Create a Common Vision

  Leadership   Strategy   ProjectsAtWork  

Tackling challenges on the journey to a common goal is a natural way for team members to come to trust one another. On the other hand, failing to articulate a common mission or vision of success almost always ensures confusion and conflict when inevitable setbacks occur.

Athletic dreams are most inspiring when they’re more than a generalized hope for success. It’s the same with organizational objectives. The most effective ones are tangible images that help people push through inevitable disappointments. While organizational visions may not be as vivid as the image of a spot on the podium, they should be tangible.

Keep these six ideas to keep in mind as you create and refine an overarching vision or mission:

1. Make your mission inclusive. All organizations have multiple constituencies, including employees, customers, investors, and communities served. Articulating a purpose that brings these constituencies together is a good starting point for organizational vision. The goal is to find something of consequence that all stakeholders can root for.

Many leaders limit the mission of public companies to maximizing profits or growing at a particular rate. But profits and growth are not missions; profits are the result of delivering something customers want at a price that represents real value to them. The mission is to uniquely serve customers and create value…

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