It Starts with a Vision | How to Shine at Work

Yogi Berra’s advice, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might wind up someplace else,” is well taken. Before you can deliver stellar results, you have to have a vision for your future, a mission for your actions, and meaningful goals—otherwise, you just might wind up “someplace else.”

Creating a personal vision statement and a mission statement and defining the goals that support them is one of the most powerful steps you can take in advancing your career and your life, as it involves identifying your most important roles, what you want to do, and how you want to do it. Creating a vision statement and a mission statement for your team is another powerful way to identify what is most important and what has to be done, by whom, and when. Whether for your team or for yourself, a vision statement and a mission statement become your compass and a significant source of guidance during an ever-changing, fast-paced life, allowing you to keep your eyes on the target so that you can deliver exceptional results.

The terms vision statement and mission statement are often used interchangeably, and when organizations do not “walk the talk,” these terms may seem completely without substance. For clarity, then,

Your vision is what your eyes see as possible for your career and your life.
Your mission is what your hands will do to manifest your vision.

Vision: What You See as Possible

Your vision is your dream—without editing—for your future. A personal vision will include what you see as possible for your career and your life—where you want to be. Your vision should be easily understood so that you can easily transfer it into your mission statement, and then into individual goals.

To develop a vision statement, I ask my clients to complete the following process.

What Do You Value? In Chapter 1, we examined personal values. Refer to your Values Worksheet, and focus on those things that are most important to you. These words are powerful motivators that influence your choices, habits, and lifestyles. Sharon, a marketing executive and coaching client, found that the following were her top values:

Communication
Creating
Making a contribution
Leading others
Giving
Accomplishing

Review the values you identified in Chapter 1, and list your top six values.

What Are Your Strengths and Talents? Everyone has strengths and talents that enable him or her to do certain things and to make a contribution at work and in life. Consider your strengths and talents—they can be technical skills, behavioral skills, or both. These may be skills that others recognize in you or strengths and skills that others do not see. Sharon, the marketing executive, reviewed her work history, and created her list of strengths and talents based on both the things that she felt were significant and compliments that she had received from others:

Can influence others
Organized
Independent
Disagrees diplomatically
Excels in troubleshooting
Works well on a team
Is self-directed
Has a sense of urgency
Negotiates solutions well
Has a great sense of humor
Effectively communicates authority
Enjoys variety

Review your work history and the compliments you’ve received. List at least six strengths and talents.

What Is in Your Way? Just as you have strengths and talents that enable you to do certain things, you may have habits or behavioral styles that prevent you from getting what you want in your life and your career. These may just be skills you have not learned yet; you may be aware that you are disorganized, or easily ruffled, or easily angered. List no more than three such habits that might prevent you from realizing your goals.

Sharon reread a few of her performance evaluations from past years to identify her barriers:

Can snap at people when she’s busy
May be thinking of her response while the other person is still speaking
May overextend—tries to accomplish too much in too little time

How Do You Want to Be Remembered? How would you like people to think of you when you are gone? What words would your closest friends, colleagues, and relatives use to describe their thoughts and feelings about you? Sharon, the marketing executive, found this question easier to answer by writing her own epitaph:

People say that I always had a sense of independence, a mind of my own, a great sense of humor—that I was a great communicator, an excellent planner, with patience, courage, and optimism, and with a very level head. My workmates say that I was fun and interesting to work with, that I was creative and generous with my time and ideas. They say that I always had an opinion, yet I was able to share that opinion in a way that brought people together, and that I enjoyed finding solutions to problems that others didn’t even realize existed. They say that I made some good decisions and some bad ones, and that some of my relationship choices left me on the verge, yet I rebounded, and I became an even stronger, wiser, and kinder person. They say that I gave lots of love and devotion in close friendships, laughed a lot, and even learned to listen better as I got older.

Refer to Exhibit 6-1, and select up to three words that you would like your friends and loved ones to use to describe you (or use your own descriptors). If you choose to write your epitaph, underline or highlight the words that you find to be the most appealing descriptors of you. From her epitaph, Sharon chose the words courage, patience, and generous.

Exhibit 6-1: Descriptors

__ Accountable	__ Grateful
__ Ambitious	__ Hard-working
__ Amusing	__ Influential
__ Balanced	__ Insightful
__ Caring	__ Loyal
__ Committed	__ Organized
__ Compassionate	__ Optimistic
__ Courageous	__ Patient
__ Creative	__ Philanthropic
__ Dependable	__ Principle-centered
__ Educated	__ Proactive
__ Enthusiastic	__ Respectful
__ Ethical	__ Responsible
__ Fair	__ Self-reliant
__ Faithful	__ Sensible
__ Forgiving	__ Truthful
__ Fun	__ Trustworthy
__ Giving	__ Understanding

Vision Statement

Sharon’s vision statement became

To develop professional success and personal fulfillment in my life, I will:

Lead a life centered on my values of communication, creating, making a contribution, leading others, giving, and accomplishing.

Appreciate my strengths and talents, and be known as a person who is influential, independent, diplomatic, and a great problem solver; works well on a team; negotiates solutions well; has a great sense of humor; and enjoys variety.

Be honest with myself by acknowledging that I can be irritable, may not listen well, and may overpromise, and by constantly striving to learn and grow to shift my barriers into strengths.

Envision myself becoming a person who is courageous, patient, and generous.

Advance my career by leading a values-based life, appreciating and using my skills and talents, and learning to identify and overcome barriers; by achieving balance between my work and my personal life; by creating and maintaining a highly visible and superior reputation for excellence at work; by helping my team to become even better at what they do, individually and as a team; by asking for input and feedback from others; by setting higher standards for my behavior; and by earning a promotion to senior vice president of marketing by June 1.

Now you are ready to prepare your vision statement. Complete the statements in Exhibit 6-2 from the lists you have created. This statement can become the foundation for your solid personal vision statement. Complete it, add to it, print it, frame it, read it—let it be a dynamic reminder of what you see as possible for your life.

Exhibit 6-2: Vision Statement

Complete the statements below from the lists you created earlier in the chapter.

To develop professional success and personal fulfillment in my life, I will:

Lead a life centered around my values of: (list your values here)

___________________	___________________
___________________	___________________
___________________	___________________

Appreciate my strengths and talents, and be known as a person who is: (list your strengths and talents here)

___________________	___________________
___________________	___________________
___________________	___________________
___________________	___________________

Be honest with myself by acknowledging that I can be: (list barriers here)

___________________	___________________
___________________	___________________
___________________	___________________

and by constantly striving to learn and grow to shift my barriers into strengths.

Envision myself becoming a person who is: (list your descriptor words here)

___________________	___________________
___________________	___________________
___________________	___________________

Advance my career by leading a values-based life, appreciating and using my skills and talents, learning to identify and overcome barriers, and achieving ____________________________________________

____________________________________________.

Mission: What You Will Do, Specifically, to Make Your Vision a Reality

Your mission statement will provide commitments to the actions you plan to take to ensure that your vision materializes. The following principles are necessary for a successful and complete mission statement:

Reserve: When you create your strategy, you must plan for more than you need. Expect the unexpected—plan what it will take to meet the goals required to realize your vision, and then add 50 percent more than you think you will need for a reserve. For example, assume that your vision for your career states that you will become the top sales producer in your company. To do that, your mission statement indicates that you will close one sale per week. If six calls are required to generate one appointment, and three appointments are required to close one sale, then your action steps will include making a minimum of 18 calls per week. To develop a reserve, make 27 calls each week for insurance, increasing your potential from 1 sale per week to 1.5 sales per week.
Resources: It will be essential for you to have the necessary resources available, including people, places, or things that you may not have needed in the past. To achieve your goals, it may be necessary for you to expand your network. As you build your strategy, consider what resources you may need, and plan how and when you will get them. Review your current network and resources to see if there is more that you can do with what you already have.
Actions: It is critical that you know what actions you need to take in order to move forward and that you know that the actions you take are consistent with your goals and your vision.
Support: Use mentors, bosses, friends, or a coach to assist you in reaching your goals and realizing your vision. The more people you involve in your goals, the better. There may be times when you do not need additional support, but you will know that it is there when you need it.

Since your mission statement is directly connected to your vision, it must be motivating, and it must indicate specific steps that you will take to make it happen. Sharon completed her mission statement in this way:

Sharon’s Mission Statement: In order to realize my Vision, I will do the following:

Habits to create:

Monthly: I will assess my career, my client relationships, and my budget. I will meet one-on-one with team members, and create a strategy to assist them to be successful. I will review my personal time, my relationships, and my personal finances to stay on track.
Weekly: I will keep track of how I spend my time. I will document my promises to others. I will network with at least one peer-level employee each week.
Daily: I will create a reserve of time, energy, and resources. I will review each day’s completed actions and plan for tomorrow’s actions before I leave the office for the day.

Skills to learn:

I will learn to organize my time, learn to say no to time-wasters, and learn to mentor my employees.

Behaviors to shift:

I will listen well.
I will take a deep breath before speaking, even when I’m busy.
I will provide healthy feedback to my employees.
I will stay balanced in my career and my personal life.

Support structures to create:

I will find and work with a mentor within the office to help me see how to grow and improve.
I will ask my family to let me know if they feel that I’m not paying attention to them.
I will ask for feedback from my team, my clients, and my internal customers as a way to improve.

Finalize your own mission statement by completing Exhibit 6-3.

Exhibit 6-3: Your Mission Statement

Your mission will be formed by completing this sentence:

In order to realize my vision, I will do the following:

Habits to create:

Monthly _________________________________

Weekly __________________________________

Daily ____________________________________

Skills to learn:

_________________________________________

Behaviors to shift:

_________________________________________

Support structures to create:

_________________________________________

Sharon’s Goal Worksheet

GOAL # 1: Promotion to Senior Vice President

What Value Does this Goal Honor? Leading others, making a contribution, accomplishing
What are the benefits to me, both personally and professionally of accomplishing this goal? Career advancement, increased visibility, increased variety, increased salary and benefits

What resources do I need to accomplish this goal?

Equipment/Technology/Education

Have:	Need:
Degree in communications	MBA
Knowledge of sales, marketing, business development	Knowledge of other departments and divisions
Allies in Sales, Biz Dev	Allies in Operations, Accounting, HR

What help, assistance, or collaboration do I need?

People or Resources

Have:	Need:
External Coach	Internal Mentor–Sales?
Basic understanding of job function	Job description–HR?
	Rebuild relationship with Richard (Accounting)
	Better visibility with CEO, COO, and Board

Am I willing to do whatever it takes to reach this goal? Yes, I am!

Make your Plan:

What individual tasks must be completed, and by when?

#	Task	Due Date
1.	Get job description from HR, get application and interview process information (panel?)	3/24
2.	Analyze need for/benefits of MBA	3/30
3.	Schedule peer-level lunch/coffee/breakfast	Ongoing one per week
4.	Schedule mentor meeting	3/27
5.	Call Richard in Accounting, rebuild	3/24
6.	Work on Visibility Plan with Coach	4/2
7.	Schedule meetings with CEO and COO	4/5
8.	Research and prepare for interview process: questions that will be asked, questions I should ask	4/15
9.	Submit application, participate in interview process	5/1

Goals

Now you can take your mission statement and turn it into specific goals. Set your goals so that they are just out of your immediate reach (to make them interesting, challenging, and fun), but not out of your control or unattainable.

Choose at least three goals from your vision and mission statements, and complete a Goal Worksheet on each (see Exhibit 6-4). When you have completed a worksheet for each goal, make a calendar listing when you will achieve each goal and when you will carry out each activity required to achieve the goal. If you find yourself procrastinating, review your worksheet to uncover your barriers (usually the only one keeping you from reaching your goals is you).

Exhibit 6-4: Goal Worksheet

Goal # ___ Goal Name ______________________________________________________

What value does this goal honor?___________________________________________
What are the benefits to me, both personally and professionally, of accomplishing this goal? ______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
What resources do I need to accomplish this goal?__________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

Equipment/Technology/Education

Have:

Need:
What help, assistance, or collaboration do I need?

People or Resources

Have:

Need:
Am I willing to do whatever it takes to reach this goal? ______________________________________________________________________
Make your plan:

In priority order, what individual tasks must be completed, and by when?

#

Task

Due Date

Optimism, Again

You are what you think. To be successful in your career and fulfilled in your life, you must strike a balance between the goals you want to achieve and your opinion of your chance for success. If you think you can . . .