Successful leadership starts with a clear vision.  A vision is a is a mental picture of what you want your business to be at some point in the future. It is a realistic aspiration. That vision gives the leader and leadership team a clear focus and a long-term direction they want to take their business towards. If communicated well to the whole business it creates a common direction and purpose which pulls tams together and drives them towards that vision.. So primarily leadership is all about creating, believing and communicating a clear VISION, and certainly (but not exclusively), because it stops a business heading in the wrong direction, that’s why successful leadership starts with a clear vision. 

Great leadership is about planning your business using business planning tools to match their ambitions to the opportunities in their market. Without a vision, businesses often fall into short-term annual plan, rather than long-term sustainable entities.

Clear Vision

Successful business owners step back to work on their business not in their business. Looking at where they are going and why. A vision is an essential element in a leaders toolkit. It creates a purpose and must be communicated with all stakeholders and employees effectively. It is about being more than just a product or turnover. A good vision must combine not only an aspiration but elude to the values of the business.

Clarity is a powerful skill for any leader to possess. Clarity of purpose and direction creates not only certainty but also enables a wide range of stakeholders to be able to focus their personal objectives towards the leaders vision. Clarity is not simplicity, but quite the opposite in leadership. Being able to create a simplicity from complexity is the art leadership brings to a complex rapidly changing world.  A good leader simplifies problems down through having a clear vision of where they want to go and can explain the why they are doing it in a few clear and effective messages.   

Leaders Vision Must Identify Growth

A leaders vision is about todays business in tomorrows market. It is about demonstrating that they know where they are taking the business and its people within the emerging market within which they wish to compete. Identifying growth is at the heart of why leaders create a vision for their business. The market will look like this, due to these macro factors and that will create opportunities for us within these cohorts to which we have core competencies to deliver real value to existing or new customers. 

Growth is vital for all companies in every sector. That can be organic natural growth in pure numbers, or growth through cross / upsell as well as growth from diversification or acquisition as markets grow, evolve or mature. Growth can be through transformation of the business into a new entity as markets evolve and develop or the introduction of new products and service offerings. Growth is a wide ranging topic but at the core of all leaders role is looking for defining and developing plans to win that growth.   

Leadership Skills

Good visions also aspire to where the business will provide value to customers in the future. What are the opportunities within your market and sector over the next few years. Business Planning is a process of assessing options using tried and tested business planning tools, which provide robust and accurate options for business owners to grow their business successful.

For leaders to develop those skills they need to learn how to be strategic in their thinking which is why leaders often use 3rd parties to support them through a Strategic Planning Workshop.   

Leadership is all about VISION by Richard Gourlay