blueprint for your business, and we have already discussed how crazy it would be to build a house without plans.

Spread the Word

Inside…

Once you have your well-defined clear Strategic Vision, it is not enough to merely send out an ‘all staff’ email and then expect the magic to happen. You need to ensure it is instilled right though the organisation and wider.

You need to ensure every employee intimately knows and understands the Strategic Vision. The best way to do this is to pull everyone together in teams and read the document together out loud and get employee buy-in.  Then ensure it is displayed prominently within the organisation, for example on the home intranet page. If you can get you employees to connect with the business purpose and want to be part of the journey – this is where the magic happens.

And Out…

Sharing your Strategic Vision outside the organisation can be just as powerful. Share it with your suppliers, your customers and wider. You will begin to find that the more people that know the vision, the more people will buy into it and want to help you get there.

Why do think businesses such as Tesla, Facebook and Google have managed to grow so fast? It is because they not only have a clear vision of where they are going, but they share it very publicly. While most of us might not be Tesla or Google, we can still take steps to make our Strategic Visions known including:

• Develop contracts for vendors that include alignment with your Strategic Vision
• Include discussions about the Strategic Vision in every job description and interview
• Develop performance reviews based on adherence to the strategy.

Implement the Strategic Vision

Whether you are just starting a business or leading an existing business, implementing a Strategic Vision is crucial to it creating the most impact on the business. The benefits are far reaching and include:

• Aligning the whole organisation in pursuit of your goals with laser focus.
• It acts as the GPS, guiding all decisions.
• Providing the basis from which quarterly and annual goals for departments and teams should be measured against.
• Increasing the pace upon which goals are achieved because everyone knows what they are working towards.
• Increasing efficiency, by quickly rejecting projects that are not withing the scope of the company’s goals.
• Increasing employee engagement because we all desire to be part of something bigger than ourselves – not just come in to punch the clock and earn money.
• Cost savings from reduced staff turnover.
• Attracting a better talent pool because people want to join you on the journey.
• Connecting better with you customers and suppliers.

As you can see when we approach building a business like the construction industry approaches building a home, we can maximise company performance. This must start with a well-defined strategic vision.

After the vision is prepared, and known to all, the final piece is the execution framework. How do we turn the vision into a reality? How do we ensure the entire business is aligned to make progress towards the vision?

In future blogs, I will present the strategic framework that I and many other of the leading company used to great success. Until then, if you would like me to take a look at your strategic vision, please email it to me at [email protected] and I’ll be happy to give input.