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.

Your Path to Business Success: #1 Gain Clarity by Building a Business Vision

Welcome to the first installment of our 15-week plan for growing your business! This series is all about setting you up for a fantastic 2025. Over the next 15 weeks, we'll tackle different aspects of your business, giving you actionable advice and insights to maximize your success. All you will need as you venture on this path is an open mind, around an hour a week for planning, and your favorite method for capturing ideas. It could be on your computer, phone, or an old-fashioned notebook. Better business performance starts with strategy, and this blog series is designed to help you get from where you are today to where you want to be tomorrow.

Gain Clarity with A Business Vision

Defining Your Business Vision

Think of your business vision as a compass guiding you toward success. It provides direction, motivates your team, and helps you navigate challenges. Here are steps on how to define a clear vision for 2025.

Reflect and Assess:

• Review Past Year Performance: Take some time to analyze your wins, losses, and lessons learned from the past year. What strategies drove success? What areas could use some improvement?

• Evaluate the Current Landscape: Consider the internal and external factors affecting your business. What are your market trends, competitive pressures, and economic conditions?

• Complete a SWOT Analysis: Identify your business's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This gives you a complete picture of where you stand today.

Define Your Vision:

• Core Purpose: Revisit your company's mission statement. Why does your business exist? What value do you bring to your customers and the world?

• Long-Term Goals: Where do you see your business in 5-10 years? What impact do you want to make in your industry and community?

• 2025 Aspirations: Translate those long-term goals into specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for 2025.

Pro Tip: Get creative and vividly imagine your ideal business success. Detail everything from your dream clients and unique offerings to the impact your business will have on you, your family and your community. Capture your brand, finances, workspace, and even the lifestyle desires.

Plan to Close the Gap:

• Identify Discrepancies: What's the difference between where you are now and where you want to be by the end of 2025? What needs to change to reach your goals?

• Define Strategic Priorities: Determine 3-5 key priorities to propel your business towards its 2025 vision. These priorities should align with your goals and address your identified gaps.

• Craft Your Business Plan: Start developing a detailed business plan outlining your strategies and actions to achieve your vision and goals.

  
  

Pro Tip: Gather people who understand your business, get a whiteboard, and start writing down all of the possible actions you can take to grow your business. Including multiple stakeholders, capturing their ideas, and then narrowing down on the best ones will help ensure that you minimize blindspots and have a well-rounded vision for the future.

Get Started:

There is power in putting words on paper. Take a moment to write down your vision. Download this file and begin building your 2025 Balanced Scorecard.

5 year plan.pdf (3).pdf

Download PDF • 155KB

Summary:

A clear vision is essential for business success. By reflecting on the past, assessing the present, and setting SMART goals, you create a roadmap for your business's future. Over the next 15 weeks, we will help you craft a vision, convert it into goals, and then convert those goals into actional tactics that you can track monthly, weekly, and daily to ensure you are taking small steps today to achieve big goals tomorrow. 

Stay tuned for the next article in our series, where we'll dive into setting financial goals for 2025!

Strategic Planning: The Key to Business Alignment and Success.

Ever wonder what large companies do to drive alignment? If you have never worked within a large organization, you might not know how important strategic planning is in aligning the different organizational functions and leaders. Most Fortune 500 companies go through an annual budgeting and planning process where they map out financial investments, key initiatives, and strategic objectives for the next 3 to 5 years. There is wisdom in this process. The more time you take to determine where your business is going and the key steps you need to take to succeed, the more confidently and quickly you can make day-to-day decisions.

One of the more widely used systems for strategic planning is the balanced scorecard. The balanced scorecard introduced in 1992 by Robert Kaplan and David Norton encourages businesses to identify goals from a financial, internal business process, customer, and learning perspective. By establishing business goals from different perspectives, you can create a well-rounded approach to improving your business. This will help you to not focus too much on one area of your business while neglecting others.

Why a 5-year plan is Essential:

Your business does not have unlimited resources. How you spend your money, time, and resources today will determine your business capabilities and profits tomorrow. Business authors like Jim Collins and Patrick Lencioni have documented the risk of business leaders not allocating sufficient time for planning. The adage, measure twice, cut once is especially true in business. Defining where you want to be in 5 years will increase your likelihood of reaching your goal.

How to Build a 5-year plan:

• Consider the impact that you want your business to make. What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind? What problems are you trying to solve for your customers? Answering these questions will help you to clarify what milestones you will need to accomplish over the next 5 years to achieve your goals.

• Consider what people, resources, systems, and processes you need to reach your goals. Do you have the right team in place? Do you have the right technology? Do you have the right processes in place to support your growth? If not, what steps do you want to take to improve the infrastructure of your business? The organization you have today does not have to be the same as the one you have tomorrow. Being intentional about the changes you want to make will help you build for a better tomorrow.

• Set financial targets and define the revenue streams that will help you achieve those targets. How much revenue do you need to generate to reach your goals? What investments will you need to make to create more revenue? One of the hardest things for many business owners is accepting that financial progress is not a straight line. Frequently, you must invest in the short term to make more money in the long term. Being clear on your long-term goals will help you find the clarity necessary to invest in the people and capital you need today to reach your financial goals tomorrow.

Who should you include in this plan?

When you are developing long-term plans, it is prudent to get input from multiple perspectives. As the leader, you are the ultimate decision maker, but talking with your CPA, business coach, lawyer, mentors, employees, vendors, and even customers can help you make a more informed decision about the future of your business. The stakes are high; apply rigor to your thinking. You will never be able to anticipate every potential obstacle or future need of your business. Still, by talking to various people, you are more likely to come up with goals and plans that are specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound.

What should your plan look like?

That is up to you. Many options will arise if you Google images and ask for a 5-year plan. Pick the one that works best for you. The most important aspect of this is the process, not the visual output. The time you take to think about where you want to be in 5 years and your conversation with others will help you find more clarity in your goals. I have posted the typical balance scorecard I build with my clients. If you are interested, you can download the template and use it.

When should you update this plan?

Update your plan annually. Your long-term goals will change based on your short-term successes and learning. Re-evaluating long-term goals each year will help you to stay focused and refine your thinking.

Summary:

Building a 5-year plan is a best practice to help small business owners clarify their goals and lead more confidently. When you set out on a journey, having a clear vision of where you are going can help you prepare appropriately. The time you spend

1. Defining your financial goals

2. Identifying your ideal customer and how you will serve them

3. Designing efficient and effective processes

4. Crafting people selection, and development strategies

will help you to have a blueprint for achieving your long-term goals.

---

Thank you for reading this blog

I am a father, husband, executive coach, and former retail executive. My coaching expertise comes from 21 years of leading operation, sales, and marketing teams. I understand what it is like to feel stuck, undervalued, and underappreciated.

I also know what it takes to invest in professional development, climb the corporate ladder, and find fulfillment at work.

Your career path is a scavenger hunt. Each opportunity prepares you for the next. Allow me to help you clarify your path and accelerate your professional development.

Grow your career

Have Feedback Send me a note at

Email: dcunion@yourpathexecutivesolutions.com