Your Path to Business Success #10: Motivate Action by Communicating Your Vision

A salon owner reached out to me recently because she wanted to increase her team's productivity. As we discussed her long-term goals, we quickly discovered that many of her goals were only in her head. We also identified that she was the only person who knew and understood them. She promptly identified why her employees could not meet her expectations. They did not know or understand them. We discussed the first skill in the Power6 Leader framework of motivating action and the role that clarifying and communicating your vision has in driving team performance. The more your employees know what you aim to accomplish, the better they will be at helping you bring your vision to life.

Answering the big question.

One of the more challenging tasks for small business owners is answering the question, "Where do you want to be in five years?" This question can be difficult because it requires you to think beyond today's needs and imagine tomorrow's potential. Many small business owners spend so much time thinking about how they will increase revenue this month or pay bills due this week that they do not ponder the future. 

Pro Tip: Research businesses outside of your industry for inspiration on what is possible. Some of the best ideas come from replicating the actions of others.

Make time to imagine.

The first step in communicating your vision for your company is to clear your schedule and create space to reflect on what you are working towards. Are you looking to scale your business nationwide, add locations, or build infrastructure so you can take a much-needed vacation? Clarifying what you want your business to look like in the future for yourself, will make it easier to communicate with your team.

Pro tip: Create a vision board to help you imagine your business's possibilities. Images can often help you find words for ideas that are not quickly spoken.

Why 5 years?

Looking five years into the future can help you overcome some of the fear, anxiety, and hedging that prevent people from setting ambitious goals. You want to get your mind out of the present, which is full of limitations. Allowing yourself to see beyond today or next year can give you space to be more ambitious and envision more possibilities. The purpose here is not to be a perfect forecaster of the future. The goal is to get beyond today's realities so you can build towards tomorrow's potential.

Pro tip: Don't worry about being practical at this point. You can be pragmatic when you start working on goals. This stage is all about dreams and wishes.

Journal to clarify vision.

We encourage business owners to write a journal about their vision. Journaling can help you verbalize your thoughts. The more you write about your vision, the more apparent it will become, and the easier it will be to communicate with others. Being clear on your vision is essential to having the confidence to share your dream. Martin Luther King revised and practiced his "I Have a Dream" speech multiple times before sharing it at the March on Washington. The more you ponder and refine your vision, the clearer and easier it will become to discuss.

Pro Tip: Dedicate 15 minutes to writing about your future two or three times this week. Research has discovered this is an optimal time and frequency for journaling.

Meet to discuss vision.

Once you have a clear vision of where you want your business to be in five years, schedule a meeting with your team. The meeting should be around 50 minutes long, and you should provide an agenda so your employees know what will be discussed. Ask them to consider their vision for where they see themselves five years from now and how the company can support their growth.

Pro tip: Bring in a third party to facilitate the conversation. Participating in a conversation instead of hosting frees up mental space to be more engaged.

Bring it all together.

After the meeting, you will want to convert your big-picture vision into actionable tasks. One of the first should be one-on-one meetings with team members to confirm their understanding of the vision and how their commitment to bringing it to life will serve them. Your employees will support your vision if you support theirs. Focus on building alliances of co-prosperity with your team members.

Pro Tip: Define the essential work for success, then verify that you have the right people doing the right things at the right time.

Summary

Within the Power6 Leader coaching model, motivating team action is the first skill we help small business owners develop. This skill sets the stage for building trust, guiding decision-making, delegating effectively, and navigating challenges. Defining and communicating your vision provides more certainty for your employees, leading to less stress and more engagement. Your work to align your team around a shared vision will increase your team's productivity.

Thank you for reading the latest version of our newsletter. We started this series to give small business owners the information they need to make 2025 their best profitability year. Throughout this series, we outline different tools and approaches we use with clients to help them with strategic planning and operational improvement.

Check out previous blogs to learn more about setting goals and taking steps to improve your business's profitability.

If you have any questions about the topics discussed here, you can email Executive Coach Dorian Cunion at dcunion@yourpathexecutivesolutions.com

Continue reading if you would like to learn more about the Power6 Leader Program.

How can better communication reduce workplace anxiety?

Anxiety is a common problem for many business professionals, especially when they feel like they are not getting timely feedback from their coworkers, boss, or employees. This anxiety can be heightened when a company is not meeting financial goals or after organizational changes like downsizing or restructuring.

Common Sources of Workplace Anxiety.

Senior leaders I work with frequently communicate frustration because their employees do not seem to understand what is important and fail to prioritize and execute the things that would provide the most value to the employees and the company. They harbor anxiety around having difficult conversations about performance and what will happen if employees decide to quit and leave them understaffed.

Conversely, employees I work with frequently feel overwhelmed and unsure of where to focus their attention. Often they think there is a disconnect between the work they are being asked to do, their professional goals, and the company's mission. Occasionally I also hear insecurity around not having the knowledge and skills to do a job and a fear of communicating that insecurity because of the perceived risk of vulnerability.

In both cases, fear and insecurity get in the way of candor. The uncertainty around being honest about needs, expectations, and wants gets in the way of communication and collaboration that would improve business performance and reduce anxiety.

Poor Communication is the Problem

In a world where employees and bosses communicate through emails, texts, messaging apps, group meetings, and one-on-ones, lack of communication is not the root of the problem.

Overcommunication and micro-managing do more to create anxiety in the workplace than nearly any other force. If you want to reduce anxiety and improve effectiveness, it is crucial to identify ways to improve the economy of communication by having less but more effective communication.

How would you describe the level of communication at your workplace?

• Perfect
• Under-communication
• Over-communication

7 Tips for Reducing Workplace Anxiety

Initiate regular check-ins. Having quality one-on-one discussions can go a long way to improving communication. Establishing a regular schedule for discussing current priorities and checking in on needs, expectations, and wants can strengthen relationships and reduce uncertainty.

Using a shared document to capture wins, obstacles, options, and commitments is a great way to ensure both parties are aligned coming out of the meeting.

Be honest and respectful. The people you work with have multiple responsibilities, competing priorities, personal lives, and their own anxieties that they are dealing with. Strive to be clear, direct, and considerate in your communication. Focus on being candid about problems, but also do your best to collaborate on solutions. The better you are at helping the people you work with, the more value they will see in you. When you are kind and helpful to others, they are more likely to mirror those behaviors back to you.

Listen actively. Pay attention to words, tone, and body language. This is especially important if you are on a remote team. Ask questions to clarify and confirm your understanding. If you feel that things are not going well, be direct and ask. Assumptions can be dangerous. Always seek facts.

At the end of conversations, summarize what was discussed to help avoid miscommunication. This is a great way to demonstrate that you care about getting things right and are invested in pursuing alignment.

Be brief. Everyone has limited time and energy. Be considerate of how you use the time that people give you. Before you meet with people, take a moment to determine your purpose in the meeting. Writing down key points or goals for the conversation can be helpful.

Demonstrate gratitude. You will not always receive the information you want to hear during conversations. When you encounter a different perspective or difficult feedback, show gratitude to the person for being candid. Then use the information to learn and grow. Anything that is not of value to you ,disregard it. It is better to be aware of other people's thoughts and perspectives than to be mis or uninformed.

Ask for support when needed. Be vulnerable and communicate what you need to be successful. Hiding problems is never a good long-term solution. When issues are not surfaced, they tend to fester and become more challenging to solve. Identify and communicate issues early, and seek assistance finding solutions.

Seek solutions, not blame. Multiple people are typically involved whenever things do not go as planned at work. Quickly identify why things did not go as planned and identify ways that performance can be improved in the future. There is more to be gained from solving a problem than avoiding being blamed. The heroes of stories are not the ones that make excuses but the ones with the courage to name and take action against a problem.

Putting tips into action

Communication is vital for any successful working relationship. Following these tips can improve communication and trust within your organization.

Now it's time to put them into practice. Start by choosing one tip you that will help you to reduce your anxiety. Then, plan how you will implement it in the next week. For example, you can

• Start holding one-on-one meetings

• Communicate an obstacle that you need help with

• Request training on a new technology that has been challenging for you to use

Whatever action you choose to take, make sure you follow through with it and observe the results. You will be surprised by how much better you feel once you improve communication with the people you work with.

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Thank you for reading this blog

Dorian Cunion is an Executive Coach and Business Consultant with Your Path Coaching and Consulting. He is a former retail executive with over 20 years of experience in the retail industry.

He is a Co-Active coach who focuses on helping professionals, and small business owners overcome insecurities, knowledge gaps, and uncertainty. He does this by helping clients to tap into their values, recognize their strengths, and develop actionable strategies for growth.

Have you been trying to improve your career or business on your own but are not seeing success as fast as you desire?

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