So a forum friend of mine, Debbie Benstein (she lives in Israel, but we chat every day…) challenged other members of the forum about having a vision for their business. I immediately went into business planning mode, and snapped off a reply using the template from The Simple Focus Plan. She quickly corrected me. So, I must publicly thank her.
There is a difference between a clearly stated vison statement for your plan, and having a vision for what your company, organization or endeavor can be. I think it boils down to “achieve” versus “be”. I personally believe it is a breakdown in the words and terminology we all use every day.
So with that said, I am going to post some pieces of my response on the forum:
Crafting a vision for your company, that is compelling, inspirational, exciting, is like good design. Most, (the widely vast majority) cannot create anything near what they want. They may have an idea that they want to articulate, but simply do not have the creativity, the vocabulary or the time, to do it.
You see, crafting a vision and a mission is not something you do on a lunch break. There is not an app on your phone that you can use to craft one.
This type of work is messy. This type of work is painful, and scary, and it will make people really think hard about their own personal values, and dreams and vision for their life.
You see creating a vision for what you want your business to be also creates the very, very scary “A” word…. Accountability.
If you create a vision, and you can’t uphold it, you can’t achieve it… then what? Have you failed?
So look, I am going to post what my personal vision is, and what my vison is for my companies, my work, my business endeavors…
My personal vision:
Help others live the life they are capable of, and work to make my world, my tiny piece of God’s creation, a place where others want to be, spend time and improve.
My business / professional / company vision:
Share. Give. Trust. Explore.
Share knowledge, information and resources freely to help my customers, clients and even my competitors to grow, and improve the communities and lives they touch, and my enterprise will benefit.
Give just a bit more than people expect. Give just a bit more than you think you should. Give just bit more of yourself than you think you can, and you will get results that can be exponentially greater and more powerful than you thought possible.
Trust that people, both those that I work with, and those that I work for, will respect me, my knowledge and my value. Trust that the other person, both strangers and those I know, will do the right thing. Trust that our services and our offering makes a difference in our customers and clients business, or we would not be there.
Explore the unknown. Explore ideas. Explore relationships. Explore the disasters and the victories. And like the explorers we know of the past, create a map so that we can share the journey.
There, I have done it. I have posted it. I am now accountable for it.
Debbie – Thank you.
Rob