Creating a vision statement

What is inspirational leadership? – asks Stefan Powell.

If we accept that leadership is about â??influencing people to make big things happenâ?? where does this start?

A vision should be inspirational, compelling and should describe a positive and successful future, drawing on all of the senses to bring it to life and to make others want to follow. All too often, however, we receive anything but a truly outstanding vision of future success. Often, we are only told half of what needs to be included to make it truly compelling.

A vision is so much more than getting people to feel, hear or see your positive future; itâ??s more about connecting them to a joint future of shared emotion and thoughts.

So, whatâ??s missing and how do we convert that most misused of terms â??Visionâ?? to truly connect to our teams.

For me, the key to delivering a compelling vision is to identify a positive future that fits with your team's ideal self, beliefs, values and expectations to stir them into action, the right behaviours to bring about the results you and your organisations need and the confidence to take this forward and meet the ever changing demands of modern society and business.

I have found that in helping leaders develop visions the following model has worked time and time again.

Visioning

Visioning for me is all about identifying your teamâ??s map of the world and how you can meet those maps to inspire and motivate.

The above triangle shows the layers that must be considered when putting a vision together. They are the building blocks and foundations of an inspirational and compelling call to action that we need to bring about success.

Experiences

The first step is to review the team's current experiences to identify what they would like in a positive future. Here you need to identify what are the teamâ??s positive and negative experiences now? What do they want to keep and what would they like to change?

For example â?? Do the team feel that there is little or no development taking place? If so, within the vision you might choose to say â??all people feel developed and truly supportedâ??.

Remember, however, that you have you can decide whether they can have what they have asked for and, indeed, whether it will make for organisational success.

Interests

Where does the team feel the focus of the organisation should be? Should it be on people, development, support, for example? What is their key message? Find out what has truly made them passionate about what they do? Have they focused on business outputs? Have they focused on people issues? Have they focused on process issues?

For example, a team member might say they â??feel that the organisation has moved away from people, and that the caring side has gone – all the organisation cares about is the resultsâ??. Here, why not consider stating within your vision that â??the whole team feels supported in achieving their goals and their manager cares about themâ?? and as a result customers comment on â??how wellâ?? they have been served and their â??needs metâ??.

Views and opinions

What does the team currently think of the situation? What do they like? What donâ??t they like? How would they like the situation to look, feel or sound? Once this has been identified, you can then include the positives in your vision and reframe the items they would change in positive language. Later you can include in a business plan what is required to ensure that the will team, see, hear and feel that what they want in your vision and positive future.

Values and beliefs

This section is crucial and is about identifying, what the team would like their manager, the customer, and the organisation to say about them? What is important to them? What enabling beliefs do you want to encourage and what limiting beliefs do you want to reframe? You might want to consider statements such as â??Imagine that each person arrives for their day smiling and happy, believing that they will achieve what they need and want to achieve and will be supported in taking those steps and feeling that they will make a true difference to their customers today.

The Vision

Now you have drawn all of the information together that you need to truly inspire and motivate your team into action, you are ready to write that truly compelling vision. Like the greatest stories, legends and novels you must begin with a compelling start, drawing the listener in, you must have a powerful middle that gets people to believe what you say and you must create a flourishing energetic end to energise and motivate your team to want to say â??we want to start nowâ??.

Within your vision you must weave what will be seen, heard and felt and show that the values, beliefs, hopes and desires of the team are recognised, such that they commit to supporting you in achieving that positive future.

All of these elements can then be included within the final vision and, if possible, captured in a single statement or strap line, encompassing what you want to achieve â?? â??The Peopleâ??s Organisation â?? Where our customers and employees areâ?¦â?? for example.

In September, I shall cover how to write a business plan in support of your vision that will ensure that you meet the demands of your organisation and fulfil the promise of your vision.

Stefan Powell is an executive coach, trainer and facilitator
specialising in leadership, sales and customer service,
who has recently joined Brefi Group as an associate.

USEFUL LINKS

• Leadership and management – what's the difference?
  
• Values and vision exercise – Alligator River
  


• Terra-Nova â?? a leadership and planning game

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