By Daniel Robin Vision and mission-making work can serve you in carrying out your leadership role, unifying your efforts and building alignment and loyalty among employees. Once the vision statement has been drafted, discussed, improved and accepted, it will guide decision making and goal setting, saving you and others tremendous time and effort in the long-run. If these conditions are being met, then you can go forward with communicating this important information to everyone in the organization and, if appropriate, the outside world. Such written statements can be used to develop a clearer position in the marketplace, for strategic planning, and to quickly qualify job candidates and orient new-hires.
Vision defines a desired future and helps guide all who accept and understand it.
Without a clear vision in writing, stakeholders operate more on assumption than on fact, and buy-in will be limited. The customer-centered or marketplace equivalent to a mission statement is usually contained in materials designed to promote the brand's purpose or corporate image as part of a reason for doing business. That's an external message that needs to be defined in terms of the target market and the competition. As a mission reflects human motivation, make certain people feel good about it. The first step is to get a rough idea of where you are now, and then begin to develop the vision of where you want to go.