5 questions to ask yourself before sharing your company vision with your team

“Every time a child says, ‘I don’t believe in fairies,’ there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead.” Peter Pan

Every time someone in your team says “I don’t believe in (our) vision” your company dies a little.

It’s not like we are born with innate disbelief in vision. The opposite. We’re all Peter Pans when we start as kids. We all believe. We all imagine. We all create.

Time passes, Peter joins a company, and one day the executives at his company create a presentation. They do that with the best of intentions. They want to inspire and share their “company vision”… They even back that vision with goals and a roadmap.

But then, a day, a month. a quarter later reality happens. It happens in the form of an opportunity, a threat, a crisis and before they know it the “vision”, with all its promise of a better future, is left behind hanging on a poster and the present takes over.

And that’s OK once, twice. But by the third quarter, Perter Pan gives the room a last glance and then, poof, he flies away and with him goes the belief, the imagination and the creativity.

And your company? Your company is left with one more adult. Past driven, problem solver that is great at creating a better version of the present (present+1) but forgot how to dream. An adult that will never be able to create the leap (present X1000) your company needs.

And next time you mention vision in the room, that person will turn in his seat and tell you “can we please stop talking about vision and start talking about what we need to DO?”… And a fairy somewhere will fall dead… along with a small part of your company.

Mean it if you share it

There is nothing more powerful than a team of people united around a vision they believe in. But to build such a team requires trust. There is a limited amount of times your team will follow your vision and you will not get a third and fourth chance. So before sharing your vision ask yourself:

1. Can we really see our vision?
2. Is this vision worth fighting for?
3. What and who will it take to make this vision a reality?
4. What are we willing to do to see it come true?
5. What are we willing to give up to unlock our vision?

If you still feel you’re going to follow through on your vision share it by all means, but if you’re not sure, please don’t share that vision presentation… yet. We need the Peter Pans of the world.