Why it's critical to have a vision

The first sentence of the introduction of my book, Unshackled Leadership, states: “After 20+ years of working in and observing organizations of every type and size, I have noticed a theme all successful ones share. They have enthusiastic, confident, optimistic, appreciative and happy people who work together on behalf of a future they have all committed themselves to.”

I’ve written extensively in the past about the first part of that statement and now want to address the second part: “work together on behalf of a future they have all committed themselves to.” How you accomplish this is with a “vision.” Does your company have one? Some companies have yearly goals. Some even have a 5 year plan. Some do strategic planning. But rarely do we find companies with a true “vision.”

A vision is a complete sense of what your company could be/might be some time in the far distant future. It’s something that you work toward without any sense of when it will be fully realized, perhaps never. It’s the light in the distance that gives meaning to everything you do. It’s what your company would look like, some day, if anything and everything was possible, which it is, and your company could truly be a dream come true. You can find a series of questions to ask to formulate your company vision in Chapter 19 of Unshackled Leadership, available at www.thpalliance.com.

Why is having a vision so important? I’ll deal with one of many reasons here: it’s inspiring. In the USA, job satisfaction is at an all time low. Only 45% of people surveyed in 2009 reported satisfaction with their job. Can you imagine what that costs companies in terms of lack of creativity and productivity and in absenteeism and turnover? The costs are staggering.

One of the many reasons for this is that most people who work for companies have no clue what the company is all about, why it even exists, and where it’s going. Most employees think their company is about making money, for the owners, and I’ve never met anyone other than an owner who was inspired by that. A vision gives people a sense of where they fit in, what they are working for, what opportunities lay ahead for them and what they can someday look forward to. It gives them a reason to get up in the morning and go to work and something they can feel proud of being part of.

So if you want to have a turned on, enthusiastic, motivated workforce, a great first step is to create a vision for the future.

If you want to win your gold medal . . .

How are you enjoying the Winter Olympics? I’m on the road so much I’ve missed many of the days. But when I’m home, I’m glued to the TV and don’t want to miss a minute. It’s really pretty remarkable seeing what these incredible athletes can do.

Having said that, I’m wondering if you’ve notice something that every single athlete and every single team has in common? Every one of them has a coach. I watched with pride the USA hockey team beat the Canadian hockey team. Both teams had a coach.

I watched Bode Miller win three medals. He was there with his coach. Lindsay Vonn, Shaun White and Evan Lysacek, all gold medal winners, all were there with their coaches. And just this week, the Canadian and American ice dancing teams won gold and silver medals. The four of them train together in Canton, MI and share the same coaches. Every athlete from every country was in Vancouver with their coaches.

Now you might wonder why the best athletes in the world need to have coaches. Several reasons. First, just because you have the capability of becoming a great athlete doesn’t necessarily mean that you know how to become a great athlete. A coach is someone who knows what the particular sport is all about and is able to guide the athlete in the direction of becoming a champion.

The second reason is that you cannot possibly participate in a sport and watch yourself participate in the sport simultaneously. A coach can stand on the sidelines, observe an athlete and help the athlete see what he or she is not seeing, what’s missing, and what’s in the gap between who he is being and who he can be.

For all of these reasons and more, coaching is equally applicable to business and the reason why more than 50% of the Fortune 500 companies use coaches for their executives and management teams.

There’s a reason why 90% of the companies that start in the US each year fail within the first 10 years and why so many of those that do survive never reach their full potential. Just because you’re a good engineer, a good plumber, or a good doctor, builder, architect or whatever, doesn’t mean you understand how to play the game of business. The game of business has certain rules to it that if you don’t understand, you might as well be shooting an arrow into the fog hoping you’ll hit the bullseye.

When people in business struggle, it’s always because something is missing and the leadership can’t see it. If they could, it’s pretty obvious they’d put in the correction. That the struggling continues is evidence that it’s unseen.

So if you’re inspired by what you’re seeing in Vancouver and not winning even a bronze medal in whatever business game you’re playing, get yourself a coach. Not doing so is why Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again thinking you’ll get a different result.

Why not have it be simple?

How are you doing with what I wrote two weeks ago? I hope it made a difference. But here’s the most remarkable reality of life. So many of us are just not willing to see how simple business, and life in general, could be and how simple it could be to have what you want.

Every time I write something like I did two weeks ago, there’s a flood of people who unsubscribe themselves from our newsletter. And that’s exactly what happened two weeks ago. It makes me sad. Life is not supposed to be a painful experience. It’s actually meant to be joyful. As I’m fond of saying, suffering is optional.

But then there’s your ego, public enemy number one. It wants you to believe that it’s your job to “make it happen.” Companies spend an enormous amount of time doing “strategic planning,” analyzing the competition, trying to figure out the best strategies to approach the marketplace, and developing tactics to put the strategies into action. And it’s such a waste of time.

Years ago, I worked with a company that with our coaching grew from $3 million in sales to $10 million. At that point, the president told me he wanted to be a $25 million company. I told him to go home and reinvent his company as a $25 million company. Look to see what it would look like if it was that size.

Then we drew an organizational structure to support sales of $25 million. When that was finished, I told him to start acting like the president of the $25 million company. I further told him to not think of his company as it is, but to think of it as it would then be, to start putting in place all the pieces he would need to have to do $25 million in sales. Three years later, the company was doing $25 million.

At a lunch to celebrate, he thanked me and said he had already begun the process of reinventing his company as a $50 million company. When he hit that number, he did it again as a $75 million company and then again as a $100 million company. He has taken this little company from $3 million in sales to over $100 million in sales simply by getting out in front, focusing on how he would have it be, and allowing the universe to lead him into the future.

He focused on how he would have it be rather than how it was. He trusted it would work out. He generated fun and enthusiasm every day. He built a team of people that shared his vision. And they had fun working together watching it all unfold.

It really can be pretty simple. If you’d like some coaching to make this happen, let us know. If you’re into struggling and suffering, this may just be time for you to unsubscribe.

Tired of all the bad news?

Just this week I received an invitation to be the keynote speaker at an engineering conference to be held this June in Florida. The meeting planner explained why the program committee selected me for this program. She said that the first two speakers would give reports on the state of the economy and the state of the industry and that those reports likely wouldn’t leave people too excited about the business prospects for the year. My job would be to cheer them up and leave them excited about the future. She further said they were all so tired of hearing bad news.

I was delighted to accept the assignment. Right up our alley. We’ve just finished the best year in our history and I’ve talked to many company leaders in just the last week that reported similar results. So what about you? Are you done with the bad news yet?

If you want 2010 to be a glorious year, there are just a few things you have to understand. Whether it’s your company or your personal life, everything you want is out there waiting for you. It would probably freak you out if I explained why that’s the case so just trust me on this one. It’s like every desire you’ve ever had is sitting in an escrow account waiting for you.

Now the question is: how do you cash in what’s in the account? The answer to that question is not all that complicated. It all depends on what you have your attention on and what your attitude is. I really don’t care what industry you’re in and what your assessment is of your circumstances. If you know how to play the game, you can play it to win.

Stated simply, you always get what you focus on. Right now, most people are focusing on what they don’t have, how lousy the economy is, our national debt, how bad business is, when will this mess ever turn around, and on and on. When that’s your focus, you hang out mostly in worry or fear. Under these circumstances, you’re just not a match for what’s in your escrow account and there’s simply no way for the universe to lead you in the direction of your desires.

I hope the solution is obvious. Start focusing on what you already have and what you’re grateful for. So if, for example, there are 10 things in your life/company you want to have, you have 4 of them and don’t have 6 of them, instead of trying to figure out how to get the 6 you don’t have, which, by the way, is a total waste of time, focus on how happy you are that you have the 4 you have. When you do that, you line yourself and your company up with what’s in your escrow account and the universe will show you the way to cash in your desires.

Focus on what makes you happy and you’ll have more to make you happy. Focus on what makes you unhappy and you’ll have more to make you unhappy. Pretty simple, not so easy. Do it anyway and I promise you’ll be amazed at the results.