Jack Welch recently praised U.S President Barack Obama for articulating a strong vision. In an excerpt based on his book, Fire Them Up, Carmine Gallo reveals the three elements of all inspiring visions.
Although Jack Welch disagrees with several of Obama’s policies, the former General Electric CEO praised Obama for his vision. In a recent BusinessWeek article, Welch wrote, “From the economy to the environment, education to health care, the President has articulated his goals to the nation. Vision, though, is meaningless alone. To be an effective leader, you must communicate consistently, vividly, and so darn frequently that your throat gets soar. You can’t, as we’ve said, communicate too much, especially when you’re galvanizing change.”
As Welch suggests, a vision is useless if it is not clearly communicated to those who you hope will follow that vision. After interviewing more than two dozen inspiring business leaders for Fire Them Up, it became clear that extraordinary men and women all are capable of creating and delivering a vision that meet three criteria. Inspiring visions are:
Concise. The Google guys, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, walked into the venture-capital firm, Sequoia Capital, and expressed their company’s vision in one sentence: “Google provides access to the world’s information in one click.” A Sequoia investor told me that today they require entrepreneurs to deliver a one line vision (10 words of less). He said, “If you can’t tell me what you do in ten words or less, I’m not investing and I’m not interested.” Inspiring visions must be concise enough to be memorable.
Specific. Inspiring visions rally people to a greater purpose, even if they seem daunting at first. On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy outlined a specific vision to conquer space. Not only would America land a man on the moon and “return him safely to earth,” he told a joint session of Congress, but America would do so by the last day of the decade. That is a specific goal and a specific timeline. Skeptics ridiculed Kennedy’s plan as nothing but a pipe dream, but the bold, specific vision rallied the nation’s best scientists to make it happen.
Consistent. A vision means nothing if your staff doesn’t hear it consistently. When I met Cranium co-founder Richard Tait, he said he left Microsoft to create a board game from a sketch he drew on the back of an airplane napkin. It was a vision to create a board game that gave every player a “chance to shine,” as he put it. Tait reminded employees of the vision on a daily basis and used media interviews as opportunities to explain the concept. Though Hasbro bought Cranium in 2008, Tait’s vision (“Everyone Shines”) remains consistent on Cranium’s packaging, Web site, press releases, presentations, and marketing material.
CEOs, entrepreneurs, managers and small business owners can all benefit from communicating an inspiring vision. For example, Russell & Mackenna is a made-to-order furniture company that designs and builds colorful, cottage-style furniture. The family-owned firm began in a one-car garage in 2003. Today it designs, manufactures, and ships furniture from a 6,000-square-foot facility in Jessup, Md., to customers around the country. Co-founder Lauren Russell says she makes sure everything-from the design to marketing-remains consistent with the vision articulated five years ago: to build furniture that uplifts your spirit.
Russell told me that larger retailers have expressed an interest in forming partnerships with the company, but in too many cases it would require design compromises that would derail the company from following its vision. Russell is convinced that staying true to the vision has helped the company grow, differentiate itself, create loyal customers, and successfully weather the economic downturn.
Remember, most business leaders either do not have a vision or fail to articulate it in a way that makes people excited. That means your company will stand out when you manage to do so.
San Francisco 49ers head coach, Mike Singletary, expressed the difference between a vision and a dream. The difference, he said, is that a dream is passive. “A vision captures the imagination. It consumes you like a fire, won’t let you eat, won’t let you sleep until that vision comes to pass.” Whether you’re the President of the United States or an entrepreneur, communicate a consuming vision.