A compelling sense of vision is integral to the operation of outstanding organizations. If vision is to go beyond mere talk, however, it must be embraced throughout the entirety of a workplace.
Leaders must cultivate vision at all levels of organizational responsibility, for only if vision is meaningful to the frontline employees – those who produce the products and interact with the customers — will it achieve its full potential.
This will not happen through a vision statement alone.
Organizational vision is a vibrant source of inspiration animating the shared pursuit of a common goal. Vision statements are an administrative tool. They can be effectively used to communicate organizational goals and aims, but they can also be little more than hollow pieces of bureaucracy.
The value of a vision statement, then, lies not simply in creating and distributing one, but in the impact that the values and objectives it conveys has on the way people think, feel, and behave.
For a vision statement to have meaning and relevance, leaders must continuously be breathing life into it through their actions, attitudes, and decisions. They must manifest their commitment to it in the decisions they make, the conversations they hold, the coaching they do. They must operationalize it in their organizational policies and procedures and use it to connect the tasks employees are asked accomplish with the purpose those tasks are intended to achieve.
In the words of one business authority, leaders must so incorporate vision into their hour-by-hour activities that they become “a living symbol of the new corporate culture.”
Of crucial importance, then, is the degree to which leaders are personally vision-driven in their work. Similarly critical is the extent that that personal commitment is communicated to employees, though formal channels but also in the many subtle ways that mark it as a true operational priority.
Vision might mean the world to you, but if all your employees see you focusing on is filling beds or trimming costs, they will give little credence to what you say about the vision.
Only if your daily interactions are perceived as being guided by a consistent and compelling vision of the future will that vision resonate with employees. And only to the extent that your employees see a vision genuinely reflected in your actions will that vision take root.