Understanding Vision (How Important is Vision #1)

 

How do you communicate and give vision to others effectively?  

In working with people, one truth that is a surety, “You can seize only what you can see.”  Being an effective visionary leader means you must look before you lead.
 

Vision is Important to each Leader

It is utterly indispensable, because vision leads the leader and helps the leader communicate the target to others.  This vision sparks the fire, the fuel, and the energy within, and draws him or her forward. The leader visionary can know who they are, paint the picture of what things most likely look like, what to potentially anticipate, and draw a team together who acts to make this vision happen for all involved.
 

Understanding Vision

To understand vision and how vision is a part of a leader’s life, review these principles below:

• Vision meets others’ needs – Your vision must serve others.
• Vision helps you gather resources – One of the most valuable benefits of vision is that it acts like a magnet (attracting, challenging, and uniting people).
• Vision starts within – If you lack vision, look inside yourself.
• Vision Draws on history – Many leaders vision came from key events in their past
• Vision gives life – “Without vision, the people will perish”.

 

Vision Comes from Listening

You must be able to listen on several levels.  Listening is not just about hearing someone, it is about observing.  I worked with a great man many years ago, who would walk the organization premises.  He watched, asked questions, called people by their first name, sat in the lobby for a little bit, and just hung out for a bit.
 
He could monitor and gather more information and ideas during this time than the greatest board meetings from upper management.  It is about stopping what you are doing and placing your focus on others. What are others thinking, feeling, and concerned about?
 

The Inner Voice

This comes from within – vision starts within.
 
It is the knowledge, understanding, and application of your life mission.
 
It is what stirs your heart.  It is what you dream about.
 

The Unhappy Voice

Noticing what does not work helps you and gives you inspiration to work and plan from a different angle.
 

The Successful Voice

It takes the TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) to be successful.  You must have a voice from a good team to succeed.
 

The Higher Voice

A truly valuable vision must have God in it.
 
Only God knows your capabilities, talents, faults, weaknesses, and vision more than any other person on the planet.
 

Vision Life Examples (How Important is Vision #2)

 

Visionary Life Examples

So, what does this mean in practical terms?  What are some examples of how a vision becomes reality through the direction of visionary leadership?  Below are a few areas that may be helpful to you as you believe in you, know your mission, engage in your vision, attract others to the vision, and see the vision become reality.
 

Edison

Edison invented the light bulb and many other things that have changed us forever.
 
Were the thousands of experiments failures and the one experiment, which created the light bulb, a winner?  No!
 
Each experiment was one step closer to success.  Edison learned from every experiment. These so-called failed experiments helped him win the final experiment.  We all benefit from light 24 hours per day because “this man did not quit”.
 

Success is 99% perspiration with 1% inspiration

 

Honda

Mr. Honda started out building motorized scooters.  He wanted to build cars. He began to develop the engine for his cars and ran into failure #1 - financial difficulty.
 
Then, he came up with the engine for his cars.  World War II started ... there was no metal for the manufacturing of his cars.  He went bankrupt - failure #2.
 
What he did next is what we call turning lemons into lemonade.  All the bombs dropped on Japan were made of steel. Mr. Honda had several people pick up the steel remnants and he used this for his new autos.  Each failure was success turned inside out. Honda is one of the largest automakers in the world because he did not quit.
 

J.C. Penney’s

J.C. Penney started one of the very first retail conglomerates.
 
Mr. Penney told my grandfather years ago: "Carl, success is a collection of good relationships."
 
Mr. Penney was in debt to the equivalent of more than $100 million (in today's value) and was told to file bankruptcy.  Mr. Penney did not.
 
He eventually paid back every debtor.  He prospered, because he learned about the real value of people, relationships, and how to treat every single person.  Success is a collection of relationships. The JC Penney Corporation is one of the largest retail stores in the world because he did not quit.
 

McDonalds

A man named Ray mortgaged his house and invested his life savings to buy the exclusive rights to distribute a machine that could mix 5 milkshakes at one time.  Ray heard about a hamburger stand in California that was running 8 of these machines. He headed for San Bernardino to see for himself. If he could find out how they were selling so many milkshakes, perhaps he could share the idea with other restaurants and sell a lot of mixers.
 

What He Saw

Ray had never seen so many people served so quickly when he pulled up to look. Seizing the day, he pitched the idea of opening several restaurants to the brothers who owned the restaurant, convinced that he could sell eight of his multi-mixers to each one.
 

The Rest is History!

By 1963, more than 1 billion hamburgers had been sold, a statistic that was displayed on a neon sign in front of each restaurant.  Ray Kroc, building on a restaurant management system developed by the McDonald Brothers, revolutionized the restaurant industry. He did it by refining operations into easily replicable processes.
 

Can you Begin to see the Picture?

Instead of simply supplying franchisees with milk-shake formula and ice cream, Kroc sold his new partners a system.  We have this 100% Automated System. All you have to do is plug-and-play by activating the Steps in all the sections in this training on a regular basis.
 
This was how McDonald's created a chain where a store in Delaware and a store in Nevada could serve burgers of the exact same size and quality.  Each with the same number of pickle slices and the same-size dollops of mustard and ketchup, each on a similar tray alongside potatoes deep-fried for the exact same length of time.
 
It defied all traditional logic!
 
McDonald's, now a worldwide icon, is operated almost entirely by teenagers, working at near minimum wages, who know nothing about the restaurant business! Yet the success rate for these hamburger factories is virtually 100%! The McDonald's system creates that success and it is completely independent of the skills or abilities of the employees.
 
You see, McDonald's system does not teach kids to cook French fries. It teaches them to push a button, twist a dial, drop a basket and listen for a bell. Almost anyone can be taught these steps. And the steps create the same fries in Denver, Colorado, as they create anywhere else in the world!
 
Same tools, same ingredients, and same steps equal same results.
 

What do these companies have in common?

It is the ultimate example of duplication. Even the system itself has been cloned many times by other companies like KFC, Burger King, and Taco Bell, all with similar results.

• They provide consistent value to their customers.
• Everything they do is clearly defined in their operations manual.
• Their success does not depend on the level of skill of the workers.

 

Plug in, read, set your goals, and focus!

 

How do You Apply Vision? (How Important is Vision #3)

 

Vision Applied

So, what do you do now?  There are several areas a visionary must establish, review, and bring the vision into practical terms for others to understand (remember, the picture).  These areas are:
 

• Write down who you are (what are your strengths and weaknesses – outgoing, organized, able to attract quality people, caring, passionate, intuitive – not detailed, no financial savvy, aggressive, …).
• What is your mission in life (your purpose – to empower others to become all that they can become, to teach and train individuals about how to run organizations, to make a lot of money and give this money away to those in need, …).
• What is your overall vision (what do you see for who you are, your mission, your vision – a non-profit that provides food to the needy, a marketing firm, a worldwide company, …).
• What does the vision look like (write down the tangible outcome – what it looks like – a company that has revenues of $100 million per year, a non-profit that gives away $2 million per year to those who cannot afford college, …).
• What steps are needed to make the vision a reality (write down all the areas that are needed – business plan, people, funds, contacts, technology, time plan, budget, …).
• What will be your focus (do not focus on what you do not have – focus on what you have right now and build off this – many great people throughout history came from nowhere, had no money, were not known, …).
• Start working the plan, the goals written, and follow the areas below each day no matter how you feel!

 

Seeing the Vision

Vision is seeing something, believing in who you are and your mission, attracting the right people to the vision, applying a practical day by day plan, and staying to the plan.  Below are some basic tips about your daily vision action plan.

• People never fail, they quit, thus failing.
• Set your goals.
• Write them down.
• Focus on your plan.
• Commit – Dedicate – Focus.

 

Start Now!

Unless you determine who, you are, what it is that you desire, how you are going to accomplish your desire, and act, you will never see the accomplished vision of your purpose and mission in life!  It is hard enough to allow others to rob you, let alone to rob oneself of a purpose and destined driven life!