When I was about 6 years old, I remember being in our backyard in Bellbrook, Ohio, with my dad and my younger brother Rich looking up in the darkened sky for the Big Dipper. I eventually saw it … my brother didn’t. After dad showed us what it looked like from the page in the Encyclopedia, we went back outside and my brother then saw it. Soon, my brother and I could see the Big Dipper without my dad’s coaching and we were showing our friends. We were even showing them the Little Dipper next to it. It took some time, but soon we could see the same thing my dad saw. Today we have smart phones that have astronomy apps to help us see far more than the Big Dipper. However, one thing remains the same – our vision. Vision is critical for success in business. Just like my dad coached my brother and me on how to see the Big Dipper, you need to be doing the same with your teams to show and define what you are looking for.
I like to define vision as the ideal state of the company. The ideal state for Grunder Landscaping is: To be recognized by our clients, our team members and experts in our industry as the best landscaping company in our market area. I truly feel we have accomplished that and are in the process of broadening our vision to include something greater.
Here’s why you need to have a vision that is clearly communicated to your whole team. The most successful landscapers I have worked with, studied and known, had a vision. And, no surprise here, the landscapers that have called me looking for help, and the ones I see that haven’t done well, don’t have vision. They don’t have their ideal client identified, they don’t know what they do better than the competition, they don’t focus on commercial or residential and they are constantly chasing new ideas (I call them squirrels). Without a vision, time, money and energy are devoted to all types of efforts that may or may not help you win. Companies that have a vision that is clearly communicated and more importantly embraced and lived by the leadership team, don’t waste time on things that are not in their core business.
For years, Grunder Landscaping had no vision. I was a supreme squirrel chaser. I did not understand that you need to focus on one area before moving on to the next. John Lee Dumas, a successful entrepreneur says FOCUS stands for Follow One Course Until Success. I wish I would have heard that 25 years ago. Had I understood the power of focus, the power of having a vision, I would have been much more successful sooner.
At some point, all of us need to sit down and write out what we want. You need a rallying point around what success looks like and then you need to constantly communicate that message to your entire team. It will take up to two years before you start to see results. And the results you can expect to see are pretty amazing. If you have communicated your vision correctly, you will catch your team doing what you want and need them to do often. You will go home from work with the feeling of accomplishment in seeing that you don’t have to do everything yourself. A leader’s first job is to cast the vision and his or her second job is to support it, to eat, drink, live and sleep the vision. Get a vision and then share it with your team … they’re waiting and you’ll be amazed at what happens if you do this. Best of luck.