This morning, I was watching a Web TV show on a interview about the "candid conversations and insightful interviews." There was a segment where Keith Sirois from Big Boy Restaurants and Roy Hellwege from Bank of Florida. The topic was "From Surviving to Thriving - Leaders at the Mic." 

As the show progressed, the host of the show dug in and peeled back the layers; The topic of conversation zeroed in on the top three initiatives that should be implemented to turn the economy around. He gave both guests an opportunity to answer the question of their top three. He started with Mr. Hellwege.

Mr. Hellwege list was straight and to the point: 1) Lower taxes and less regulation; 2) Fiscal Discipline and; 3) Education. It was very well stated and he had many points to back up his list. Mr. Sirois was next, "Jobs is the issue, Jobs is the issue, Jobs is the issue are my top three" he said.

"It’s about jobs...There is money out there; we have money in our businesses." Says Keith Sirois, CEO of Big Boy. "We don't know if we can spend it now for capital improvements, new construction, things like that; or if we are going to need it next year or the year after that for taxes, healthcare or some other mandate that we have no idea what it’s going to cost." He goes on to say, "At the federal government level and at the state level...there needs to be some clear direction on where we're going, and what the requirements are and what it's going to costs. Because we (businesses) are going to sit back and sit on our hands until we know."

WOW! What an awesome statement by Mr. Sirois. Did you catch what he said? He said, and I'm paraphrasing, business have money, and they are not going to start spending until they know what the direction the country is taking? He is not talking about the difference between a republican and democratic direction/strategy; he is referring to just HAVING a strategy. He is saying; just tell us what the vision is for the next few years so we (businesses) can get on board; so we can set objectives, plan our work and make money (get results) without all of the out of our control foreign elements hitting us from all sides.

Just like when following business leaders, government leaders have the same responsibility to share the vision with us. In business, if leadership is indecisive on where the company is going you will get a lot of wheel spinning and very little results. Hence, the same will occur when our government leaders are on different pages, you will get a lot of action, but the results will be virtually non-existent or they won't have any meaning. 

People, the American people, are tenacious, they are doers, they are proud and they stop at almost nothing. When things get tough, they get going. It has happened in the past, it is happening now and it will happen in the future. I love the American worker. However, if you don’t give them vision/direction they will still work, they just won’t be working on what it is that will give your company or America the best and most cost effective results. 

As I have said in the past, you must have a vision and the Vision must be communicated so that everyone understands it. An understood vision will lead to goals. Goals will create actions and; Actions will produce desired results. Results will tie back to the vision of the organization. This works no matter what the organization looks like, government, business (large or small) and all others. Now go out there and share your vision with your teams!    Get Vision, Get Results.

Without vision, results won't matter.  You can set goals, take action and produce results...and if the results are not based on the vision of the organization, all you have done is wasted resources.  You can only hope that you have come close to hitting the vision target.  You can only hit the vision target of the organization if you know what it is. Otherwise, you are just shooting in the dark.  

The way to measure your actual Vision Maturity (VMM)  level is time consuming and takes some effort to capture the data.  This is proprietary and I can not share it with you on this site.  However, you can guesstimate your VMM level with a simple survey.  It is not as accurate but you will get a sense of where you are.  This guesstimate only works for the overall organization and does not take into account the complexity of the organizations operations.  To do this quick measure you will need to interview the "Vision Master" (gold owner) of the organization.  It is important to make sure you find the right person, and talk to them one-on-one.  Do not do this in a team environment.  The only question that you need answered is "Please tell me your current vision statement for your organization."  This should be a short and direct statement.  Be careful here not to just take a slogan or some written statement that has been with the company of years. Usually this means that there is no vision or direction within the organization.

Write the vision statement down from the Vision Master.  Next task is to walk the halls of the organization and ask the question "What is the organization's (company's) vision?"  You must do this in short order, in private and without much fanfare; Remember this is a test.  Give them 15 to 30 seconds to respond.  Count if they get it correct or not.  You will need to have a sample size based on the level of certainty you would like, using standard statistical sampling guidelines. When done total the correct responses and divide by the total number of people asked.  This will give you a percent between 0 and 100.  The following chart will give you a rough guesstimate of the VMM level of the organization:
Level 0 @ 0% - 25% 
Level 1 @ 26% - 75% 
Level 2 @ 76% - 95% 
Level 3 @ 96% - 100%


Visit www.vigoacre.com to see more details on the Vision Maturity Model. 

Some examples of good visions statements are:

Lockheed Martin's Vision:  Powered by Innovation, Guided by Integrity, We Help Our Customers Achieve Their Most Challenging Goals.

Anheuser-Busch: Be the world's beer company.Through all of our products, services and relationships, we will add to life's enjoyment.

Boeing 1950: Become the dominant player in commercial aircraft and bring the world into the jet age.
Boeing Current: People working together as one global enterprise for aerospace leadership.

Ford Early 1900s: Democratize the automobile.
Ford Current: To become the world's leading Consumer Company for automotive products and services.

Honda 1970: We will destroy Yamaha.
Honda Current: To Be a Company that Our Shareholders, Customers and Society Want.

Kraft Foods: Helping People Around the World Eat and Live Better.

As you can see, sometimes vision statements need to change over time.  Good ones can stand the test of time.  If your organization completely knows and understands the vision of the organization then you will be well on the way to getting the results that you expect.

So you figured out that you had a low level VMM.  You've taken corrective action to raise the organizations VMM level, now what?  Your next action needs to be that you have buy-in from your leadership team.  If you team is small, then you need buy-in from the whole team.

At this point I have to assume that your leadership team (or leader) has the attention of the rest of the employee group.  If your leaders do not have this respect, then you obviously have other issues than just vision and results.

Lets talk about the buy-in that is needed. In this case the term buy-in means that your leaders are 100% supportive of the vision of the organization.  To be supportive they first must be informed, communicated to.   This communication is the most important part of the buy-in process; If you fail here, then your vision will fail also.   I like to communicate these type of high level important items by meeting and directing.   Directing is the art of knowing the general place you want to end up, then meeting with the team to direct them to this place.  This is a very effective technique if done right. If done wrong can wind you up some place you do not want to be and also some place you may not recover from.

So, you have this great vision and you are meeting with your team to get them the vision.   You have planned out the strategy to direct them to the promised land.   How do you get them excited and how do you get them to believe in the vision (this is the buy-in part).  YOU MAKE IT THEIR IDEA.  This is where your directing skills come in.  If you do this well then your team will come up with a organizational vision that is what you dreamed of or maybe even a better one, based on where you as a leader wants to take the organization.

Now, if you have a good leadership team and they can communicate to their teams, then you will be ready for improving your VMM level and the results will be fantastic.   Change Management comes into play here, but you can do this.  Get Vision, Get Results.

...then, you have to define "perfect."  
 
My 15 year old son plays soccer.  He has been playing soccer most of his life.  He is in his second year of high school soccer, his forth year of club soccer and his first year of a new soccer training academy at a local university.  This all adds up to an average of nine training sessions per week.  Then about once a month they have a weekend tournament that consists of three or four games.  When high school season starts, they will have about 10 games during the four month season.  This all adds up to a lot of training/practice per game played.  

Why is this even important to this blog?  How is it relevant to business?  Easy.  In business we do minimal training per our work, or as I put it, game time. This is very scary.  We ask our team to perform at it peak but we do not provide them the training or practice needed to be perfect.

Well it can, but what is the level of training/practice are you getting?  Can it make you perfect?

More on this later...

Vision is the glue that holds organizations together. It is the thing that gets everyone on the same page all moving in the same direction, trying to achieve the same goals. A business, just like in sports, in order to win everyone has to know what the vision of the organization is...and they have to believe it. 

Look at any sports team you know or follow, armature or professional. They all want to win. That's their goal, to win every game, every match. A businesses goal is usually to make money, make a profit, that is their way of winning. But what is the vision of the coach or leader that will help the team win? How are the tasks you do related to the goals and vision of the organization? 

A high school boys soccer team has a goal of winning every game for the season. This is a great goal, maybe even a stretch goal depending on the team. So what is the coaches vision for the team? Is it having the most fit players, the smartest players, the best soccer technique players, the best game strategy?  It will be a combination of these and other items.  A winning coach will know, but if he does not tell his players and set their expectations, then how will they be able to take action and get results?  Just telling the players what to do will only produce average results at best. 

Now, take this to a typical business.  They should be operating as a team and this team needs to know the vision of the leader (coach).  It is so important that the team knows how the leader wants it to function in order to win.  If this vision is communicated properly to the team then the team will take the ball and run with it...and the results will be what the leader expects.  Get Vision, Get Results.

There has been many articles and books written about taking charge and leading the way.  This is a respectful theme and has a lot of merits.  People that take the lead are usually looked upon as the leader.  So what's the big deal?  Why is this an important subject and why now? 

The big deal is that you may be leading your team in the wrong direction without knowing it; This discussion is important because you may not realize that you are.

How can you tell if you and your team are on the right path?  Ask yourself these four simple questions:

1. Do I know exactly what the Vision of my organization is?
2. Are the Goals of my team aligned with this vision?
3. Can every Action that my team performs be tied to a specific goal and are the deliverables acceptable to an owner?
   
4. Are the Results that my team's producing directly contributing to the vision and goals of the organization?
   

If you can not answer all of these questions, then you need to quickly re-evaluate the path your are on.

In the past, I have had some very smart and experienced leaders tell me that although they are not sure of the vision of their organization, they should still keep moving forward by setting goals, taking action and producing results.  So I ask them the simple question: How do the results you produce tie back to the vision and goals of the company.  And of course the answer is that they didn't know, but they thought it did.  They thought they knew enough to effectively to move forward.  They assumed that the organization was a VMM level 2 when they were probably only at a level 1 or 0.

Here is the mistake that most of us are making.  We get frustrated with the communication that is coming from our leaders, the CEO's, the Boards, the Executives...and we take it upon ourselves to "carve our own path."  We get great results, based on our belief's, and feel good about it.  STOP IT NOW!  The results probably don't align with your companies vision. If they do then you just got lucky.

Get Vision, Get results!