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Imagine sitting down with a book—an action-adventure story—where there is only one character. Without anyone to save or an ideal to defend, would you care about the outcome? 

Chances are the answer is no. 

Having a compelling vision means focusing outside of yourself, as the leader. It requires dedication to others and leading from a place of service. 

In Part I of this series, we talked about purposeful leadership and the key elements it requires. Now, we’re looking at how to communicate that compelling vision outward—to your staff, your partners, perhaps even to shareholders, and others invested in your company. 

3 Key Elements to Clearly Communicate Your Compelling Vision

There are 3 key elements in successfully communicating your organization’s compelling vision. If these go unmet or worse, if leadership doesn’t recognize their importance, there will be greater challenges ahead. 

1. First, there must be alignment. This essential step begins by creating a group vision with those you lead through dialogue that yields a high level of commitment. Don’t expect it to happen in a single meeting or within a week. Alternately, don’t wait until every employee understands all the details of the greater plan. 
   
   In the article, “Why Visionary Leadership Fails,” in the Harvard Business Review, it’s noted, “Employees of misaligned visionary managers indicated that their managers created confusion and uncertainty about what the company strategy entailed.” 
2. Secondly, remain close to your core vision. Tap into your deep sense of purpose. Any fog in the leader’s office will engulf everyone else in the organization. Clarity and focus and the ability to weed out distractions and side issues are essential. The rewards are great for the leader who can do this consistently. Working from that deep sense of purpose comes through in your optimism, enthusiasm, and passion. 
3. Thirdly, communicate that compelling vision of the future clearly to team members and other leaders. This encourages everyone in the organization to have their vision while also working together toward the greater one. 

Leadership in the workplace requires that these elements be used in conjunction. By doing so, you’ll clearly communicate your business’s compelling vision to members of your organization at every level.   

This blog post, “7 Steps to Communicate and Achieve Expected Outcomes,” offers hands-on tools to facilitate clear outcomes. The planning and communicating effective outcomes steps are particularly important when it comes to communicating a compelling vision in your business. 

“If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Being Clear About Your Compelling Vision

How do you know if your vision is compelling…or confusing? Here is a simple test: when people meet with you, they get your vision. They may not understand every nuance and conceivable outcome, but they understand clearly what the vision is and how you intend to bring it to life. 

Research on leadership skills suggests that this is an essential element in the success of you and your organization. This article in Forbes, notes “Having a brilliant vision and strategy doesn’t make a difference if you can’t get your leaders and employees to buy into that vision.” And how can they buy into it if they don’t understand it clearly? 

Being a strong leader requires you to create a vision and translate that vision into strategies, goals, and actions that achieve results.  

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Are you struggling to communicate your compelling vision? With more than 30 years of coaching and mentoring, I’ve worked alongside business leaders to improve and accelerate performance at all levels. Please reach out for a complimentary consultation today. 

“I just don’t feel like she understands what I’m saying.” 

Statements like this—from a team member about someone in leadership—are rampant in businesses across the U.S. Clearly, having the ability to communicate your vision successfully as a leader, is a challenging task. 

Most leaders believe they are being clear, concise, and engaging. Statistics say otherwise. 

Many state that team members across industries struggle to feel heard, understood, and acknowledged by leadership in the workplace. According to the 2019 Global Human Capital Trends survey, 805 of its respondents rated leadership as a high priority. However, only 41 percent believe their companies are ready to fulfill their leadership requirements.

What does it take to lead with purpose? And how can you communicate your vision successfully to all members of your business’s team to build employee engagement? 

What is Purposeful Leadership? 

Purposeful leadership begins with two key elements. 

1. Your commitment to personal purpose and vision
2. Your ability to clearly communicate and model that purpose and vision

At its heart, purposeful leadership is about creating something larger than our organization, and ourselves as its leader. An article in Forbes, states, “Purposeful leaders understand that in order for them to live on purpose, to achieve the results that are most important to them, they must get everyone on their team to live according to their purpose and hold each other accountable.” 

Recognizing purposeful leadership though and living it out are two different things. 

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”

–John Donne, English poet

Testing Your Leadership Competencies

Asking someone, “Are you a competent leader?” is like asking if the sky is blue. Of course, our response is always yes, even if on an overcast day. 

Competency in leadership is hard to define. We are not our employees. And being “in the thick of things” makes it even more challenging. Many busy executives and leaders believe they don’t have the time to commit to assessing these types of overarching skills. 

Testing these though, can lead to much greater insight, honesty, and greater growth than you might imagine possible. Testing your “purpose level” will harness the power of existing skills and provides you with necessary insights to strengthen weak areas.

Questions to ask yourself: 

• What do you stand for?
• Are you in the middle of a transition? Is the old vision collapsing but the new hasn’t emerged yet? 
• Does your vision require courage to pursue? 
• Are you burned out or have you lost the fire that once energized you? 

These are just a few of the deep questions that must be considered honestly. And while you are the only one who can determine what your responses mean—for yourself, your business, and your purpose—you don’t need to go it alone. Working with a mastermind group, a mentor, or a leadership coach will help you find your way. 

The Importance of a Compelling Vision

In part two of this blog series, we will look at how to clearly communicate a compelling vision through purposeful leadership. Remember though: to create and share that vision, one must already be leading—and living—on purpose. 

Are you leading on purpose? Does your team agree? Please share your thoughts in the comments. Ready to strengthen your leadership competencies? Consider leadership coaching.

1. Define the Expected Outcomes

To communicate and achieve expected outcomes, break down the steps to be clear and specific.

Expected Outcome 1: The Quality of Work

First, define what success looks like and what it does not. Be clear in how the work product will be used by others. For instance, how it will provide greater accuracy in managerial decision making, how it will bring more efficiency to a workflow, and/or how it may be used in evaluating different alternatives to address business challenges.

Expected Outcome 2: The Deadlines that Need to Be Met

Next, be specific as to when the deliverables are due, why they are due when they are, and the related consequences if the deadlines missed.

Expected Outcome 3: Resources and Support

Then, be specific as to the resources that are available to support the work that needs to be done. This should include who, what, where, why, and how. Include the time, money, and people that are available and necessary to support them in meeting the desired outcomes.

2. Define the Value Proposition and Purpose

The value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered, communicated, and acknowledged.

The questions below will help facilitate the value proposition and purpose discussion. This is a critical step. Success or failure in this activity will have a significant impact on whether you achieve the expected outcomes. A high level of trust will increase the quality of this activity, in contrast, a low level of trust will create a less desired result.

Individual: What is in it for them? Why it is important to them? What would being successful feel like to them when they have achieved their goals? What skills will they have developed because of the assignment?
Team: What is in it for the team? Why is it important for the team? How would the team feel about a successful result?
Organization: What is in it for the organization? What would be the impact on the growth of the organization? How would a successful result of the project impact the overall organization and culture?

Do not be narrow in your thinking, use a mindset that includes both the short-and-long- term impact in all three perspectives.

3. Outcome Accountability

Upon completing steps 1 and 2 there needs to be a plan that outlines the commitments and expectations that have been agreed to with the individual/team and you. If this is done well, you will increase the likelihood that the individual or team will take ownership.

Be clear, transparent, and candid about the challenges that will present themselves and the level of commitment that will be required to achieve desired outcomes. Do not forget to be specific when including the opportunities for growth and how you will support them in achieving success.

4. Plan

The plan should include all the key points and important dates captured in steps 1-3. Remember to review and rewrite the plan until the document represents all the important aspects. This is a reiterative process; all parties should agree on the final document.

5. Communicate Expected Outcomes

Communicating the expected outcomes will take a different form depending upon the scope of the work or role of the individual or team. The intent of this step is to let others know the reason that the work is important and how they might be impacted by it. This communication should also explain how the scope of the work fits into the work of the team and the organization, and who will be impacted during or after the work is complete.

6. Monitor Progress: Both Results and Process Measurements

In general, if steps 1- 5 are done well, then you are prepared to execute. Ongoing communication, candid feedback, and alignment of roles, responsibilities, and expectations are critical to meeting both results and process outcomes. This step is an opportunity for both the individual and the leader’s development.

7. Celebrate, Recognize, and Learn

Leaders often forget to celebrate or recognize the individuals’ or groups’ contributions. Recognition is a critical aspect of motivating others and is known to increase employee retention. Be specific in what you are recognizing the individual or team for. Do not use general terms. How you make someone feel is often more important to them than what you said or did for them.

The pursuit of excellence and a focus on continuous process improvement requires that we look objectively at the outcomes produced. Open conversations around what worked, what did not, and what you would do differently will go a long way in learning from the experience.

For more information on redefining your leadership practices with a leadership coach please visit asulmonte.com and schedule a free consultation.