When was the last time you went home after a long day of work and said to your significant other, “Guess what, honey? Today I was average!” Chances are, the answer is never. People inherently feel the need to do extraordinary things, and they want to be part of an organization that is excellent in every way.
The challenge comes when seemingly excellent organizations have top-notch people who aren’t working to their full potential. While they’re completing their assigned tasks on time, they lack the passion or the “little extra” that makes them stand out. When this happens in your organization, it’s time to give your people a vision of the future that will move them to go beyond their current short-term view.
Regardless of your industry, your company’s vision statement needs to be decided by management, yet it also needs to capture the hearts of those on your team. Since most employees won’t follow other people’s passions, the company’s vision needs to express each worker’s desire and end result for the company. By giving people a picture of what they can accomplish and what stellar service looks like, they’re naturally moved to do extraordinary things. The following suggestions will help you redesign your company’s vision statement so you can capture the motivation of every member of your team.
1. Make Your Vision Statement Compelling
Emotion, not logic, compels people to do great things. That’s why those vision statements that stir emotion are successful, while those that rely on logic are rarely effective. Contrast the following bold statements with those that could be considered standard fare in many businesses:
Worked:
“Put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.” – President John F. Kennedy
Wouldn’t Work:
“To be an aeronautical leader and apply ingenuity and innovation in our work as we value our taxpayers and government employees.”
Worked:
“Put a computer on every desk in
America.” - Bill Gates, Microsoft
Wouldn’t Work:
“Be a leader in the field of software development in the American marketplace by making software that is easy to use. We also provide a good return on investment to our shareholders.”
Worked:
“Put a head in every bed every night.” - Conrad Hilton
Wouldn’t Work:
“Be an industry leader providing a quality hotel stay to our guests, using the talents of our employees and providing above-average returns to our shareholders.”
The above three visions worked because they touched people’s hearts, minds, and souls, and by doing so compelled them into extraordinary action. When Kennedy shared his vision of a moon landing, we knew only 15 percent of the information we needed to accomplish the vision. But because we shared his dream and felt inspired by it, it became a reality.
Even more important, the above successful visions share a quality; they are visual. You can see a man on the moon, a computer on a desk, and a head in a bed. Because a visual image makes a huge impact on the subconscious, people’s minds will naturally be drawn to it and they’ll be motivated to make that vision a reality. The more compelling your vision is, the more support your employees will give it.
2. Eliminate the Mumbo Jumbo
Most vision statements include wording such as “To be a leader” or “To make a profit for our shareholders” and other rhetoric. These types of mission statement verbiage were developed as part of the strategic planning process popular in the 1970s and 1980s—a management tool now regarded as bankrupt. This old process often produces “results” that include a vision statement that’s three pages long—and employees don’t even know it exists. Furthermore, this lack of a compelling vision statement is reflected in employees’ attitudes and work ethics.
When you eliminate the corporate mumbo jumbo from your vision statement, you get to the heart of your message and to what really matters to your customers and employees. And you eliminate the pages of verbose text that really add nothing to your organization’s morale. A clear vision needs to be short—preferably fewer than 10 words. If it cannot be repeated in a short sentence, it’s not going to work.
Every employee needs to hear it, understand it, believe it, repeat it, and act on it incessantly for it to really take hold. The wording of most vision statements is almost always longer than the average person can remember. The shorter the statement, the better the chance that employees will commit it to memory and gauge their behavior to it.
3. Resist Stating the Obvious
Too many vision statements mention “making a profit” as one of their objectives. Granted, making a profit is definitely one of the best measures of success for an organization, but saying that you are in business to make a profit is like saying that you are breathing in order to remain alive. Of course, breathing is necessary. But it’s not the meaning of existence. Many organizations need to rethink what they state.
An effective vision statement serves others and ties into people’s motivations. Employees want to feel they are making a positive impact on people’s lives, not merely a positive impact on the company’s bottom line. They want to be able to follow a vision that helps them realize their personal passions and beliefs. It’s obvious when an organization lacks a clear vision. While employees might be working hard, they are all dancing to a different beat, and pettiness prevails. The work is being done with the head, but the heart and soul have been checked at the door. When you stretch your company’s goals and make them your vision, you get people thinking in terms of “What if?” The result is extraordinary behavior that will naturally lead to the obvious results your company desires.
Articulating your vision is the most powerful thing your organization can do; it’s also one of the most difficult things to do. By talking with your employees and learning what they’re good at, what their goals are, and how they want the organization to grow, you can develop a vision that motivates and inspires your team to greatness. When you’re able to show your employees the big picture in a compelling way, you’ll soon have them calling home and saying, “Guess what, honey? Today I was extraordinary!”