How do you want your world to look?

When you say your business is successful…what do you mean?

If everybody does what they are supposed to do, what have they done?

The answers to these help you find your Vision. For many large companies and government agencies, “Vision Statements” are nothing more than something to print on a poster and hang everywhere, or stick on a website so your clients think you “get them.” But if it is just a slogan, or if it is only designed to fit on a coffee mug in a pleasing font, then it is not going to help you at all. On the other hand, if you really put some thought into it, it will help you drive your business toward success, and it will offer some focus to all those wild-eyed dreamers, and squinty-eyed accountants, working for you.

If you are going to do some planning — and you should — you need to have some idea where you want to go. You really need to know where this business should be heading before you start worrying about budgeting, personnel, where to buy the coffee, key things like that. And as you are trying to lead your employees, you should be able to communicate your Vision to them to give them a target to shoot for. As for you, your leadership style and the techniques you use should be based on what it is you are trying to accomplish. Your Vision Statement is that future accomplishment, and should be the result of some real effort.

A good Vision Statement should be descriptive, using lots of nouns and not a whole lot of verbs. It is not so much what you want to do -– that comes later -– it is what you want to be, what you want to create, what you want your clients or customers to do or have or get. This should be the first step in any serious planning you do because it allows you to define success and puts a goal out there around which everything you do should revolve. If you do not know where you are going, how will you decide how to get there? For that matter, how will you ever know you’ve arrived?

It really should not be the result of just one person’s thinking. Sure, if you are the creator of a new firm, you probably have a pretty good idea where you want it go. But as you grow, you will want to include others in that discussion and decision. Why? Because the discussions you have about your Vision will help you know if you have a collection of like-minded team members or if you have 20 people going in 20 different directions (hint: that is not so good)

You need to make your Vision Statement realistic, but remember that “realistic” and “likely” are different words. It’s like the difference between “possible” and “probable” – the former is adventurous, the latter is safe. Realism depends on the time frame of your planning…if you are only looking a year down the road you are likely to be stuck with the resources you have, but if you look five years away, a lot more options (and challenges) occur.

Consider some of these:

“We help create companies we would be proud to have our children work for.” (a consulting firm)

“We focus on our clients’ outer beauty so they can focus on their inner beauty.” (a hair salon)

“Maximum shareholder value.” (a pretty common one in many industries)

These do not tell you how they are going to get there or where the money is coming from to get there, but they DO tell you where “there” is. With that in mind, you are in a better position to recruit the right people, obtain the right resources, and develop the best courses of action. It will also let you figure out if aiming for something that is unrealistic.

And if it fits on a coffee cup…well, that can be cool, too.