Your Vision Statement Needs a NUMBER!

Last week I talked about the difference between mission, vision and values. Of the three, we always start with vision. And we do so for purely practical purposes. If a business doesn’t know what it wants to accomplish it is impossible to be intentional about achieving it.

But vision statements can be tricky things to write. Everyone seems to have a different opinion about what they should cover or how inspiring their prose should be. Most vision statements of Fortune 500 companies are of little practical use. I’m particularly fond of this example from the Swedish company Ericsson:

“Our vision is a Networked Society: one where connectivity brings people together.”

What does this mean? I am certain it means something, but without talking to the people who were in the room when it was written it's hard to know exactly what this vision will look like when it is realized. The biggest problem with this vision statement, as with most, is that it is missing NUMBERS. That's right, numbers are the secret ingredient to a good, practical vision statement.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. First, we need to know what constitutes a good vision statement. There are a few simple rules.

1. A good vision statement helps you communicate what you are trying to accomplish. This means that it paints a clear picture with a minimal amount of effort.
2. A good vision statement is aspirational. It describes a situation that is not yet. It gives people working alongside you something to work TOWARD.
3. A good vision statement comes from leadership. It is not developed in committee. When I help develop a vision statement I do it with the business owners. They are the ones that must provide leadership. Vision is the primary communication tool of good leaders.

What we want to address today is point #1. If we cannot paint a clear picture people will shrug their shoulders and lump us in with all the other corporate blowhards and ivory tower know-it-alls. Clarity is king. And for this reason we need NUMBERS.

Think about how quickly numbers provide context. This context is what allows you to fully understand the situation. Consider the following statements.

• "She makes a LOT of money!"
• "He's pretty fast."
• "I'm going to take a little time off from work."

These statements might be accurate, but then again, it depends on your point of view. Vision statements shouldn't depend on a point of view. Let's get more precise by using some numbers, and see if these statements provide more clarity.

• "She makes $250,000 a year."
• "He runs a 4:10 mile."
• "We are spending 2 months sailing the Caribbean."

Numbers are powerful. They quantify situations and remove ambiguity.

When we use terms like "a lot", "leading", "major", "best", "most innovative" we fail to really communicate anything meaningful. We may know what we mean, but others have no clue what we are trying to communicate. The truth is ambiguous vision statements aren't even understood by the leaders who come up with them. And that is shameful.

Being lazy with thoughts and language is most damaging to the leaders who wake up every day uninspired and without any directional compass to drive their big ideas. Getting clear with your language by using numbers is the most effective way to communicate your true North.

So how do you do it? I give my clients some homework. I tell them to start by writing out a couple of paragraphs, even a page or two, describing what they want their company to look like. Just tell me a story. Everybody has a different approach. Some imagine a future where they've just sold their company for a boat load of cash and they describe what they've sold, how they built it, what the toast sounds like as they sit on the beach enjoying a celebratory glass of champagne. Others will fast-forward 5, 10, or 30 years into the future and talk about what they have been able to accomplish in the community, how their children are involved, what their personal life looks like and how it has been enriched by the business. This is not difficult work, but it requires some time and effort.

With this homework in hand the business owner and I meet the next day to begin an offsite retreat. I start to poke and prod their story. I kick over rocks and try to get to the heart of what's important to them. Those stories contain a lot of information about their values and even their mission, but I'm after vision. And as we get close I start to ask about numbers. "What does that look like? How many people are involved? How big? How many customers? How much revenue? What percentage of the market? Regional or national? Employees or contractors? More than one location? How much volume?" The questions continue until we strike gold.

After two hours of this one of our clients said, "I want us to be a household name in the state of Florida in our industry." We were getting close.

I asked, "How many transactions do you need to do a month to get that kind of recognition?"

Immediately she said, "10,000 per month."

"How many do we do now?," I asked.

"About 2,000."

BOOM! Now we have context. Now we have a clear picture of what we are trying to accomplish. Two hours later we met with the leadership team and said, "Our vision is to become a household name in the state of Florida by doing 10,000 transactions per month." Everyone in that room knew exactly where we were going, and they were PUMPED!

Other clients have expressed their vision as:

"Become a top 100 company in our industry"

"Employee, lead and serve 1,200 employees"

"Create $100 million in savings for our clients every year"

"Open 5 locations in the 5 largest metropolitan centers in the Southeast"

These small business vision statements may not have the panache of Google's "To organize all the world's information." They may never be quoted in Harvard Business Review like Ikea's "To create a better everyday life for the many people."

But these vision statements from smaller companies, all doing between $1 million and $25 million in revenue, accomplish something more important. The employees, vendors, customers, and founders of these businesses aren't left asking "what does that mean?" And for a tool that is supposed to help you communicate, clarity is pretty important.

Vision statements with numbers not only provide more clarity, that clarity allows them to be more inspiring. If you don't have numbers in your vision it's time to stop being lazy with your thoughts and words. The people who work alongside you deserve to know what you are about. They deserve good leadership. With a clear vision great leadership becomes possible.

How's your vision statement? Is it clear to you? Is it clear to everyone else? If not let me know and I'll be glad to give you some tips.

What's the difference between Mission, Vision and Values?

I was in a meeting the other day and the guy next to me, who runs a very successful company, said "you know, I've just never taken the time to do the mission statement. I know I should, but I don't quite know what to do."

Mission, vision and values are great tools for communicating what you are about and helping other people understand what you are trying to accomplish. Any business that struggles with communication should start here. It will make a big difference in how you talk with employees, customers, contractors and everyone else you do business with.

But first you need to understand the difference between all of these terms. There's a popular formula in the self help world that goes like this.

BE x DO = HAVE

When most people talk about success they talk about the HAVE. It's about having a bigger bank account, or having a successful business, or having a nicer house, or having a more successful relationship.

The problem is this. The HAVE is a product of BEing (what kind of person you are) and DOing (the disciplines and habits and ways you spend your time). If you are a kind, generous person who prioritizes time with those you love and makes an effort to do things to help them you are virtually guaranteed to have more fulfilling relationships. If you are others-focused and disciplined about finding and delivering the services that your customers value you are virtually guaranteed to thrive in business.

This same formula helps us differentiate between mission, vision and values. It goes like this:

VALUES x MISSION = VISION

Your vision is what you want to accomplish. It is aspirational. Axiom's VISION is to have 5 offices across the Southeast with 5 consultants in each office.

Our MISSION is to grow our client's businesses by teaching the art and science of growth through strategic planning, stewardship and leadership.

Our VALUES are Care (love those we serve), Truth (speak the truth even when difficult) and Diligence (bring the right amount of effort to the task).

Each of these areas is different. Our values are about the kind of company we want to BE. Our mission is about the things we DO every day with customers. And our vision describes what we would like to HAVE accomplished at some point in the future.

There's one more element.

WHY does any of this stuff matter to us?

Simon Sinek wrote a great book called "Start with Why" and this gets to the heart of the matter. What you DO will rarely inspire people, but WHY you do it is a different story. When you share your WHY you are sharing your heart of hearts. You are telling people what gets you out of bed every morning and what keeps you up late at night. Your WHY is hugely important when you communicate what you are about.

At Axiom we believe that there is no greater vehicle to change the world than small business. It has a power to transform and influence that is greater than any non-profit, church, social institution or government entity. Small business done well is world changing, and we live to help small business owners make an impact. That's our WHY.

If you've never thought seriously about your mission, vision, values and why I would encourage you to take an afternoon sabbatical and start working on it. It will rarely be a once and done exercise. You will come back to it, polish it, rewrite it, tweak it. Over time it will stabilize and become part of the fiber of your company. And it will be the most powerful communication tool you have.

No Shared Todo Lists

In today's video I share some of my thoughts on todo lists and why I think shared lists are a bad idea. I want to cover that topic here and address what is sure to be an often raise objection to my point of view.

Shared todo lists are a bad idea because as a rule they allow those delegating tasks to abdicate two primary responsibilities of management.

1. The responsibility to confirm the recipient's understanding of the task being assigned and
2. The responsibility to hold the recipient accountable

No matter what our intentions we often make assumptions about how other people are going to use (or should use) a shared workflow system. Because if they WOULD use it the way we want them to it would alleviate a lot of stress and menial work on our part. But they don't use it the way we want them to. They use it the way that suites them best, which in many cases means they don't use it at all.

Keeping track of the stuff you need to do in life is about as personal as it gets. So when you dictate to someone else that they have to use YOUR system you should expect some push back. Your system suites your tendencies and habits. One person may prefer pencil and paper while another is only happy with a cross platform app that keeps everything in the cloud. In the end it's not important that everyone use the same system to track their responsibilities. It's most important that everybody has their own system, so long as it adheres to the three cardinal rules of task management.

RULE 1 - Always keep a list
I love the Tom Sachs Studio film 10 Bullets. Bullet #7 is "Always keep a list." It's not just about writing things down so you don't forget them. It's not just about clearing headspace so you can concentrate on the task at hand. It's about being intentional with the stuff you allow onto your plate. It's about curating your world so you and I both know what is important to you. A person without a list is a person I can't trust.

It doesn't matter whether the list is on paper, in an app, on a spreadsheet...the most important thing is that the list is always available. For reasons I describe here I am currently keeping my list on paper. That may change, but my list will always be something I can carry with me pretty much wherever I go.

RULE 2 - Track what people owe you
David Allen popularized this in his Getting Things Done book, but I learned to do it long before that. Allen calls it the @waiting list. It's just an entry on your list that tells you what someone has promised to deliver back to you. If you assign a project or delegate a task it goes on your list with some indication that you are waiting on someone to get it back to you. I note these items with a big "W" and include the date that the commitment was made.

Now, every time I review my list I am reminded that someone owes me something. It could be a document that a client has promised to send me. It could be a date for an upcoming meeting someone wants to schedule. It could be a book I loaned out. It doesn't matter. If someone owes me something it goes on my list.

This is perhaps the single biggest credibility hack available to managers and professionals. If you don't track what people owe you you cannot consistently hold them accountable. But if you do, they will remember it and they will perform at a higher level when working with you.

RULE 3 - Always confirm receipt
This goes to the heart of shared todo lists. If you can't confirm that someone has received your instructions you cannot confirm that they understand what they are supposed to do. Don't take it for granted that just because you assigned someones initials or sent them an email, or left a voicemail or sent a text that they have received AND accepted responsibility for getting the thing done. Always confirm receipt.

I'm sure to get some criticism from businesses that use ticketing systems or dispatching systems. All hell would break loose if they ditched their platform and I get that. But what I am talking about are not workflow systems, they are management systems. Ticketing and dispatch systems are no different than assembly lines. They are the means by which knowledge workers and technicians do the rote and routine things defined in their job descriptions.

I am talking about how professionals manage the shared responsibilities on their team. And in my opinion handing that off to a piece of software or a database pretty much guarantees that thigns will fall between the cracks and people will get frustrated.

Three Ways to Get Better at Accountability

I had been working with this client for over six months. Our relationship was solid. Appointments were upbeat and fun. By the end of a morning together we always accomplished a lot and went our separate ways feeling energized. 

But as I sat at the conference table this morning all was not well. Over the preceeding 13 weeks several major projects had failed to get done. I looked at the project plan in front of me, the same one the client had designed during our last session. The tasks were not difficult. The pace was not that rigorous. 

Why hadn't they gotten any of this done? And then it hit me. This was my fault.

I realized that morning that I understood exactly how this client worked. I put myself in his shoes. With all the demands on his time, our strategic project list was getting lost. The important things were taking a back seat to the urgent things. He knew these things were important, and he felt terrible about the lack of progress. As he was beating himself up I interrupted, and I apologized.

I apologized for failing him as a coach and as a client. We both knew he needed accountability to be effective. But accountability is like medicine. You need the right kind, in the right dose at the right time for it to be effective. That is where I had failed. I was providing the wrong type of accountability, in the wrong dose, at the wrong time. 

My story is played out every day by managers trying to provide the accountability and oversite their team needs to be successful. And just like me their efforts don't result in the right things getting done. They are focused on accountability for it's own sake rather than accountability for the sake of their team's effectiveness. Here are a few suggestions for better accountability.

##Type
Do your team members need accountability for deadlines, accountability for daily time management, accountability for adherance to company values....the list could go on. As a manager your role is to support your team. What kind of support do they need in the area of accountability? Most people take for granted that accountability is about staying on top of people so they meet deadlines. But a completely different type of accountability is helpful when it comes to staying on task and managing time.

One of my clients had a key employee responsible for scheduling most of the firm's production as well as handling incoming phone and email requests from customers. His ability to stay engaged and focused had a huge impact on everyone else in the company. But telling him to stay focused did little. Making him log his time did even less. Keeping meticulous notes of customer interactions worked for a little while, but not forever. 

We did two things to help this employee be accountable for his time, focus and engagement. First, we made him take more breaks. With extra time to recharge the batteries and take a breather he was much more energetic on the phone and much more conscientious when scheduling production.

Second, we asked him to have a cup of coffee with the owner at 4:45 every day with the sole purpose of answering the question "was it a good day today?" This changed the focus of our accountabilty from "did you get your stuff done?" to "how do feel about what you got done?"  He admitted that those 4:45 conversations were top of mind about 1:00. He said, "I would start thinking to myself 'it's not a good day yet, I need to make some more progress before 4:45 gets here."

##Dose
An example of providing accountability in the wrong dose is freaking out. I saw this happen in a client's business when the office manager ripped someone a new one for parking in the wrong spot. Granted, there were good reasons for designated employee parking, but the punishment didn't fit the crime in this case.

Middle managers or new managers seem to do this more than others. At first I chalked it up to the power trip that comes with authority. But over time I have come to believe that it's more out of fear than anything else. 

Managers feel like they should be doing something, and in the absence of a good mentor or decent training they just call people out for failing to perform. They want to do their jobs well. The problem is no one has ever taught them what good accountability looks like.

Of course the opposite is also true. One of my confict averse clients struggled to hold production managers accountable for turning in time sheets and pay requests on time. He would call the offenders into his office and listen as they explained why they missed the deadline. By the time the meeting was over everyone was all smiles with promises to do better next time. 

One day the payroll manager quit and the owner asked me to perform the exit interview. It turns out she had been looking for a job for months. All those late time sheets and pay requests had been making pay days miserable for her. Time after time she saw the owner let guys off the hook, and she decided enough was enough.

##Timing
By far the most frequent place business owners and managers go wrong is timing. Accountability is only effective if it is present in a way that motivates behavior. And this is exactly where I had missed the boat with my client. Providing accountability during our meeting, at a time when he was unable to do anything about it, was pointless. It would have been much better for me to followup with him a week before our meeting. He would have been motivated and he would have had time to get something done prior to our meeting.

Timing is also the easiest part of accountability to get right, IF you think about it ahead of time. Tackling the timing side of accountability is best done as soon as someone accepts responsibility for the task or project. Just ask, "when is the best time to check back with you on this?" Immediately the appointment goes in my calendar with an appointment invitation emailed to the other person. 

##Call to action
Think of an area where holding someone accountable hasn't been working and change up your approach by doing one of the following:

1. Change the type of accountability. If you are just asking "have you got this done?" change it up and ask "what kind of support do you need to get this done?"
2. Change the dose. This probably means getting more confrontational for most people. Commit to have a "come to Jesus" meeting with someone who has been let off the hook too often.
3. The next time someone commits to something immediately ask, "when is the best time to check in with you on this?" and put it on your calendar.

Don't Outthink a Fool

It was the middle of the day, and I was on another marathon conference call. These had become routine with this client. Two, three, four times a week, sometimes several times a day I was in the middle of strategizing and crisis management sessions. We were pitted against an adversary that would clearly do or say anything to tear us down. It was incredibly stressful.

During those sessions we examined every possibility, every move and counter move. We tried to anticipate what might be said or done next knowing the only thing we could count on was continued bad faith. As the weeks dragged into months I learned a valuable lesson. 

Our assumptions about what the other side might do would have been orders of magnitude more effective than what they actually did. We always gave them too much credit. We always figured them smarter than they wound up being. And we always imagined their timing would be much better than it turned out.

It is probably true that you should not **underestimate** your opponent. But that doesn't happen as often as the more problematic tendency to **overestimate** the other side. The trick is to strike the balance.

Thankfully this is rarely a necessity in the world of small business. The political game we were playing is much different from the common sense, market driven world most small business owners enjoy every day. But sometimes you find yourself at odds with a disgruntled former employee or customer beyond the reach of reason. In those times you need to remember a few things.  

First, great leaders are obsessive about preparation. But if you are struggling with someone who is irational, desperate or unpredictable you are probably not dealing with a good leader.  Even if you are their highest priority they are probably not spending near as much time on the issue, problem, or personal attack as you are.  We tend to assume that people acting like fools will act with inexhuastible lucidity when it comes to preparing how to act the fool. They won't. But you will waste valuable time and energy preparing for eventualities that never happen. 

Second, inertia is very powerful, and wasted time is a sure way to kill it. The desire to be certain or the desire to include others means a lot of wasted time. If you are leading a small business there is a good chance you are fairly decent at gathering facts and making decisions. Just because someone has taken a cheap shot or two doesn't mean you should slow down and seek levels of certaintly or take precautions your are not accustomed to. An ounce of reflection is healthy.  A pound is often pointless. Act! and control the pace of whatever game the other side happens to be playing. 

Last, discern the difference between a foolish attack and someone with a legitimate grievance. We ought to seek reconciliation with those we have wronged, whether or not we meant the slight.  Usually the only road block to reconciliation is an ego that won't get out of the way.  Wise business owners will recognize legitimate criticism, check the ego and make things right. Wise business owners will also recognize foolish attacks and not overthink the response, lest they be drawn into an argument only a fool can win.