The Vision Driven Leader Question 3

• The soul always thinks with a mental image as per Aristotle.
• Leadership is a combination of hope, optimism, a concrete vision of the future, and a practical plan to get there, according to Seth Godin.
• Andy Stanley states that direction, rather than intention, determines one's destination.
• Bob Dylan advises learning from the past, leaving behind the negative aspects, and moving forward.

Erik Weihenmayer's Achievement

• Erik Weihenmayer, who is blind, summited Mount Everest on May 25, 2001, an achievement accomplished by only 10% of climbers.
• Weihenmayer had retinoschisis, causing complete blindness by age thirteen, yet he envisioned scaling the Seven Summits.
• Weihenmayer managed to climb the highest peak on each of the seven continents.
• Time magazine recognized his achievements, calling it pushes the limits of human capability.
• Vision allows leaders to create a way forward, even when none exists.

Vision Script

• A Vision Script helps detail what you wish to achieve and is essential for organizational leadership.

The Importance of Vision

• Lacking vision can lead to business failure
• A clear vision can reverse the fortunes of a struggling business.
• In 1998, the author returned to Thomas Nelson as associate publisher for Nelson Books.
• In July 2000, the publisher resigned, revealing the division's poor financial state, being the least profitable in the company, with flat revenue growth and inefficient use of capital.
• The division published 125 titles a year with a small team and had more underperforming titles than successful ones.
• The author became publisher and used vision to turn the business around
• Mission and vision statements are essential for business success but serve different purposes.
• Mission defines what the business is and provides day-to-day clarity.
• Vision describes where the business is going.
• Mission addresses identity, clientele, problem-solving, and results, while vision sets a new direction.
• Creating a vision involved a private retreat to plan a new direction for the division.

Mission vs. Vision

• Mission focuses on what is happening now, whereas vision focuses on the future.
• A strong mission statement should be brief and memorable.
• A Vision Script is a detailed document, written in the present tense, describing the future reality of the business, typically three to five years ahead.
• The Vision Script should address the team, products, sales and marketing, and impact.

Four Key Areas of Business

• Team: Describe the ideal team in terms of talents, experience, work-life balance, benefits, work environment, and incentives.
• Products: Describe what products or services are offered, elaborating with additional details.
• Sales and Marketing: Describe how to get the products to market, thinking broadly and philosophically about your sales and marketing.
• Impact: Describe the intended outcome of the team’s effort and the results of realizing the vision, including financial and non-financial impact.

Writing a Vision Script

• To write a Vision Script, you must address what you want for your business in the future.
• The Michael Hyatt & Co. Vision Script includes statements about the team possessing character, talent, and proven track records, and about encouraging innovation and experimentation.
• The Vision Script should be specific enough to visualize the future and build it together.
• A helpful tip for thinking through future products is to ask what you could create that would help you fulfill your mission.
• The company employs customer acquisition strategies that make offers irresistible.
• The company understands that clients and customers are the heroes and serves them as a guide, offering a plan to help them overcome obstacles and achieve their desired transformation.
• The company is transforming the world and achieving outstanding results without compromising values or culture.
• A business may require additional domains in the Vision Script beyond the four key elements.
• It is still essential to address team development, product offerings, marketing strategies, and the intended impact, even for solo entrepreneurs.

Tips for Creating a Vision Script

• Get away and clear your head by finding a solitary place away from the office to think, ponder, and get in touch with your own thoughts.
• Believe the best is yet to come by focusing on what is possible, managing honesty about the past and present, and committing to a better future.
• Imagine tomorrow and describe what you see, writing in the present tense, as though your vision has already happened.
• Humans thrive by considering their prospects, making and acting on long-term plans.
• Crafting a Vision Script involves painting an inspiring, clear, practical, and attractive picture of the organization's future, avoiding "the tyranny of the hows."
• You should address what needs to change in the business model, the kind of authors and mix of titles, how the organization would stack up against competitors, and what innovations or processes could help scale the vision faster.

Questions to Help You Get Started on Your Vision Script

• "If an oracle could tell you what’s going to happen three years from now, what would you most want to know?"
• "How can we become the company that would put us out of business?"
• "Who do we want our customers to become?"
• "Who are you spending time with? On what topics? Where are you traveling? What are you reading?"

Questions for Prompting Vision in Regard to Your Team

• What kind of teammates do you want to attract? What characteristics do they all share in common?
• How do they work? What is their work ethic?
• What do you do to attract top talent? What is your compensation philosophy?
• What does your benefits package look like?
• Why are prospective employees attracted to your company? What makes people beg to join your company?
• What does your office environment look like? Why does that matter to you?

Questions for Prompting Vision in Regard to Products

• What results do your products create? What value do they deliver?
• Who do your products help?
• How do your customers feel when they use your products? What’s the user experience like?
• What does your production-creation process look like? How do you choose what to offer?
• What makes your products superior to those of your competitors?

Questions for Prompting Vision in Regard to Sales and Marketing

• What markets do you serve? How large is your customer base?
• How do you reach them?
• How much does it cost you to acquire new customers? What’s your cost per lead?
• What’s the lifetime value of your customer?
• How do you see your marketing, sales, and customer experience teams operating? What’s their role in customer acquisition and retention?

Questions for Prompting Vision in Regard to Impact

• What are your results—by whatever metrics are most meaningful to you and your team? For instance, what’s your revenue, your profit, staff count, or the size of your mailing list?
• What financial thresholds excite you as the leader?
• What are you, as the leader, free to do with your time and role?
• How do you hope that growth in your organization will impact you and your team?
• How do your industry peers and competitors think of you?

Key Points to Remember

• Provide enough detail to make the vision concrete, using specific statements so people get a sense of what it is you’re trying to build.
• Using metaphors and stories in your Vision Script is okay, but don’t lose sight of boiling those inspirational concepts down to concrete statements.
• Making your vision concrete makes it tangible and attainable.
• Don't get hung up on how you will accomplish your vision because that comes later.
• The guidelines are just that, guidelines. Tweak as needed.

The Vision Turnaround

• After creating the vision, the author shared it with the entire staff, reviewed their current reality, and described the new reality in as much detail as possible.
• The author read through the vision daily and prayed over every part, waiting for the strategy and resources to emerge.
• A vision-driven leader avoids the pitfalls of vision-deficit leaders, prepares for the future, and capitalizes on key opportunities because they’re better attuned to what will help them move forward.
• Strategy becomes aligned with the endgame, wasting less money, time, and talent, and motivating the team to stick with it when times get tough.
• The initial vision took just eighteen months to accomplish and exceeded almost every aspect of it, leading to Nelson Books becoming the fastest-growing, most profitable division at Thomas Nelson.

Qualifying Questions

• Your Vision Script sets the course for your company’s future win.
• Bring your full attention to this process by getting alone, believing the future can be better than your past and present experiences, and describing a new and superior future.
• Ensure your Vision Script is clear, inspiring, and attractive to the key stakeholders in your organization.
• Is it clear?
• A vision-driven leader makes their vision come alive for others so they are not only inspired but also directed to act.
• Make your vision concrete and compelling, and others will join you in making it a reality.
• Every Vision Script looks different depending on the leader who creates it.
• Write your Vision Script in whatever style (1) flows most naturally and (2) helps you best envision your desired future for your team, product, sales and marketing, impact, and any other domain you require.