In my recent blog Saying No Can Be a Good Thing, I mentioned that we lead with the vision statement at The Alternative Board-Denver West. As a business owner and leader, you may have developed a vision statement at some point, but it’s always a good idea to revisit it. We believe that you should begin with your personal vision, which then leads to the business vision. If you don’t have both, here are some ways you can get started on this important exercise.
Define Your Personal Vision
Your personal vision looks ahead about a decade into the future and in 100 words or less describes where you want to be. That is no easy thing. The shorter the vision, the more concise and specific you have to be. It requires starting large and narrowing down based on what you really want. This means examining goals and taking a hard look at not what you do, how your business doing, but what you want. These are personal goals, so it can be anything from traveling for pleasure 60% of the time or retiring by 55.
Questions to Ask Yourself
Not sure where to begin? When you think about putting together a personal vision statement, you have to take a look inside: What do you want? Do you want to retire, semi-retire or work until you can’t? At what age do you want to start slowing down? What are the things you want to do? With family or friends and own your own? Do you want to get involved in your community, church or other activity? Do you want to travel? Where, with whom and for how long? Dare to believe in your dream. If you want to write a book you can, go back to school – go for it, attend culinary school in Italy or sail around the world, yes you can do that too. It takes planning though. Here are some questions that will help you start putting together the framework for your personal vision statement. Then, you can start thinking about how to get the business vision aligned with your personal vision.
- What are your “big picture” impact areas?
- What do you love most about your business?
- What activities can you delegate?
- What does your ideal work week look like?
- How much time off do you want?
- What’s your desired annual compensation?
- What intangible rewards are important to you?
- What beliefs or interests guide you?
- What personal achievements bring you fulfillment?
- What is your retirement plan?
- What is your exit strategy?
Let Personal Lead Professional
So, now you know you want to retire at a certain age and travel the world, how are you going to make that happen? How much money do you need–not just from business but from investments as well? What steps do you need to take to build a business that will allow you to step away from it in your desired timeframe and accomplish your personal vision? What leadership team do you need in place to take your place? Do you want to sell the business? If so, who is going to take care of preparing your business for sale and transitioning it afterward? If it is a family business, what does your succession plan look like? Do you have a team of trusted advisors to call upon? As you can see, your business vision covers all the areas needed to support the personal vision. These are the details that “make it happen”.
The goal of both the personal and business vision is to look at the long term and to write the vision statements like we’re already there. Then, you can put things in place in your business to allow the personal vision to happen. Ready to take your vision statement to the next level? Drop me a line. We can work on this critical step in making your personal and professional goals become a reality. Consider this your blueprint to building the business exactly the way you’ve wanted it, being led by your very best self.
By Blair Koch
