Making your vision a reality

by Dan Oswald

Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.
—Joel A. Barker

Do you have a vision? Does your team, department, or company understand what you’re trying to achieve? Businessdictionary.com defines a vision statement like this: “An aspirational description of what an organization would like to achieve or accomplish in the mid-term or long-term future. It is intended to serve as a clear guide for choosing current and future courses of action.”

That definition provides some great clues about what a vision really is. First, it’s aspirational—something you and those around you can aspire to. Second, it’s something that is to be achieved or accomplished—a goal everyone can work toward. Third, it’s not something that will happen overnight. It’s a mid-term or even long-term goal. And fourth, it serves as a guide in choosing a course of action.

In business, a leader must have a vision. And that vision must inspire and motivate others in the organization. It must be something others want to be a part of. Something people will dedicate themselves to achieving. It’s not where you are today but where you want to be someday.

But merely having a vision isn’t enough. A good leader also must be willing to take action and lead to make the vision a reality.

So how exactly do you make your vision a reality? Here’s some advice from Jack Welch: “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” That’s a pretty good blueprint from a man who achieved so much in business.

Here are the steps to making your vision a reality:

Articulate the vision. You must get others to see and become part of your vision. To achieve success, you must get the “buy-in” of those around you. To do that, you must be able to communicate what it is you want to achieve. Your words must paint the images of what you aspire to. And more important, your words must inspire trust. You must get others to truly believe that your vision is attainable. And you must communicate your vision continually until it’s achieved.

Own the vision. If you can’t get excited about what you’re setting out to do, how can you expect others to? You must embody the vision you’re trying to achieve. Finding the right words is important, but “walking the walk” instead of just “talking the talk” is critical. Your vision will never become a reality if you don’t model the behaviors necessary to achieve it.

Lead the vision. If you want others to get excited about your vision, you must get them to understand the role they play in achieving it. All the people in the organization must know how they can help attain the goal you have set before them. And they need to understand how they will benefit from being a part of it. That takes leadership. The only way your vision will become reality is if you can inspire others to make it happen.

Pursue the vision. A vision statement isn’t something you create and then put on a shelf—it’s something that must be pursued relentlessly until it’s achieved. You must turn your words into action. And you must work toward that distant goal every day until it becomes a reality. You can never lose sight of what you’re trying to achieve because everyone else will be relying on you to show them the way.

Creating a vision and then making it a reality are no easy tasks. Some people work their entire lives without realizing their vision, but I’m certain they still achieve more by having a vision than they would without one. So I encourage you to think about your vision and dream big when you do. You’ll never know what’s really possible until you try.