People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily. ~ Zig Ziglar
How do you uphold your leadership vision?
Keeping a vision active and powerful takes effort, diligence, intentionality and desire, all of which must be initiated by the top leader. With daily distractions, challenges and opportunities that impact staff, a casual approach is inadequate.
Here are a few tips that I suggest when discussing this with my coaching clients.
- Engage your leadership circle. Ensure they understand, support and share your vision.
- Point all activities and outcomes to your vision. Keeping the vision on everyone’s mind requires a consistent focus.
- Establish policies and procedures in ways that reflect your vision. For example, if your vision is to improve diabetic patients’ health with your extensive line of nutritious products, position all activities to deliver on this promise. Your decisions to partner with retailers must be based on helping diabetics live healthier lives. Your product development and testing should be aimed at helping diabetics stay healthy. All of your meetings, budgets and plans must be designed to support consumers’ lives. Your vision becomes a mantra that no one can ignore.
- Eliminate any activities or projects that don’t support your vision. As tempting as new ventures may be, spreading yourself thin by chasing too many always weakens the focus on your primary vision and diminishes overall outcomes.
- Openly promote your vision.
- Update signage, posters, newsletters and websites to keep your vision at the forefront of people’s experience. Some organizations state their vision on their letterhead and standard forms. Make sure it’s ingrained in the staff’s consciousness.
- In staff meetings, periodically describe your passion for the vision.
- Send a video message to your employees through company email. Share how important the vision is to you and how their involvement is part of a greater cause.
As advantageous as open reminders are for maintaining your vision, when you openly and continuously walk the talk, nothing is as compelling as a personal message from you. Direction and culture originate at the top, so your testimony carries more weight than all other promotional efforts combined.
These strategies ensure your vision remains fresh and vibrant in people’s minds and, by extension, their work.
What do you think? In what ways do you uphold your leadership vision? I’d love to hear from you. You can call me at 561-582-6060, let’s talk. And as always, I can be reached here or on LinkedIn.
