5 reasons why your corporate vision is business-critical

Why employee engagement with your vision is business-critical

1. It helps retain talent

Research indicates that employees are more committed and less likely to leave when they find their work meaningful and aligned with their values.

2. It builds engagement

A compelling corporate vision directs passion towards a common goal, clarifies the company’s direction, and unites employees under a shared purpose. Research shows that staff who see their company’s vision as meaningful have engagement levels 18% above average.

3. It combats self-interest and factionalism

Visionary leaders provide inspiring aims that help organizations overcome self-interest and factionalism. This pulls employees towards a desirable future, and reduces anxiety about the challenges ahead.

4. It enables employees to see how they contribute to success

Buying into the vision helps people see how their work contributes to the enterprise’s success, and furthers its mission and purpose.

5. It fosters positive change

A shared vision is connective and cohesive. It can cause meaningful change by making everyone think, ‘I see where we’re going and how all this fits together’.

How to create a compelling vision

1. Distinguish your vision from related concepts

Differentiate your vision from concepts such as mission, core objectives, strategy, and overall purpose. While it must align with these, it is separate to them – and can be the thing that makes sense of them all.

2. Paint a picture of a desirable future state

The first part of building your vision is to imagine a potential future that is ambitious but achievable and communicate it to everyone.

3. Define the path that will take you there

Develop the vision using either a ‘look-forward-then-reason-back’ approach, a ‘take-stock-and-imagine-possibilities’ approach (known as ‘effectuation’), or a combination of both.

4. Mobilize the organization to realize success

Visioning is about building bridges between current realities and potential futures, but it’s not enough simply to envision an ideal future: you must energize people around it.

5. Secure active support

Ensure support for the visioning process from individual departments in the organization to empower leaders and cultivate an environment where everyone feels motivated to achieve a shared future.