Leadership:
It All Starts With Vision

Rich Cruz

Whether your company is great or small, a one-person shop or a major conglomerate, your business will thrive with strong leadership driven by a focused vision. Here are some tips that will allow you as a business owner, a professional, a doctor, or an independent agent to achieve cosmic success in your business endeavors:

1. Realize and Accept Reality—To get to where you’re heading, just like using a GPS or MapQuest.com, you need to know where you’re starting from. Take an inventory of your current assets and liabilities using a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats).

2. Define Your Purpose—Assert your goals based on your values. When determining your purpose, ponder this from the Dalai Lama: "Our prime purpose in life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them."

3. Recruit Your Team—The best of leaders realize that the true asset of their company lies in a company’s people. Your team can consist of mentors, coaches, "business buddies," strategic partners, employees, clients, family, friends, and people who are further down the path than you are. The important aspect of your team is that they share your values.

4. Develop Your Vision Statement— "Vision is a picture of the future that produces passion."—Bill Hybels. Your vision should be something that you can easily, eloquently, and succinctly state from your heart. It evokes a clear picture about where you are heading and how you will get there.

5. Share Your Inspired Vision—It has been said that, "A goal not written is only a wish." Take that vision that you’ve created and publish it everywhere! Create a sign or a plaque for your office or lobby. Create a banner to share with your staff. We like to say that, "A Vision With No Sign Is A Sign Of No Vision." Put it first and foremost on your website and include it on your marketing collateral including business cards, etc. This statement is not your elevator speech or your catch phrase. It is your mantra!

6. Chart the Course—As a leader, it is your job to strategize, map out the action plan, and align your team to the goals, while setting benchmarks of progress. You now know where you are and where you want to be. Work with your newly inspired team to develop the steps to get from point A to point B.

7. Lead By Example—The formula for Level 5 leadership according to Jim Collins is "Humility + Will = Level5" Lead with humility—connect with your team on the level of humanity, and they will follow you without hesitation. With your goals and dreams now visualized clearly, have the will to follow your plan without wavering. Never give up, and don’t let fear govern your actions or lack of action. Mark Twain stated, "Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain." Your demonstrated courage will infectiously affect the actions of your team and will provide to you the results you seek to achieve!