In my last post, I focused on the importance of having a personal vision for the future. In the business world, defining what the future entails is typically found within a strategic vision statement. In this post, I’ll share a five concepts that are helping me define a strategic vision for my design firm.
Concept #1: Strengths
The first step is to start with your strengths. In the workplace:
… people who do have the opportunity to focus on their strengths every day are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life in general. – Tom Rath, Strengths Finder 2.0
As most people spend a considerable part of their life working, doing what you can to align opportunities with your strengths can significantly increase your quality of life.
As an example, here are my top five strengths as identified in the text Strengths Finder 2.0:
1. Strategic – “.. enables you to sort through the clutter and find the best route.”
2. Learner – “.. you will always be drawn to the process of learning.”
3. Individualization – “.. leads you to be intrigued by the unique qualities of each person.”
4. Relator – “.. a relationship has value only if it is genuine.”
5. Input – “.. the world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity.”
If I want my business to succeed over the long-term, I need to make sure these strengths represents at key part of its foundation.
Concept #2: Personality
Another major part that plays a key role in a successful business is one’s personality type. Understanding key facets of one’s personality allows for continuous refinement and increased understanding of one’s behavior and motivators. The key is to take full advantage of those personality traits that will give direct benefit to the business, and place less emphasis on those that may not.
The core of my personality type (INFP) is sometimes called “The Idealist”. Thus, coming up with scenarios of possibilities and detailed descriptions of “what could be” comes naturally. As we’ll see, this aspect of my personality will play a key role in my company’s strategic vision statement.
Concept #3: Interests
Your interests represent another piece of the puzzle. While it may be obvious what interests you, there are methods that you can use to explore your interests in a more formal way. One such method is via a deck of “talent” cards made by a company known as Mastery Works.
The core interest areas that I discovered through this method include both “Ideas” and “People”. More specifically, I was able to narrow down my detailed interests down to ten: (in no particular order, and from a total of 52)
- problem solving
- questioning
- writing
- explaining
- innovating
- developing
- strategizing
- collaborating
- leading
- teaching
If you are doing what you are interested in, your skills in these areas will continuously improve, and this will further expand your ability to help your clients and their customers.
Concept #4: Personal Vision Statement
Being able to describe one’s personal vision for the future is a recommended exercise prior to describing a business equal. Given the time investment required, you want to ensure that there is alignment between the two. You can read more about this concept in my earlier post.
Concept #5: The 10-Second Summary
The “10-second summary” is perhaps the seed from which the company begins; it’s the first statement you’ll make when introducing yourself to future clients. After all, what good is a strategic vision if you are not interacting with potential clients?
Based upon the guidance conveyed in Get Clients Now!, the statement should be short and simple enough that a 12-year old can understand.
Here is an example:
My name is Adrian Daniels. I help business owners and organizations get noticed. I am a designer focusing in creative strategy and graphic design. My company name is Big Generator.
This particular statement can be altered to reflect the audience with whom I am speaking. However, it’s always best to start with the basics and then elaborate. Your initial goal is to gain understanding and peak interest.
These five concepts represent the key starting points to develop a strategic vision statement. In my next post I’ll begin exploring several ways of visualizing strategy with the intent of formulating a strategic vision statement that can be used to guide my business development path.
[Note: Posts that begin with the letters “BG” focus on business-development concepts that tie directly to my design firm, Big Generator.]
