As many of you know by now, I’m a huge advocate for the importance of having a clearly articulated vision for where you want to take your business. Your vision is your ideal state, your Super Bowl, the ultimate win you’re leading your team to achieve.
It’s crucial to have a vision because it unifies and inspires your team around a common goal, and it provides you with a framework for deciding which opportunities to say yes to and which to walk away from.
Put another way, if you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never get there.
At Grunder Landscaping our vision for many years has been “to be recognized by our clients, our team members, and experts in our industry as the best landscaping company in our market area.” My team has worked hard to realize this vision. It’s served us well. We feel we’ve accomplished it (though I'm sure our competitors would beg to differ, as they should—they’re our competitors!).
We’re satisfied with where we are but we’re not complacent. Which is why we’re now starting the process of expanding our vision. Where do we want to go in the next five years? Where do we want to be in 2022?
The First Step to Finding Your Vision
As the first step to figuring this out, I spent some time in the last couple weeks getting down on paper my initial thoughts. I jotted down my revenue goals and what we’ll need to change to accomplish them. I made a detailed list of challenges we need to address, department by department. I noted areas of strength and those of weakness. I didn’t censor myself. I wrote down all my ideas, big and small, wildly ambitious and well within reach.
And then I passed this messy brain-dump of a document off to a trusted advisor outside GLC for their review. It came back with a whole host of questions and notes, which I’m now working my way through.
Once I have a clearer vision for where I want GLC to go, I’ll share it with my leadership team to see where it is they want us to go. And then the real work of arriving at a vision we can all see and work toward together will begin.
Where do you want to be in 2022? Take some time this week to write down your thoughts—and don’t censor yourself. Now is the time to dream big.