I work with a lot of companies that have no mission statement about why they are in business, company values defining howthey do business, or a vision projecting where they want to growas an organization.
I help them write these Company Culture Cornerstones as part of our LEADERSHIP Essentials service. (Email me if you want more information.)
"The vision thing," as President George H. Bush referred to it, goes beyond your company. Consider the power of having a vision for each individual employee.
Actually you already do. You have expectations for their daily behavior and an idea of where you see them growing in your organization.
SO WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?
If you want to visit a friend at their home, you go to their address, not their city. If you just arrive in their city, you are not fully connecting with your friend. Some would argue you are not connecting at all...
In a similar way, unless your current vision for employees isintentional it is often:
Based on your biases - positive or negative
Based on false information about their performance
Never discussed specifically with the employee so it is impossible for your employee to meet your expectations and for your employee to be fully engaged in their work
Your vision for employees needs to be specific and often, clear and measurable, so it matches their needs, desires, and dreams. It also needs to be communicated, confirmed, and re-confirmed on a regular basis.
This process does not have to be overwhelming. We have a simpleFREE Expectations exercise that can help you. If you want to go beyond that, our LEADERSHIP Essentials program helps you write a strategic plan for each employee's success. This blows them away - in a positive sense.
This is easy. Just do our Expectations exercise. Email me for the latest copy. It is free.
I recommend you follow one of the suggestions in the exercise. You and your people should draft their expectations with one other person before the meeting. This is between a manager and one of their direct reports, or two employees that work a lot together.
Tell them to NOT share their drafts with the other person.
Then one pair of people at a time, ask one person to guess what the other has defined as their most important expectation and how it is weighted.
It will amaze you how few people actually understand what the people they work with the most expect of them. This is fun. Try it.
Email me for the Expectations exercise to learn more.
Once you have their daily behavioral expectations confirmed, then working on their vision for growth within your company is easier.