Do You Actualize the Vision?

More than once I’ve looked at my desk and said to myself, I don’t know where to start.

Actually, starting isn’t typically a problem for me, but starting to clear my desk of books, tablets, mail, battery chargers, pens, vitamins, business cards, paperweights, and post-it notes sometimes feels like a chronic problem. It seems many people may have a desk drawer, a book case, or a closet that is a collection place for everything you think you might one day need. Depending on where you live and the size of your home, you may have an attic, basement, or garage that is overloaded with stuff and you often think of cleaning it up, but you just don’t know where to start.

Some people are very well organized and others not so much. If you’ve ever had that feeling of not knowing where to start, then you may feel like employees sometimes do when tasked with a big project, a goal, or a deadline.

Actualizing the Vision

Often in leadership development workshops I spend a few minutes to discuss with participants the idea of actualizing the vision. The hardest part sometimes is getting started, and good starts can be critically important for great finishes. When it comes to actualizing the vision workplace leaders have several important factors to keep in mind:

• What is the goal or objective? If there is not a well-defined goal or objective there is nothing to reach for, and honestly, most people will just settle for the way things are if they don’t have a well-defined goal.
• How can this be broken down into smaller pieces? Small pieces are of key importance when actualizing the vision. Smaller pieces not only provide an opportunity to pause for reflection of accomplishment, but emotionally they give people something to build on.
• How will we measure success? Measurement should be determined prior to the work beginning, but sometimes people like to just jump in, do a few things, and then call it good enough. Decide how success will be measured and evaluated early on, preferably before the work begins.

Perhaps the easiest to implement and also the most fundamental point about actualizing the vision is to be sure to build on each successive step along the way. When people see progress and feel a sense of accomplishment they will often develop more energy and commitment to seeing the project through to completion. The hardest part might be getting started because often the vision feels like a daunting task. So big or so challenging, it is hard to see the finish line. Helping yourself or your team actualize the vision each step of the way not only adds to your leadership skillset, it also gets a lot accomplished.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and coach that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is the author of the newly released book, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at DennisEGilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

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