Once you have your simple, clear and honest vision firmly in your mind and heart, it can become a tool for planning business strategy and provide the discipline necessary to avoid unproductive and expensive diversions.
In other words, in order to make the most out of the time you have spent developing your vision, you have to calibrate your business plans and your actions, in fact everything you do, to the achievement of the vision. You may never get there completely. Visions, like most everything else are not static, nor should they be. New information will affect the way your future picture looks. The point is, you will have created a star to follow that is of your own making and the flexibility to tweak it, modify it and build on it as you go along. How good is that?
While I am not a faithful follower of Stephen Covey, one ‘Habit’ among his ‘Seven’ that supports the notion of creating a vision is “Begin with the end in Mind“. (Here’s a link) And that folks, is what leading with vision is all about, simply knowing where you are going so that you can plan a route to get there.
To round out the week about Vision here are:
Something to Read:
Visionary Leadership by Burt Nanus (Jossy Bass Business & Management Series)
Something to watch:
Barack Obama’s “One Voice” Speech. Here is a man with a clear future vision.
Something to think about:
What is your future vision? What does your life look like 20 years from now? What are you doing? What are people saying about you?
I’ll be back next week… You’re invited to drop in. What are your experiences with vision statements? A bunch of hooey…or is there something in it for you?
You're Not the Boss of Me 