Creating a vision for your business

22 Aug 2019 | by Una McGuinness

What do leaders really do?

None of us can afford to be vague about the purpose of your businesses and plans for the future, both immediate, mid and long term. The old adage, “snooze you lose” in the competitive world of recruitment is not wrong.

Any leader of a people organization – “has to have something of a politician and a marketer about them”, you need to be able to confidently deal with conflicting viewpoints, develop emotional resilience and be always thinking of ways to differentiate your brand.

So what is a “vision?”

Vision is the dream, it’s where you are headed – take the form of a directive statement, or an overall “ethos” for your organization, it’s a motivating purpose.

Aspire, where I worked for over 20 years, had the following vision;

“to be a global network of leading specialist recruitment companies”

Why is it important to have a vision?

It should provide us with energy and commitment
It clarifies the general direction of the company
It doesn’t ask anything, not time bound
It is a practical guide for creating plans, setting goals and objectives, making decisions, and coordinating and evaluating the work on any project, large or small.
It helps keep organizations and groups focused and together, especially with complex projects and in stressful times.
It gives a purpose a sense of “WHY” – we all want to work for something more than the salary.

People didn’t come to Aspire because of what we did “recruited for the digital, media and marketing communication sector”, there are loads of companies out there that do just that. They came and stayed, because they believed in the vision, the sense of purpose of the organization and the leadership.

You need to create a vision that is believable and under-pinned by some market leading ideas and strategies to drive results.

We are all exposed to same talent, we all do recruitment, we all have access to Linked In, job boards, networking, events, CRMs and the clients.

So why are some businesses more successful than others?

Look at Linked In – they have access to same designers, same talent, same financial geniuses – but why have they been so successful?

If you have had much interaction with any Linked In employees – they really believe in the vision and the why.

They articulate, they can explain, they believe why the orgainsation exists.

Linked In’s vision statement for past 6 years has been “to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.”Nov 13, 2014

The difference is their mission is defines how the company works to fulfill that vision – Linked In it is “connecting the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful”

Now, let’s not under-estimate there is a huge amount of work to turning that vision into reality.

How do you create a vision?

You may actually have a vision – that is present but not recognized?
You may have a vision – set out when the company was formed – however needs up dating?
You need to go back to basics potentially – and agree why you are actually doing this – what is the dream?

Tip; don’t try and create in after a poor week, or when you are not feeling on top form.

Give you self some thinking space – Visualize it if you can.

What would it look like? Multiple offices around the globe, would it be people coming to you as the authority in your market, your clients asking you to the board table to influence their people strategies, develop your footprint in new destinations? Would it be your business giving something back to local community, would it be you offering and engaging in a diverse, agile workforce, with brilliant retention?

You often come up with your best ideas, when you allow yourself thinking time, that’s not forced, when the sub-conscious mind takes over, it might be driving, in the pub, at the gym, whilst in the shower, cooking a meal…… don’t let these great ideas escape you! You need to give yourself permission to think differently.

Tip; Allow yourself some time to switch off from technology, use creative methodologies within your business to get some different outputs, *there are plenty of people, and books out there (Tim Ried, Guy Browning – I have seen these two speakers around subject of creativity and would highly recommend) allow and note output from your subconscious thinking time.

Why?

Involved other Directors / key leadership team –it is easy to lose some of that sense of WHY when everyone is focused on their day to day. I have worked with brands that re-invented their vision, it was aloways there, just not at the forefront of what they were doing, and this allowed them to have a renewed sense of purpose.

Tip; What you create, will people want to get out of bed for it??

Don’t underestimate the power of the vision you create.

I believe in allowing team to create their own vision, it doesn’t matter it’s what works for you and your culture… I wouldn’t distill it down too much if you are a smaller size of organization, otherwise might become blurred.

The process of communicating the overall vision through your organization is vital to the success;

Tip; Create workshops to discuss your vision and values, and how it might be used, applied in day to day situations in your organization

The management team must cascade it, must use it in hiring, recruiting, training, it must align with the core values and purpose of the business – all decision making, should question – does this fit with the vision, will doing this take us closer to where we want to go? If the answer is no, they you shouldn’t be doing it.

Know people respond well to stories – so to make the dream believable – structure a narrative of where the business has come form, where it is currently at, (even if you haven’t had the best of years), the importance is where it wants to be….

Una McGuinness

Una has a huge passion for the industry, substantiated by over 20 years’ experience as a leader. Currently working with an array of clients across various sectors and projects, Una can offer you objectivity, smart thinking, with a constant eye on what and how companies are adapting to the world of recruitment plus inspiration to make the changes you require to take your business to the next level.

More About Una