There is a reason you started your company. You had a vision of what could be and felt confident enough, and excited enough, to go all-in. Inspired, ambitious, determined, and a little bit crazy are all personality traits you’re comfortable carrying; and they’ve served you well, getting you this far.
That said, scaling your company takes a lot more than just you with the vision inside your head. Imagine you’re a boat captain sailing across uncharted waters and all of your employees, customers, investors and business partners are on the boat with you. They need to know which direction to row, how fast, where you’re heading, when you expect to arrive, and why you’re going there. Answering those questions is your job. The chief responsibility of the boat captain/CEO is to continually assess the situation you’re in and set the course for each day, month and year. Invariably, everyone is looking to you, the CEO, for those answers.
At your company, you are responsible not only for creating your company vision statement, but also aligning, realigning and motivating your team on a continuous basis. The tens, hundreds or thousands of employees, your customers, investors, and business partners, all need to believe in you and your vision, and work tirelessly alongside you for years to realize it.
Best practices
- Craft a vision statement that is aspirational, exciting, and memorable - Write it down and make sure your team sees it regularly. Here is an example of a founder
- Repeatedly communicate and reiterate your vision - Vision answers the question as to why you are all there everyday working so hard. You have a chance to build something special, something that didn’t exist before, and change the world in some small way in the process. Every opportunity you get, reshare your vision in different ways, whether its at all-hands meetings or at the end of smaller team meetings, your team needs to hear it very often. This will feel repetitive and even boring at times, that’s normal.
- Vision is always led by the CEO - This can’t be outsourced, delegated, or compromised. This is one of your core responsibilities as CEO; to set and reinforce the vision of the company to ensure that everyone knows what the ultimate goal is and stays motivated.
- Lead by example - The way you spend your time, the types of projects you take on, and the people you hire should all ladder up to achieving the company’s vision. As an example, if your team sees you spending a lot of time promoting yourself, rather than the company’s mission, it can have a devastating effect on the morale and motivation of your team.
References
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