You don't have a vision until your followers can see

Vision in leadership is important. We all know it. But, oftentimes, we can't really paint the picture of what that vision looks like in practice. Most times vision is couched in a goal such as growing revenue by 10% in 2020. While goals are very important, that's not what I'm talking about here. What I'm talking about here now is a vision that's so clear to the extent that you can visualise it-and so everyone around you. That's what vision is all about. It's not a coincidence that vision and visualise have the same linguistic origin- because that's what vision is meant to do.

Creating a vision that aligns your team or followers as the case may be takes a lot of thought.it takes reflection,it takes getting specific. Because if you're not specific,you'll be scattered and consequently, your team or followers may not know where you are going and you won't be able to recognise success when you see it. Without specifics you're likely to fail as a leader.

Creating a visual vision has 3 key benefits

1. Focus

A visual vision will help you to prioritise. You only have so much time in a day or mental energy and so many resources. If you aren't crystal clear on what you are trying to accomplish, you'll waste time on activities that aren't moving you forward. It's important to ask yourself if your choices are moving you closer to your vision. If not, it might be counterproductive.

2. Getting others on board

The second benefit of having a visual vision is that it motivates other people to help you make it happen. A clear vision get other people attracted to you by enabling them to see where exactly you're heading to and consequently get people who will help you to get there to you.

3. Motivation

From time to time we all face burnout, discouragement and frustration. Your vision should give you at least 5 WHY's that will keep you going when things go wrong.

We all know that vision is essential to leadership. But just having a vision isn't enough. You need to also be specific that you have an exact picture of what that vision looks like. And once you've created that vision you need to share it and repeat, repeat, repeat so much that everyone on your team sees exactly what you're seeing or see(s).