In any size business, but particularly in the smaller business, one of the traits the business owner or CEO or unit manager needs to keep in mind is the ability to focus on the task while keeping the big picture in mind.
What do I mean by keeping focus while having the big picture in mind?
Let me give you an analogy.
I was driving the back streets of my suburb last Sunday when I came upon a road signage crew training staff. This is a crew that puts up witches' hats and "slow down" signs when roadworks are in progress. As I approached the intersection, I saw the care and attention they had paid to the task.
About 200 meters before the intersection they had put up signs slowing traffic and one sign even explaining "training" in progress. As you approached, they had beacons, people with "lollipop" signs saying "stop" on one side and "slow" on the other. All their crew were wearing high-visibility vests, supervisors were carefully spaced out and radios were being used. Clearly they knew what they were doing and all safety procedures were being put into use.
Then I got to the intersection and whereas their training vehicles had been...
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The Vision Driven Organisation
For many years now, I have championed the value of the vision-driven organisation and vision-driven planning. And now, I see more and more examples where the principles of vision-driven planning being used in business affairs, organisational structuring, customer service, team development, and even in day to day personal living.
So what is a vision-driven organisation or business? It is the principle of aligning everything that you do and believe in, your core values, organisational structure, goals and objectives and strategies, towards the ultimate achievement of a vision.
Oprah calls it The Secret at work - I have always maintained it is about creating a corporate culture that takes the hard effort out of any organisation. The principle is based around creating a vision of where you want to be by exploring the picture from different "perspectives", where, from each perspective you ask the question, "on achievement of my vision, how will the business look from the perspective of...."
It is crucial that these perspectives are chosen as those most critical to the achievement of your vision - who or what is your vision "for"? Examples of perspectives that might be critical to the achievement of your vision are - the perspectives of the client or customer, the...
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5 Steps to make your company Vision tangible
How many of us have word-smithed a company Vision Statement, perhaps even after a weekend workshop locked up with our senior managers, or we may even have paid big money to have a consultant workshop it with us and create that perfect Vision Statement?
Great, I can see all those hands held up. Now, how many of us use that Vision Statement day by day to assist our companies move in the direction the Vision Statement envisions? Not too many hands up now!
How many of us can honestly say our teams understand the tangible behavioral aspects of our Vision Statements to the extent they use it on a day by day basis to assess their own performance in team-working, customer relationships, objective-achievement, procedural efficiency?
Too often the expensive investment in a Vision Statement stops as soon as it is typed up, printed, and framed on a wall.
Your company Vision Statement is not just an idea, it must be a tangible future.
Here's 5 steps to turn that piece of paper into reality.
1. You and your management team must understand what every phrase means in day to day activity. When your Vision is of a "leading sales force"...
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A Branding Opportunity – Hit or Miss?
Here's something that just happened to me, which I think is a branding opportunity gone amiss, and only somewhat recovered. I am doing home renovations and have to have 2 sensors of the home alarm disconnected, and booked a technician for today (the last day before work starts). I'm waiting and no technician arrives, so I phone the alarm company. I explain the situation.Alarm: I rang and left a message saying the tech couldn't come today....
Me: Where did you call?
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