In this latest article and podcast, we are going to focus on the 8th skill from my ‘Think See Do’ Leadership model.
Specifically, how you ‘See’ your ‘Organisation’.
This will examine creating your own aspirational vision for the future, along with a more structured 3 year vision. We’ll also look at how you ideally want to be seen by your customers.
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Your aspirational vision
Having a dream for your company is an engaging way of looking into the future. You can engage your people in formulating this and certainly share it to inspire them!
This is typically a succinct sentence that captures what big success would look like in the future. A big goal. A dream of what would be amazing to achieve.
To get you thinking, I’ll share some examples:
Amazon – Amazon’s vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.
Oxfam – A just world without poverty.
Microsoft – A computer on every desk and in every home; all running Microsoft software.
Avon – To be the company that best understands and satisfies the product, service and self-fulfilment needs of women globally.
Honda – in 1970: We will destroy Yamaha!
Giro Sport Design – To become the Nike of the cycling industry.
Sony – Become the company most known for changing the worldwide poor-quality image of Japanese products.
As you see, some of these are more measurable, some are based on competition, some on modelling. It should be whatever suits you.
Mine is ‘To speak to an audience of 500+ at my own event in America’.
Remember that you can have a personal aspirational vision too.
It can be tied back to your big ‘Why’ or Purpose that I have covered elsewhere, but this is more about the ‘What’ than the ‘Why’.
Future direction
We’ve looked at the first aspect of how you would like to see your company. Now let’s move to the more structured part.
To start this process, it’s good to evaluate where you are in key areas of your business. Mark yourself out of 10 and examine what needs to be done to move yourself closer to a 9 or 10.
One effective way to plot your future is to use 3 circles to represent year 1, 2 and 3 (outer circle being year 3).
Then using each axis to represent different aspects of your business (people, products & services, sales & marketing, along with more specific areas to you), you can plot where you would like to be in year 1, 2 and 3. This is a great visual way of looking at your strategy and, from my work, it is a great way of sharing the vision with your people and seeking input.
How customers see you
Finally let’s turn to how you are seen by your potential customers or, more importantly, how you would like to be seen in the future!
Again, it’s good to take stock of where you are, so seek feedback from your current customers and gain a clearer understanding of what needs to improve to deliver the best service (more of this in skill 9).
Most importantly, do work on your external value proposition. How you want people to see you and how you can distinguish yourself in the marketplace. The products and services you deliver, how you deliver them, the results you achieve for your customers.
Build your key messages that you’ll use externally and then ensure everyone knows them internally and they are used everywhere externally – brochures, social media, profiles, websites, proposals.
These 3 aspects above are core to how you and your people see your organisation and how you want to be seen in your market place.
I trust you have found this article has given you some really useful tools to shape up how you want to be seen and how you see the future.
Please feel free to subscribe to the podcast series ‘Leadership Mindset – Think, See, Do’ and explore other episodes in the series.
FREE Diagnostic Tool
If you would like to see how you are performing in 9 the key leadership skills, take our FREE Leadership Diagnostic tool at www.theleadershiptrainingworkshop.com.
If you feel you need support in your leadership role, please give me a call on 07912 143 040 or email me at tony@theleadershiptrainingworkshop.com and we can discuss how I can support your leadership development.
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