Having a vision is the foundation that precedes starting any business. In the beginning, goals or strategies are not important. We will address them when we have concretized our idea and gained a vision of what our organization should look like if it has the right structure, leadership and people who believe and gather around that same vision.
If you have a clear vision, over time you will develop a strategy, or ways to realize the original idea of the business. However, if you do not have a vision, there is no strategy that will save you.
Michael Hyatt, Leadership’s best-selling leader, says it’s often best to create a vision before you take care of strategies and goals. Although closely related, the vision helps define what you are trying to achieve, not how.
Both in life and in the business world there are oscillations, ups and downs, successes and failures. There will be challenges at every step of the way, and it is up to us how we will approach them and what steps we will take if we have not overcome them.
When Michael Hyatt was presented with a challenging situation when taking over the department, his first instinct did not promise him significant results and opportunities to fix the situation. Such an attitude would never motivate. On the contrary, it would demotivate the entire team, which would not achieve great success.
Instead, he took the time needed to look at the situation from multiple angles – to analyse the actions of the past that led to the situation in which they found themselves as an organisation and ultimately, to define the ideal outcome he wanted to achieve. Once he approached the “problem” in such a way, when he gave himself and his team a realistic period of time in which they wanted to achieve ideal outcomes, it became much easier to determine how and in what way to achieve the desired results. Therefore, it is clear from this that we should not forget that we will achieve our goals more easily if our vision comes first.
All types of organisations, profit and non-profit companies, charities and other associations, use vision statements to guide them in their business. However, what exactly is a vision statement?
Every vision begins with a visionary leader who is able to create mental and verbal images of desirable future states. It is also important that visionary leaders share their vision with their partners, including customers, suppliers, and employees.
The statement of vision is the basic “guiding thought” for everything that the management, but also everyone else in the hierarchical structure, does. Employees look at the vision statement for long-term guidance. It makes work more meaningful and helps define and strengthen the business culture.
From the most unprofitable and inefficient department in the company, that was losing its customer on a daily basis, Michael Hyatt and his team made a department that attracted the most profitable customers and that became a desirable work place, as well as a company which exceed its budget and contributes to the margin. It became the fastest growing and most profitable department in the company.
“It didn’t happen because we had a great business strategy. It happened because we had a clear vision of what we wanted to achieve. That’s where it started and that’s where you have to start if you want to experience a different reality than the one you have now. You need to clarify what you want. It all starts with a vision, says Hyatt. And if one of the best-selling authors about leadership says so, who are we to contradict him?
