Vision casting is more than saying what you see
“It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.” – Helen Keller
Dreams, Goals, and Purpose are all necessary when pursuing a desired result; however, all of these are useless if they aren’t encompassed by a compelling vision!
A simple way of thinking about vision is:what could and should be, but isn’t there, yet!
Extraordinary leaders see what isn’t there, figure out how to get there, and then communicate the vision in such a way that others can attach themselves to that vision and get there with them.
According to John Maxwell‘s “The 360* Leader”
Here are 8 ways to be an effective vision caster! (or if you’re Andy Stanley, a “visionier”)
1. Be clear about the vision: If your team members can’t understand the vision, they won’t be able to achieve the vision.
2. Connect the vision to yesterday, today, and tomorrow: We can’t live life in the past, and we must acknowledge where we are. Vision looks towards the future but acknowledges and celebrates where we’ve been, where we are, and what we will be doing.
3. Give the “why” for the vision: When team members know the why they are able to decide right then if it is something they want to give themselves to. It is better to find out now if they’re on board than to find out later that they weren’t.
4. Give the plan to achieve the vision: Remember, the what could be is not enough to get buy-in from team members, they want to know how we’re going to get there.
5. Don’t make the vision too easy: John Maxwell says, “just because you can make the vision attainable doesn’t mean it can’t be challenging.” A challenge engages people and encourages them to give their best.
6. Catch your team members accomplishing the vision and share their story: This is pretty straight forward. If you want your team members to give you their best, celebrate their best.
7. Help create passion for the vision: Passion for the vision lies with its creator. If our team members are going to have passion for the vision we must help them connect their passions to the vision.
8. Repeat: Vision leaks and must be repeated if we want our team members to constantly be looking towards it.
There is a lot of great material out there on vision, here are a few to look into:
Visioneering – Andy Stanley
Making Vision Stick – Andy Stanley
The 360* Leader – John Maxwell
There many more resources on vision out there, here is a link to an Amazon page on business/leadership “vision” books.
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