
Three things I know: taking over the family business Â
How many times did I secretly wish for my father to leave the business and leave me the sole âQueenâ on board? Ten years later, I cannot imagine working without him by...
by Michael D. Watkins Published March 6, 2025 in Brain Circuits ⢠3 min read
Research indicates that employees are more committed and less likely to leave when they find their work meaningful and aligned with their values.
A compelling corporate vision directs passion towards a common goal, clarifies the companyâs direction, and unites employees under a shared purpose. Research shows that staff who see their companyâs vision as meaningful haveâŻengagement levels 18% above average.
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.
Buying into the vision helps people see how their work contributes to the enterpriseâs success, and furthers its mission and purpose.
A shared vision is connective and cohesive. It can cause meaningful change by making everyone think, âI see where weâre going and how all this fits togetherâ.
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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 â and can be the thing that makes sense of them all.
The first part of building your vision is to imagine a potential future that is ambitious but achievable and communicate it to everyone.
Develop the vision using either a âlook-forward-then-reason-backâ approach, a âtake-stock-and-imagine-possibilitiesâ approach (known as âeffectuationâ), or a combination of both.
Visioning is about building bridges between current realities and potential futures, but itâs not enough simply to envision an ideal future: you must energize people around it.
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.
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Employee buy-in to a compelling corporate vision can align behavior, motivate everyone to achieve shared goals, and reduce anxiety about challenges ahead. Visioning provides a clear picture of the âwhyâ and the âwhereâ through communication that distils, informs, and inspires.
Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change at IMD
Michael D Watkins is Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change at IMD, and author of The First 90 Days, Master Your Next Move, Predictable Surprises, and 12 other books on leadership and negotiation. His book, The Six Disciplines of Strategic Thinking, explores how executives can learn to think strategically and lead their organizations into the future. A Thinkers 50-ranked management influencer and recognized expert in his field, his work features in HBR Guides and HBRâs 10 Must Reads on leadership, teams, strategic initiatives, and new managers. Over the past 20 years, he has used his First 90 DaysÂŽ methodology to help leaders make successful transitions, both in his teaching at IMD, INSEAD, and Harvard Business School, where he gained his PhD in decision sciences, as well as through his private consultancy practice Genesis Advisers. At IMD, he directs the First 90 Days open program for leaders taking on challenging new roles and co-directs the Transition to Business Leadership (TBL) executive program for future enterprise leaders, as well as the Program for Executive Development.
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