Make Your Vision Your Day-To-Day Reality

As an entrepreneur, we usually start our business in pursuit of a dream.

The decision may have been made because you had an idea that would change the world, or you had some skill that you thought could create better results for those you serve. You would have started your business with a picture of what you would do, how you would work, and who you would serve.

And yet, for many people, as time goes by, they start to feel “caught up.” The clarity of their dream starts to dim as they struggle with daily decisions and activities – the minutiae of running a business instead of the bigger picture.

How often have you wondered why your product or service isn’t a consistent experience for your customer? Why does your staff continuously have to ask you what they should do? How much do you feel that only you can do it right? What’s happened to your ultimate goals of freedom – financial freedom, freedom to spend more time with your family, freedom to travel and see the world?

How do you get back on track? How do you create – or recreate – your dream of a self-running business that benefits your customers and people who work with you, and rewards you with those freedoms?

The first step you need to take, is to commit to creating your vision and making it real.

In order to make your vision a day-to-day reality you need to create the right corporate culture where people understand and subscribe to whatever it is you are trying to create, independently know what to do and how to do it, and allow you to focus on the business and not just work in it.

There are 7 key steps to take in order to do this.

Create a compelling vision

Your business must start with your vision.

What is it you are building? Why are you so passionate about it? What will it look like when you have built it? Who will it serve? What will people working in it think about working there? How will it reward you and everyone else? How will it benefit customers, suppliers and staff?

To get your team to make decisions for themselves, they first need to know what they are working for, and that it will be of benefit to them (not necessarily financially). They need to understand what’s right in the business, and what’s not because it leads them off track.

Communicate the vision

Talk about the vision. You are the leader – walk the talk; and when you slip up occasionally, don’t hide it, announce it and ask others to learn from your mistake. A vision is only a set of words. People need to see that you actually believe in what you say and that you are prepared to measure your own performance by it. You need to convince them this is not a passing phase.

Watch out for people doing the right thing and immediately, publicly, praise them and point out to others what the right thing was. If you see others slip up, talk to them privately, and show them what should have happened and that you will watch out for them to get it right.

If there is one thing that builds the corporate culture, it is talking and communicating about the right way to do things - consistently, constantly and persistently.

Create systems that reinforce the vision

Write up policies and procedures. Don’t leave your staff with just a motivational idea – point out to them in clear statements how to behave in different circumstances that show they are following the vision; give them step-by-step procedures that incorporate the objectives of the vision.

Make sure you have a clearly defined organisation chart with position descriptions that detail each individual’s roles and responsibilities. Create a system where people are trained, not only in the skills required for their job but also the objectives of their job. All your systems and processes from answering the telephone to sending the invoice should be systemised so that everyone does the same thing consistently, following the same standards.

Just doing this alone will remove the hundred daily micro-questions from staff about what they should do. However, the key is to relate all your systems towards the attainment of your vision. They must be able to clearly see why a policy exists in relation to the vision.

Design measurements and rewards that align to the vision

This is part of communicating the vision and the benefits attaining the vision will bring to everyone. You need to design rewards and recognition awards that reinforce attainment of the vision.

Make sure KPI’s in people’s position statements reflect the objectives of their roles and the importance of their responsibilities. Create measurements that are easy to access, and that people can use to self-measure. 

Choose people who get the vision

Building your self-running business where people are motivated – not just by money – to build it with you and make their own decisions based on alignment to the vision, is about everyone sitting in the right seats and facing the same way.

This is partly about the skill and experience they bring (which you can teach if you have to) but it is all about their attitude (which is impossible to teach). You need people who understand the vision, understand that it involves a profitable business as its base, and are willing to work in that corporate culture for the bigger goals.

Remove people who don’t get the vision

It has to be said that sometimes you have people sitting in the right seats but continually facing the wrong way. They may be disruptive, they create dysfunction, they just don’t get it.

Again this is about attitude – if you cannot change their understanding of your journey and the vision, you have to remove them quickly.

Create an atmosphere where failure is a learning opportunity

Finally, you need to create a learning organisation. Everyone will make mistakes, even you. You need to create systems and processes that understand this.

Create an atmosphere where “there are no mistakes, only learning experiences” and ensure that learning experiences are recognised and learned from. Someone who consistently does not appear to learn is someone who will not fit into your culture where everyone has independence to make their own decisions based on alignment with the vision. Therefore the systems must include quick recognition of a mistake, and then what can be learned. This should be done without blame, but by asking “what do we need to do better?”