Jack Welch was a junior chemical engineer at GE who wanted to quit. A mentor persuaded him to stay, and 20 years later he became the company’s youngest chairman and CEO.
The company increased its market value from $12 billion to $410 billion when he retired.
His story is popular in the world of business, but he also has this great quote:
“Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.”
While his methods are hotly debated, he had a vision to streamline GE. And he was able to clearly communicate and execute on that vision.
What’s The Vision You Have For Your Business?
Pretend you traveled three years into the future… What would you want your business to look like?
Cameron Herold wrote the book Vivid Vision: A Remarkable Tool For Aligning Your Business Around a Shared Vision of the Future after the process helped him turn 1-800-GOT-JUNK into a $100M multinational company that appeared on Oprah and was featured as a Harvard Business Case Study.
A Vivid Vision is a document that paints a picture of what your company looks and feels like three years into the future, as if it’s already happened.
However, some entrepreneurs get stuck when they sit down to write their Vivid Vision.
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But if you’re still struggling with how to write your Vivid Vision, you can use this checklist to create one that comes alive and pops off the page.
The 13-Point Vivid Vision Checklist
When creating your Vivid Vision, ask yourself these questions:
1. What do you see?
2. What do you hear?
3. What are clients saying?
4. What does the media write about you?
5. What do your team members say?
6. How are your core values being realized?
7. What is the buzz about you in the industry?
8. What is your marketing like?
9. How is the company running day to day? Is it organized and running like a clock?
10. What kind of stuff do you do every day? Are you focused on strategy, team building, customer relationships, etc.?
11. What do the company’s financials reveal?
12. How are you funded? What are partners or investors saying about you?
13. How do you feel looking back?
You can apply this checklist to any portion of your Vivid Vision. Here’s an example:
13-Point Vivid Vision Checklist Example: Real Estate
Let’s say you’re a real estate company that’s having trouble articulating the vision you have for your sales and marketing.
Now here’s the cool part… This is what the finished section of your Vivid Vision might look like:
Our direct marketing campaigns have become a big hit in the neighborhoods we serve. Not only does our sales team have a consistent flow of new leads coming in each day, my agents tell me how excited they are when they show up on site and potential clients are actually looking forward to working with them. Prospects thank us, and refer friends and family, based on our value-packed mailers alone. The media says our marketing is a breath of fresh air, and I’m thrilled to know that each team member loves to be a part of a company that is focused on helping people by actually helping them, proving that our core value of leaving people better than when we found them is infused into our way of being. Other brokerages wanna know our secret, which is really just to be as helpful as possible. Because of our value-focused marketing dedicated to building relationships, the office is busier than ever, with each department fully owning their responsibilities. This allows me as the visionary to focus on expansion, and big-picture strategy. And the numbers show that it’s working: We now own 90% of our local market, and our agents sell 50 homes a year, for 98% of the original asking price. Looking back, I’m incredibly proud of my team for coming together to turn this vision into reality.
See how running through this checklist can bring your Vivid Vision to life?
How To Create A Vivid Vision For Your Business
Many entrepreneurs, business owners, and company leaders sit down to write their Vivid Vision and hit a wall; the vision is clear in their head, but when they get it down on the page, it just doesn’t land.
In order for your team, clients, partners, and anyone else needed to execute on the grand vision you have for your business, they need YOU to articulate that vision.
So, if you find yourself stuck, use the checklist above to help draw the vision out of your mind and into reality. And if you want more examples, you can click here to read our in-depth post on the step-by-step process we’ve used to help 250+ business owners create their very own Vivid Vision.
