Exciting Vision Gets Results

Business owners, leaders, and managers continue to be stuck in the past. They fail to realize that squeezing out the last drop of productivity, cutting their overhead to bare bones, trying to cut job costs, working harder, and continuing to do business the same way with the same old customers won’t cut it today. When companies don’t get the bottom-line results they want, it’s not the competition, the economy, or their people. Rather, it is usually the leader not willing to try new ideas.

The Buck Stops Here

The leader is 100% responsible for everything – sales, profits, growth, quality, customer service, how organized the company is, people, management, etc. Poor leaders blame poor or stagnant results on circumstances beyond their control. Most leaders sit and wait for the economy to turn around, or some other miraculous event, while they don’t do anything different or decisive. Leaders have to make it happen now.

Look at Sears. They can blame their slow death on Wal-Mart, K-Mart, or whatever they want to. But in reality, the leaders of Sears were stuck in the past and made decisions to stay the course, do business the same way that they always had, and not change their business model. The leaders hoped their new competition would go away. The leaders didn’t do what they needed to do. They had no vision. They got eaten alive and continued to scramble to keep up with their competition, thinking It won’t happen, or it’s too late anyway.

Change Me First

Getting great results is the main indicator of the leader’s vision and performance. Real leaders make quick, decisive decisions to change how they do business and to get results. Poor leaders walk into their office and say, "Why aren’t you making it happen? You’ve got to work harder. You’ve got to get this done now. Real leaders walk into their office on Monday morning and say, "I’ve made a big decision.  I’ve decided to change me, how I manage, how I lead, and the direction of our company.”

Leaders must have the courage to change themselves first. They have a mission: to try new ideas; to change their own behavior; to change their markets; to do something different; to innovate; to try new methods; and to go against the grain. Over ninety percent of employees rate their company leadership below excellent. The excellent top 10% of companies has leaders who continually look for new ways to improve, new customers, and new ways to be different than their competition.

Are You Results-Driven

At many seminars and conventions, you will find in attendance entrepreneurs, representatives from small to medium size businesses, construction company owners, and manufacturing companies. Their common business challenge is how to make an above-average industry profit. Making good profits and getting bottom-line results start with the leader having a dynamic and focused vision that people can get excited about. People want to be a part of something exciting and will follow leaders on a mission.

Results-driven leaders stand up and say, "Here’s where we’re going, and here’s how we’ll make it happen." This is something people can really get excited about, instead of the standard: "Work hard and we’ll see how it comes out; and if we do well, maybe we’ll give you a bonus or a raise." People get tired of repeating the same tasks over and over again without any excitement, vision, or passion from leadership.  It is like digging a long ditch, and, when they’re done, they are just given another ditch to dig. This doesn’t make people excited about coming to work or making a difference in their company’s bottom line.

What’s Your Vision

Results-driven leaders start with an exciting and focused vision and then connect it to specific results they want to achieve. Some companies have a vision to be the best company, the best contractor, the best service provider, or provide the best quality. While that’s an okay vision, it’s not exciting. Examples of exciting visions are: being recognized as the area leader in customer service; being number one in building difficult technical projects; finishing jobs faster than your competition; or being known for helping your customers make a profit.

What’s Your Target

After defining your exciting vision, specific results must be targeted to quantify exactly what’s expected. For example, if your vision is to be the best service provider, determine what specific measurable results would enhance your bottom line. Some targets may include: a referral from every customer; only five-percent callbacks; no installation errors; or 98% on-time completion. What specific targets and numbers can you shoot for to realize your vision and get the results you want? Without specific clear targets, your people really don’t know what ‘try to do quality work’ or ‘be the best’ really means.

Ask the people who work for you, "What is the vision of our company? What are we trying to accomplish? What are our top three priorities? What specific targets are we shooting for? What results are important?" You’ll get 37 different answers if you have 37 people working for you. To get the results you want, get everyone on the same page from top to bottom. Leading and getting the results you want starts with yourself. Change, innovate, and try new ways of doing business. Communicate your clear exciting vision. Define specific targets with expected results and then make it happen.