To keep your team moving in the right direction, you need to reinforce the vision. That doesn’t mean you have to recite it like a parrot; it means getting your team engaged and keeping them engaged.
Talk about possibilities in the context of your vision. Celebrate accomplishments in the context of your vision. Have fun with it! Acknowledge others’ strengths by how they will get “us” closer to the vision. Share how realizing the vision will benefit everyone, not just you personally and not just the bottom line.
Create themes around your vision and look for different ways you can reinforce them in your organization. It may feel like you’re repeating yourself, and that’s good. In fact, that’s the point! You’ll know the message is starting to take hold when you hear people talking about it and coming up with their own ideas. Listen to what they say, and let them start to own it too.
By keeping the vision top of mind, you will continue to build momentum and motivation to make it a reality.
Case Study:
Richard’s retail company had set a vision to transform both their online and international businesses. The organization had created strategies to achieve the vision, and Richard wanted to reinforce both.
We talked about creating themes around the vision and having fun. Richard decided to focus on a “Win” theme since they wanted to win both online and in the global marketplace. He used metaphors and told stories about winners in sports, history, and other industries. The integration team came up with the idea of using the theme “We are the champions,” and they had a built-in theme song.
I asked him if it felt repetitive, which was one of his major concerns at the beginning. “You know,” he said. “I didn’t even think about that once we came up with the theme. The team kept coming up with new ways to reinforce the vision so we didn’t have to repeat the same thing.” Richard noticed people all over the company were engaged and paying attention. All the divisions were creating their own strategies to support achieving the vision.
EXECUTIVE LEADER ACTION PLAN
What ways can you reinforce your vision today?
How will you keep it top of mind for you so you can keep it alive for others?
“You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.”
~ Lee Iacocca
