January is a great time to look at your organization's vision and goals. Not only because it is the beginning of a new year, but also because it is an opportunity to take a first quarter look at how your company is doing in four key areas. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Are our goals aligned with our vision?
2. How are we progressing toward these goals?
3. Has there been a major shift in our business environment that requires a shift in our focus?
4. Are we on target, or do we need to readjust?

Some organizations have a fuzzy vision—"Let's be #1," or "Let's be the premier provider of....". Some organizations have a sideways vision and focus solely on being better than the competition.

While these may be better than nothing, in order to create a compelling vision that is worth pursuing, Stoner recommends making sure that your vision does the following:

• Helps you understand what business you're really in
• Provides guidelines that help you make daily decisions
• Provides a picture of the desired future that you can actually see
• Is enduring
• Is about being "great"—not just about beating the competition
• Is inspiring—not expressed solely in numbers
• Touches the hearts and spirits of everyone
• Helps each person see how he or she can contribute

How do you get people aligned and committed to your department or organization's vision? Involve them in the process! Blanchard clients that have implemented vision initiatives in their companies have found that including all stakeholders in the process is essential for aligning individuals and departments to ensure that everyone is moving in the same direction. They also found that it carries some important additional benefits.

For example, as one Stanley Works (Stanley Tool Companies) vice president observed, "It gave us an opportunity to be inspired about each others' dreams and to see how they were alike. It combined intellect and spirit, and made us passionate about our work."

And as a General Electric manager identified, "It drove performance improvement and gave us a common cause of purpose."

A vision is strategic; a goal is tactical.

A vision gives the big picture. It answers the questions, "Why do we exist? What is important about where we are going? What is our destination?" In their book, Full Steam Ahead! Stoner and Blanchard define vision as "knowing who you are, where you're going, and how you will get there." A vision also creates the inspiration to do more. Is your job about processing papers efficiently, or are you helping your organization achieve its mission? If you're helping your organization achieve its mission, you have a reason to do more than just meet your job description. The vision helps you understand exactly how your job adds value to the organization. Being part of something bigger than your individual responsibilities helps to eliminate "it's not my job" thinking.

Goals have great value, of course. Goals tell us how we are doing along the way. They are the measures or milestones that help us know we are moving forward on our journey toward our vision. They are time bound, specific, and measurable. Setting goals and monitoring progress help us make sure we "land on the moon." On the other hand, when we set goals without a vision, we can never be sure exactly where we are going or where we will end up.

Goals are set, reset, and readjusted to make the necessary mid-course corrections. A vision should not be as changeable—with one important exception. You see things more clearly as you get closer to achieving your vision. Use this clarity to sharpen your vision. It is important to keep the vision alive by continually revisiting it, asking if it still makes sense, and using it to guide you.

Setting a compelling vision is the first step in moving from mediocre to magnificent. The good news is that people will always choose to be magnificent when given the choice. Simply start the visioning process and step back. Watch them. Listen to them. When you involve people in the process and ask them to connect their work with something they care deeply about, you'll be amazed at where people in your company want to go.

Why, then, does it seem like sometimes people end up with such mediocre goals? It's because people feel uncomfortable with the tension that builds when you imagine how far away your vision is from current reality. This tension increases when you start developing the goals that will be required of each person to meet that vision.

Learning to benefit from this tension is important. The best leaders see this tension as motivation to get better—dramatically better. They use this tension to drive themselves to find better solutions to nagging business challenges. Less successful leaders choose to release the pressure by going halfway and settling for less.

Wouldn't you rather be magnificent?

Start by setting a compelling and engaging vision for yourself, your department, and your organization. You'll be surprised at what can be achieved when you create and stick with a compelling vision.

Each month The Ken Blanchard Companies® offers free webinars on improving organizational performance. This month we are featuring Blanchard® Consulting Partner Jesse Stoner who will speak on the power of visioning.

Full Steam Ahead!tm Unleash the Power of Vision in Your Work and in Your Life
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
9:00 - 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time (12 Noon - 1:00 p.m. Eastern)

January is a perfect time to examine our vision, our goals and our resolutions to achieve them. In this Webinar, Full Steam Ahead! : Unleash the Power of Vision Dr. Jesse Stoner will show you how the power of vision can unleash creative energy to move you and your team "full steam ahead." Whether you are on a growth curve, in the midst of a change effort, or simply want to re-energize yourself or your team, this online seminar will help you take purposeful and passionate steps toward success.

Leverage Your Best, Ditch the Rest coauthors Scott Blanchard and Madeleine Homan will be speaking on lessons learned from large scale coaching engagements at the upcoming 2005 Conference on Executive Coaching, February 9-10, 2005 at The New York Hilton.

Scott and Madeleine will share real-life experiences on:

1. Managing the dynamics of coaching as an organizational initiative rather than an individual developmental process.
2. Maintaining the integrity of the individual coaching relationship—especially confidentiality—while simultaneously demonstrating value to the organization.
3. Demonstrating tangible value and return on investment for a coaching initiative.

In Full Steam Ahead! you'll learn to use the power of vision to get focused, get energized and get great results; create a vision that touches the hearts and spirits of everyone in your organization; and create a vision for your own life that provides meaning and direction.

Creating Your Organization's Future is a powerful results-oriented program that takes a group through the steps described in Ken Blanchard and Jesse Stoner's new book Full Steam Ahead!: Unleash the Power of Vision in Your Company and Your Life.

Click below for detailed information on the Creating Your Organization's Future process. Or call 800 728-6052 for details.