How many times do you hear the story about the visionary leading their business to some incredible new heights with an innovative dream turned to reality? This is always inspiring and it does make for a great book or movie but they are leaving one of the key parts out. The “How” is often ignored in these scripts and that is because it is the boring work that is done to bring the vision alive. But without the “How” there is no vision brought to life.
Vision – Strategy = Chaos
Taking your eyes off the strategy at any point in carrying out a vision will derail it. To see something that you want to attain and not being able to build a realistic way to achieve it will leave you disappointed. With all the NCAA games happening lately this felt like a fitting analogy. When shooting a jump shot, the vision is the ball leaving your hand and going in the basket for 2 or 3 points. But, if that is all we envision, and we ignore the defender, our outcome will be different. As we envision the ball going into the basket the defender simultaneously wants to block our shot and if we ignore that short-term challenge (the hand coming to block your shot) our vision soon turns into a blocked shot, the ball on the court, a turnover and points for the other team – in other words “CHAOS”! We stop this by knowing how to keep the defender away from our shooter and allowing the vision a chance at success as no vision is 100% assured without planning and execution.
So, in business, we see the vision we set out to achieve. We then, must sit down with our teams and communicate that vision or path to our success and ask them for the strategies to keep our path clear to achieve our goal. We need to keep that defender away and allow our vision a clear shot at success. So, teamwork in the office is the same as the basketball court. There will always be playmakers on the court and in the office, but the whole team must perform each of their roles to make everything a success. The last key ingredient to making it all move is execution and we will talk more about it in detail in a later blog, but wanted to add it to the success equation today. There is no success without execution. We spend a lot of time coaching this communication in our Top GEAR and LEVER groups with leaders looking for a way to help ensure more success out of their business visions and plans. We strive to help leaders see that it takes more than just a vision to grow or succeed. You have to be able to show a path to getting it all done and implemented to truly win.
Vision + Strategy + Execution = Success
Wishing you growth and success in all you do.
Tim