How to Get People Emotionally Engaged in Your Vision

Are you struggling to get people to become fully aligned with your company’s vision? If no one seems emotionally engaged with your vision, perhaps it’s time to revisit exactly what a company vision is (and isn’t).

A company vision is one unifying ideal that sets the company apart from others, gives it direction and clear goals, and also helps to define company culture.

It’s something that a lot of organizations overlook. However, creating a clear company vision that reflects your culture and goals for the future can help you keep employees engaged.

Eric Roman, joyFULL People visionary, discusses the importance of having the right company vision to engage workers.

Hit play below to watch the video or keep reading to learn more.

What is a company vision?

Let’s start with what is a company vision not? A company vision is not a one-line statement. It’s not the kind of snappy slogan you’d put on a T-shirt.

A company vision is much more complex. It’s all about where you’re going and how you’ll get there. To help you get clear on your vision, try asking yourself the following questions:

Where is your company going? How will you behave along this journey? Who do you serve, and how do you serve them? How do you make decisions on what to pursue?

If you are trying to get people to connect with and engage with your vision, it has to be more than a one-liner. It needs to be clear. You need to tell people clearly what you’re working towards and what the journey there will look like. They can’t agree with or follow something they’re not clear on.

Top mistakes leaders make when creating a vision

If your vision isn’t clear or doesn’t resonate with people, they will struggle to be fully engaged with it. They’ll never be totally on board, and that’s what we want to avoid.

Some of the common challenges when building a company vision are as follows.

1. Your vision is around the founder getting wealthy

As a leader, your own wealth may be part of your individual vision. However, you can’t expect everyone else to follow that vision. Employees need to know that they’re part of something more than whatever makes the leaders the most money. So take a step back and think if this should be part of your company vision.

2. Your vision doesn’t line up with your actions.

If your vision doesn’t line up with your actions and you don’t do what you say you do, people will turn away. A vision needs to be strong and consistent. People need to see the company founder and leaders lead by example.

3. It’s not clear

Finally, one of the most common problems with company visions is that they are often unclear. Perhaps your vision hasn’t really been communicated clearly or even clarified among the leaders, never mind anyone else. Perhaps it’s too vague to resonate.

Either way, it’s going to stop people from engaging with the vision if they don’t fully understand it.

Why a company vision is not a one-and-done thing

Creating a vision is just one step of the process. You can’t just write a vision down and forget about it. If you want people to passionately follow your vision, you need to keep it at the forefront of your minds.

This is a consistent process that you will be engaged in throughout your entire company journey.

The more regularly you test and refine your vision, the stronger it will be. You can do this every quarter or so, which will keep you ahead of any changes you need to factor into your company vision.

For start-ups, some of these changes in the early days will be big, sweeping changes. Those more established may find that not much has to change per quarter. In this case, you may just need to tweak things and look for a way to clarify the vision further.

Whatever you do, ask yourself: is your vision really resonating with people?

If not, don’t be afraid to make some adjustments. Tweaking and improving is a great way to ensure lasting change and a vision that people can become emotionally invested and excited to be a part of.

A company vision is an important part of any onboarding process and building a successful company culture. To learn more about creating a company vision and culture that keeps people engaged, join the joyFULL People Signature Program: www.joyfullpeople.com