Creating and defining a vision statement for your team can be tough. What do you include? What do you exclude? How long or short do you make it? There are a lot of thoughts that go into defining the vision for your team or business.
Here are some tried-and-true methods for not only defining your vision, but for developing a compelling vision statement for your team that will get them motivated, empower them to work, and engage them and your organization for success.
The Vision Statement Must Be Clear.
Clarity around a vision and goal is one of the things that separates high-performing teams from ineffectively functioning teams, according to the authors of Teamwork: What Must Go Right/What Can Go Wrong. A sense of mission is a characteristic of both top-performing teams and leaders.
Mission can be defined as a vision of a future state that inspires action. The vision has to be clear. People want to know where they are going, what they need to do to get there, and what’s in it for them. Beyond money, bonuses, or tangible rewards, people will get behind a challenging goal that is bigger than themselves
Think about the teams you’ve either led or been on. When there was a clear vision, were you more or less productive? More or less stressed? When a clear vision is defined, it is much easier to know when you’re on and off course and know what you need to do to adjust.
The Vision Statement Must Be Compelling.
In additional to clarity, a vision must also be compelling. It must drive production and goals. Each project and every goal work to further the vision of the organization.
A compelling vision encourages risk.
This kind of vision encourages risk, not perfection. Teams are encourage to develop risky goals to meet risky objectives. (This is not risk for the sake of risk, but a mission that drives teams and people to risk more than they would otherwise.)
A compelling vision inspires ownership.
A vision like this assumes people are capable of not only working toward the mission, but also contributing ways to achieve the vision. People want to feel a part of something bigger than themselves. A compelling vision produces the idea that the person’s work is meaningful beyond just the paycheck.
A compelling vision empowers teams to action.
Have you ever been so engrossed in completing a project that you totally lost track of time? A compelling vision can do that, especially if it makes a difference. People love to rally around a cause. It creates a sense of urgency, moving people to take action.
The Vision Statement Must Be Communicated.
You might think that since you created a clear and compelling vision statement that everyone would think about it and obsess over it as much as you do. You would be wrong. For most people, the vision statement must be communicated on a consistent basis.
In order to communicate your vision statement effectively, it must be short enough to memorize, but long enough to include key components. For example, a local school district’s vision statement is: “To graduate every student prepared for success beyond high school.” This is a very compelling mission statement. It is short enough to memorize. It is also not too specific regarding “success”. Will success look the same for every student graduating high school? Of course not; however, this district desires to achieve success with every student, regardless of how that looks.
Vision statements are great if they are communicated. They are fairly useless if they are not. People forget. They get busy. Team members get distracted with the day to day tasks and tend to lose sight of the overall vision. Team leaders need to keep the vision in front of people. Remind them why they are doing the day-to-day tasks. Leaders remind people of their purpose in the grand scheme of things and why each person is important to the overall vision.
Ways to communicate your vision:
– Talk about it.
– Celebrate team members who embody it.
– Display it everywhere.
– Invite dialogue around it.
– Get feedback from others.
– Create “calls to action” around it.
The Vision Statement Must Be a Commitment.
To have a vision statement is one thing. To be committed to it is altogether quite different. Most companies these days have a mission or vision statement. How many in the company know what it is? Or seek to work by it on a daily basis?
The best teams and leaders know the vision statement and are committed to seeing it lived out day by day. It’s part of the DNA of the organization and each team and team member strive to work towards the vision. Every goal that is set and every project undertaken is driven to fulfill the vision.
How else do you create a clear and compelling vision statement for your team? What ways do you communicate and commit to it?