12 Jan Aligning teams through Vision
[Guest Blog | Dave Jones, Talent Managers]
A vision statement is sometimes called a picture of your business in the future but it’s so much more than that. Your vision statement is your inspiration, the framework for all your strategic planning.
A vision statement answers the question, “Where do we want to go?”
What you are doing when creating a vision statement is articulating your hopes for the business and aligning your team around what you are trying to build. The best vision statements don’t come from the Founder, the CEO or the management team, though these players may guide and endorse vision development. The best vision statements are developed by engaged, focussed teams who understand their market, their product/service differentiators and who know how to create value for their customers. The best vision statements are clear, audacious and, most importantly, they win the hearts and minds of those who must deliver on them.
While a vision statement doesn’t tell you how you’re going to get there, it does set the direction for business planning. That’s why it’s important when crafting a vision statement to allow your team to let their imagination go and set their goals high – and why it’s important that a vision statement captures the passion of the whole team.
You might be asking yourself; is Dave suggesting that all staff are involved in the visioning process? The answer is yes, and no. I am suggesting that it is the role of managers and executives to develop the vision for the entire organisation, as is the normal practice. But if you are a manager of people, you should also work with your own team to set their team vision. Obviously such a sub-vision needs some degree of alignment with the organisation-wide vision, but other than that your team should make it their own, stretch their minds and think big!
You can expect to find the process of developing a team vision to be very valuable in terms of team building (think collaboration and trust) and aligning the efforts of individual team members.
Dave Jones is a Director of Talent Managers, turning strategy into action through people.
Dave is an experienced management consultant with a specialised skill set in business strategy, organisational performance, process improvement and change management.