Mission Possible:
Create a Clear Vision that Unites & Energizes your Team

Leah Roe

Cool. We got burnt out. How else are we feeling?

Participant

Happy to see you all.

Leah Roe

Happy. Yay. Awesome. So, just so you all know, do you have any questions during this conversation? Please shout them out or you can put them in the chat. I have people from my team, my amazing teammates who will be looking at the chat and answering things there. And then also just, you know, if am looking over here, I'm not losing my mind. I'm going to move all of your lovely faces over to my other screen. So now I'm looking at you just so you don't think that I've I don't know, I'm doing something totally different on the other screen. Okay, let's jump in, I guess, before we dive in. For those of you who don't know me. Hello everyone. I'm Leah Rowe. I am the founder of the Perk. At the Perk, we are a premier leadership and culture development studio. Here is a snapshot of some of the amazing companies that we are so fortunate to work with. And so I spend my days as a certified Life leadership and Executive Coach, a company culture consultant, and also as a Fractional Chief people and Culture officer. And today we are here to talk about vision.Now, why is vision important for you as a leader? I guess before I even get into that, raise your hand if you consider yourself a leader. All of your hands should be raised. Yes, you are all leaders at your organization and your families and your community, you are all leaders. And when we work with organizations and teams on their leadership development, we talk about how leadership can seem complex, it can seem nebulous. There's no one exact way to lead. There's no one definition of what it means to be a leader. And so we really need to simplify leadership in order to amplify it. And so the way that we simplify leadership is your job as a leader comes down to two things vision and culture. So as a leader, it's your job to have and continuously communicate a clear vision of where we're going and why, and also to cultivate a culture to achieve success. And that is a culture that is focused on belonging and results. And although I love talking about culture all day long, we are not here today to focus on culture. We're going to be focusing on the vision piece.

Leah Roe

So it is possible to have culture without vision. And this is when things are really good. You trust each other, you communicate really well, you're engaged, you have fun, you enjoy going to work. Like things are good. But there's no vision. So we're not really making any movement. We're not really going anywhere. And I compare this to a rocking chair. You're doing something, you're moving, you're active, but you're not going anywhere. And then it's also possible to have vision without culture. So we know where we're going. We know why we're going there, but we don't trust each other, we don't communicate well, we're not aligned. Maybe it's toxic, maybe there's a lot of burnout. And so you have this great vision, but you don't have the culture. And I compare this to those strong man competitions, you know, where it's like you have the guys that have the belt around them, or women, men and women who have the belts around them and they're like pulling the truck. Have you ever seen that? So it's like you're pulling and it's so tense and you're making some movement forward, but it is so tense. That's what vision without culture is.

Leah Roe

And then when you have vision and culture together, that is how you make progress, that is how you succeed. So when you have culture without vision, it feels good, but it's aimless. When you have vision without culture, it's pure friction. And when you have vision and culture together, that is how you make progress. That is how you achieve success. So tell me, I want to hear from all of you, what does it mean to have a vision? And I'm not talking about like, Seances or like you see a ghost or something. Talking about in a company. What does it mean to have a vision? Don't be shy.

Participant

A long term plan.

Leah Roe

A long term plan.

Participant

Direction.

Leah Roe

Direction.

Participant

Clarity.

Leah Roe

Clarity. What else? Leah, in the Chat, we have a couple. A clear goal of where you want to go and then shared goals and objectives and purpose. Nice job, everyone. Yes. So a vision, it is a clear definition of success. It is what you want to happen and why you want it to happen. So your vision, that is the future state that will exist after you've achieved your goals. So think about it like this. It's like when you're driving on a road, your vision is the mountain that you are driving towards. It's your clear definition of success. It's where we are headed and why we are headed there. What is important about having a vision? Team. What's important about having a vision? No right or wrong answers.

Participant

Buy in from your team.

Leah Roe

What was that?

Participant

Buy in from your team.

Leah Roe

Buy in.

Participant

I just think it sets the direction for the organization, too.

Leah Roe

Sets the direction? Yeah. I think makes everyone feel confident in the plan. Yeah, absolutely. So how many of you have kids? A lot of you. Great. So this is Maisie. She's older now, but she's still just as stinking cute. And so, you know when you have kids and you can strap them in the back of the car and you start driving? And so Maisie is 15 months. Our other daughter, Betty, is four and a half. And every time we get in the car and we strap her in and we start driving, she says, Where are we going? Where are we going? Why? Why? And so it has struck me that from a very young age. We as humans, we love to know the direction that we're going. We want to know where we're going. We want to know why we're going there. And what's nice about having kids is you can just strap them in the back and they have to go with you. Right? Like, they are literally in, like, straight jackets, basically in the back. They have to go wherever you want to go and for whatever reason why you want to go there.

Leah Roe

But your teammates have a choice. You cannot strap them into your car and force them to go with you. They are adults. They have a choice. And the thing about teammates and working on a team is they're not just along for the ride. Like my kids. Yes, they can yell and throw things in the back, but ultimately, we are going where I want to go and for the reasons that I want to go there. Your team, on the other hand, it's kind of like you're in the Flintstones car. Does anyone remember the Flintstones? Okay, so how did they make their cars go? Feet? With their feet. How did they make their cars stop feet? They put their feet down. Right? So when you're on a team and you're driving towards this mountain, you are in a Flintstones car. Everyone who's in that car, their presence affects the ride. So your team, they're either clear on where we're going and why, and they're helping you move that car forward. They are paddling their feet along with you. You are going straight, you are going fast. Or people don't know why we're going there, we don't know where we're going.

Leah Roe

And so they're putting their feet down. They're creating tension. They're stalling progress. And a lot of times, they might not even realize that they are stalling progress because they don't understand what the vision actually is. So your job as a leader, it's your job to create and communicate a clear vision of where we're going and why. And not just the big company vision. You also need to have a vision for the year, a vision for the next decade, a vision for this meeting, a vision for this project, a vision for an individual employee, maybe their career development. So when we're talking about vision, it's not just the big company vision. And so when we work with teams on creating vision, we break it down into a four step framework. And we're going to focus on the first three steps today. And so the steps are first, create a clear and compelling vision. Second, communicate the vision. Third, connect your team to the vision. And then the fourth is communicate expectations to achieve the vision. So let's talk about creating a clear and compelling vision. So we work with a lot of different companies, a lot of different industries.

Leah Roe

And one of the industries, I guess you could call it, that we work with is venture capital backed, high growth startups and so these are some of the founders that we work with. And I asked all of them for their advice on creating and communicating vision, because they are vision experts, in my opinion. They have to have a vision for a company before they even have their first employee. They have to have a vision before they can even prove that it's going to work. And not only do they have to have that vision, they have to sell that vision. They have to sell it to investors again before they've even proved the concept. So they have to convince investors they have to sell their vision in order to get that money. They have to sell their vision in order to get their first employees to join them before they can prove if it even works. So these people are vision experts, and I asked them for their advice, and they had all these different things to say. But all of them started with, you have to make your vision clear, and you have to make it compelling.

Leah Roe

So let's break that down. Let's break down clear and compelling. So I want you to think of a time in your professional life when you were working without a clear vision. It was not clear where we were going or why we were going there. It could be for the whole company. It could be for a project. And tell me, what was that like for you?

Participant

Mass confusion. Then frustration.

Leah Roe

Mass confusion. Confusion. Excuse me. And frustration.

Participant

Eventually frustration. Inevitably frustration.

Participant

What else? I think there's a lot of wasted effort when you think about not having a clear vision. It's like you're kind of going in all directions instead of in a straight path forward. Spend a lot of energy.

Participant

I think that's true for the internal departments, too. Right. Everybody's kind of going in their own direction and leads to lack of communication, and everybody kind of, at some point or another, just kind of throws their hands up like, what the hell are we doing here? Right?

Leah Roe

Yeah.

Participant

When you have a leader who says, I'll know it when I see it, or what we like to call bring me a rock. No, not that rock. Bring me another rock, what does that.

Leah Roe

Feel like for you?

Participant

Frustrating.

Leah Roe

I had an experience recently where I'm a part of this group, and I come to our monthly session, and everyone's name tags has stickers on it, and mine doesn't. And I was like, oh, my gosh, what are all these stickers? And then it was explained to us that the leader of this group had decided, without making his vision clear, of what he wanted all of us to be doing on a monthly basis, but he never explained that. And so he gave everyone stickers to reward them. And I totally disengaged. Like, I shut down the entire meeting because he had never clearly stated his vision of what he expected us to be doing on a monthly basis, and I think I'm still getting over it to be I mean, I'm like an overachiever. So to show up and not have stickers on my name tag was very disheartening. Dan, how about for you? I saw you unmute.

Participant

Yeah, I think I just don't enjoy. When I work hard on something for weeks or months and then realize that it's not important anymore. That's, like, not what we're working on. It wasn't, like, communicated. It's like my personality to see something through. And a lot of companies change directions pretty quickly.

Leah Roe

Troy, were you going to say something? I saw you on mute.

Participant

I was, but I'm going to save it.

Leah Roe

Love it. Yeah. So it doesn't feel good right when we're not clear on where we're going and why it doesn't feel good. So a clear vision helps people progress in the right direction. It helps people be inspired and engaged, and it helps your team to be able to work autonomously. They can make better decisions and faster because they understand the big vision, they understand the big picture. They know where we're going. And so everyone can then achieve the right goals. You work on the right things and you achieve the right stuff. So when you don't have clarity so we work with a lot of teams on trust and the behaviors that build trust and the behaviors that break trust. And clarity is a massive trust builder. And when you have a lack of clarity, it breaks trust all over the place. So when you have a lack of clarity in anything, it erodes trust. It increases friction. Our friends over at Boldly and Co, they are a productivity company, so they study employee productivity, and they found that 30% of the day is wasted because people are not clear on who owns what and what they are actually supposed to be working on 30% of the day because people aren't clear.

Leah Roe

It's wild. So really, it comes down to if you don't have clarity, you don't have progress. If your team's not clear on where we're going, why they're not going to be able to progress in the right direction. So that's on clarity. Now let's talk about making it compelling. Tell me, have you ever known what the direction is at the company, where you're going, why you're going there, but not been at all motivated to be a part of it? Diane, I see you nodding your head. I was nodding my head. Yes. I have had many jobs where it was not compelling, and then I've had jobs there really was, and it was a big difference. What was it like for you when it wasn't compelling? I think I questioned my effort, kind of like, why bother, right? I don't know. It just again, it felt like it was kind of spinning your wheels or working towards a goal that you weren't passionate about was just very demotivating. Well, who else has had an experience. Corinne yeah, I've had somewhere the vision is clear. The team is all working on the same thing, but there's no goal or something to achieve.

Participant

So at the end of it, we're like, well, did we do it? Did we succeed? Or what was the point of all this? And why? And then you're less motivated for the next round or the next project.

Leah Roe

Totally. Thank you all for sharing. So, I love this quote. People don't want to join a company, even a company with a fancy mission statement. They want to join a crusade. They don't want to just do work. They want to do work that they're passionate about, that is compelling to them. And so when you are creating your vision and communicating your vision, it should answer these questions why? Why are we going there if that's the mountain we're going towards? Why? What's the impact we're going to make? Why should I care? What is in it for me? And so this is really where the why comes in, the purpose. So your purpose for why you want to achieve the vision is what makes it inspiring and motivating. People get connected to why something should happen, not just what should happen. So who here has read God Go? Not that many people. Do people know what God go is?

Leah Roe

No. Okay. Well, it is a children's book. It is an amazing children's book. I read it, like, seven times a night to my daughter, and reading it a few months ago, I was like, oh, my gosh, this is, like, a really good book about having and communicating a clear and compelling vision. So I'm going to read you a little bit of Go Dog go. So this is at the end of the book. All these cars are driving towards this tree, okay? And all these cars are driving towards this tree. And so it says, now the cars stop. Now all the dogs get out. And now look where the dogs are going. To the tree. To the tree, up the tree, up the tree, up they go to the top of the tree. Why? Will they work there? Will they play there? What is up there on top of that tree? A dog party. A big dog party. Big dogs, little dogs, red dogs, blue dogs, yellow dogs, green dogs, black dogs, and white dogs are all at a dog party. What a dog party? So if I am in a car with a dog and the dog says, we're going to drive to that tree, I'd be like, okay.

Leah Roe

I like trees, but I don't know if I want to go to that tree. But if this dog told me and you know what? When we get to that tree, there's a huge dog party. There is dogs of all different colors. They're all playing. They're all doing this cool stuff. I'd be like, yes, I want to go to that tree. I want to be a part of that party. Now, for some of you, you might not want to go to a dog party. You might hate the idea of a dog party. Maybe you hate dogs. Maybe you only like cats. And so if you were told, hey, we're going to go to this tree, and you're like, okay, I'll go to the tree, and then you get up there and it's a dog party, you're going to be pissed. You're going to be like, I don't want to be a part of this dog party. This is not what I thought we were doing here. But if it was made clear to you in the car that, hey, we're going to go to that tree, and the reason why is because there's a huge dog party, you could get it out of the car.

Leah Roe

You could be like, you know what, I get it. I'm clear on where you're going and why you're going there, but that's not my vision. That doesn't align with what I want. So you could get out of the car. Dr. Seuss? Or is it Petey? Eastman PD. Eastman Vision. So let's create a team vision for the year. We're going to do two different exercises to help you start to craft a team vision for the year. Before we do that, let me open the floor. How are people feeling? What questions are coming up for you? Or are you like, now she's starting to quote go, dog, go. So she's totally lost it.

Participant

Troy, I just question, how long do you feel a vision statement is good for? Do you review it every year? Is it good for five years? Do you do regular trainings on it? Can you give me some assessment on that?

Leah Roe

That's a great question. There's no one right answer, so I want to open it up to other people. What do you all think?

Participant

I'm not sure on a standard cadence to do it, but I think it's a periodical check in on it to make sure that the steps that you're taking that lead to that vision would be a good idea. I don't know what would that time frame would be if it's a year, two years or whatever. But to me, if you're not periodically coming back to that, then you yourself could stray off track pretty easily. I would imagine anytime a new staff member would come on board, you should all get together and review that, probably to make sure everyone's on board again, right?

Leah Roe

Yeah. So we talk about the vision weekly. So as part of our Monday staff meeting, we have ten minutes that's committed to the vision. So we talk about the vision and then the team shares vision moments. So what's happened in the past week, that is evidence that we're on the right path, that we are moving towards our vision. So it's something we talk about weekly and we're five years old as a company. I don't know if that's perspective if we're new or old, but I do think that not forcing us to be like, we're going to have one vision statement and this is what it has to be forever. Our vision has evolved, and the pandemic had a big hand in it evolving initially, and since then we've gotten clearer on what is the mountain we're actually driving towards. So our vision has shifted and evolved. So I don't know if there's one right answer that I can give you of like, this is how often you should be reassessing it. But it is something that we talk about weekly and it has evolved and gotten clearer for us.

Participant

Not to complicate this topic, but I think it depends on what kind of business you're in. And I think you're going to have shorter short term vision, long term vision, and that's going to always change based on economic impacts. Right? I mean, John Mackey on this webinar as well. We work at the same company. We're a Culver's franchise group. So three years ago, we were full speed ahead on growth and building new restaurants. And now that economic impacts have hit and COVID obviously was a huge disruptor for us. And the cost of building a new restaurant is very expensive. Land is expensive. Our longer term vision is now a little blurry.

Leah Roe

Right.

Participant

So I think it all depends on the business you're in or the nonprofit you work for or what have you.

Leah Roe

Yeah, I almost think that that's like and I guess I'm interested in all of your perspectives, but I would like that about working at a company where it's like we're looking at the vision, and sometimes it gets blurry and sometimes it gets clear and we talk about it, as opposed to like, this is the vision. This is what it was in 1950, and this is what it will be forever. I just feel like that's. So I don't know. That almost feels like fixed mindset to me versus growth mindset.

Participant

I agree. I didn't have anything to add to that. That's exactly it. It's either growth or you're the growing or not. And if it's kind of set and just remains are stagnant, then you're not going to evolve. So I couldn't agree more. Your threats and opportunities change over time, right, as Zach said, and the environment changes. So if you're not nimble, if you can't adjust, then you become irrelevant.

Leah Roe

Amazing. Okay, we're going to do two exercises to help us start to get clear on what is our team vision for the year. So I want you all to imagine, actually, everyone get out a piece of paper. Do you have a piece of paper? And pen out. Perfect. Okay, so it's the end of the year. It's the end of 2023. You're sitting around a table with your team. You're cheersing with your favorite drinks. Everyone is smiling, the energy is high. You say, we did it, team, we did it. So reflect and write down, what did you do? What did your team do? What happened? What is different now that they've achieved this? You can think about this. What's different for the team, what's different for your company, what's different for customers, what's different for you personally? And what's important about this? Why should anyone care that your team did this? So take just for time's sake, take two minutes. Do this more in depth later. Take two minutes and I would play music for you. But we learned that I'm not good at technology and apparently had to download a driver. So pure silence for two minutes while you write it down.

Leah Roe

Okay. I know that was super speedy. What came up for people at the end of the year, you say, we did it, team. We did it. What did your team do?

Participant

I wrote down making a more proactive approach versus a reactive approach, creating some very needed peace.

Leah Roe

So it feels more peaceful on your team. I don't know if this is very visionary, Leah, but I said I survived here. I'm still in business. That's a great yes, absolutely. Rocking and rolling. We're in business especially for Diana entrepreneurs. That was mine and Dan's vision for the first five years. Can we keep doing this? Who else wants to share? What did your team do? For mine, I said that we hit our goal of we have a number of leaders that we want to impact this year and so we hit that goal. That's what was in my vision for our success. Amazing. So this is a great give yourselves more time to do this visualization, but this is a great one to do with your team as well, so you can learn what your team's visions for the year are and see where is their alignment. Or maybe it's like, OOH, we are all on different directions of what we think success looks like this year and what the vision is. This is a great team activity to do as well. Okay, who knows what this is? My team can't answer because they know what this is.

Leah Roe

What is this? This is Southwest Airlines vision. This is how the company got started. The two co founders sat in a bar and wrote on a cocktail napkin. Wouldn't it be great if there was an airline that could go between these three places? This is their vision. I think they still have this napkin, like, framed somewhere at Southwest Airlines. So for this activity, I'm going to give you two minutes. I got a speedy one, but I want you to draw a square in your paper and I want you to draw your vision for the year. If you had to draw it on a cocktail napkin, what would your vision be? Two minutes.

Leah Roe

Okay. Who wants to share their cocktail napkin? Do it.

Participant

Yeah. I'm in marketing. I'm not this kind of marketer. So I have it three different points. So we're in the restaurant business, as Zach said. So, basically, for us, it's really about the guest at the end of the day. Right. You can't have the best guest experience. Nothing else matters. Right. Sales go up or down based off of that. So in our standpoint, the vision comes down between really having a stronger communication system, better processes all around, expertise in the field to be able to better support the restaurants and then simultaneously with the office. So that way, that kind of trifecta of support, if we solidify those three points, then it will trickle down to the guest experience.

Leah Roe

Nice. Love that. Corinne, did you raise your hand? Did you want to go? Yes, I was waving to the mailman, but I'm happy to go. My picture little scrap paper, but I can describe it. So it's a Venn diagram scenario with many circles. So all the departments are a circle, and we're all overlapping. And it's lots of collaboration. We're communicating, we're working together, and then there's, like, a sun, which is the company. We're just all swirling around it. And because we're working so well together, we're just hurling through the universe, succeeding, and drawing new people in love. It amazing. How about one more? Wants to share there? Yeah. Troy.

Participant

So you had said draw a square on your paper and was thinking very literal. The motto in our office is, we are not big on collaboration, and we are told, Stay in your lane. And so my only thing this year is drawing the box and to think outside of the box instead of my own lane.

Leah Roe

Love it. So tell me about your experience of doing this cocktail napkin exercise. Me? Anyone?

Participant

I almost cried.

Leah Roe

Did you?

Participant

I hate staying in my lane. I like collaboration.

Participant

Absolutely. Anyone else on your experience with this? So, Leah? I'll go at the beginning of the year. Me and my best friend always pick out three words that's like our words of the year, and we take them very seriously. They're like our New Year's resolutions. And I'm kind of finding that what I want in my personal life is also what I want in my business. And I was very focused on connectivity and that network effect in my life, connectivity for my clients, connectivity for me, things like that. So that was surprising. Or maybe not. I don't know.

Leah Roe

That's awesome. So I love this exercise because a lot of the leaders that I work with, they struggle with this because we're so used to oh, yeah, I can answer the questions, but like to visually draw it. But we as humans, we connect so much more to imagery and pictures. We can get it so much quicker than reading a huge paragraph. And also people learn differently. So it's a really good idea to have this is a vision, this is where we're going and why, but then also be able to visually represent it for people, because then also.

Leah Roe

You can look at the picture and be like, I'm in. So I think that this is I just love this exercise. And it's really interesting because people will do this with their teams, and then I'll go to their offices, and they have the pictures that they came up with. It's very cool. I love it. Okay, so step one, create a clear and compelling vision. And I know we speeded through that, but you'll be able to take a workbook home with you today, and you can do this deeper in your own time and then also with your team. So let's talk about some tips for communicating the vision. So once you have your vision, clearly state it. This is where we're going. This is why we're going there. But the tip I want to focus on today is on curiosity. So, clarity of vision is co owned. Just because you communicate the vision to somebody and you think that you said it so clearly and so perfectly, it doesn't matter if they don't understand it. So you need to ask questions to ensure that your team is clear on the vision, on where we're going and why.

Leah Roe

Clicker. So, let me tell you a little story again about my daughter Betty. I wonder if Betty knows how much content she gives me for these things. So Dan was taking Betty to Bloom, which is an amazing bakery on Monroe Street, and he said, ask Mama what she wants for brunch. And so I said, Betty, can you get me a sweet potato donut and a biscuit sandwich? I was very hungry this day, so I said, a sweet potato donut and a biscuit sandwich? And she's like, got it. And she walks away, and I said, hey, Betty, could you just you know, I want to make sure I communicated that clearly. Could you just repeat back to me what I said? And she said, yes, you want a potato, a carrot, and a sandwich? And I was like, Sweet potato donut and a biscuit sandwich. She tried her best. She tried her best to listen clearly to what my vision is, but it was not clearly. There was something missing in there. So communication is not complete when you have just said it to the other person or when you've drawn it on a cocktail napkin.

Leah Roe

Communication is complete when the other person has understood you and their behaviors are in alignment with the desired result. And I love this quote. The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place. So when you communicate your vision, get curious. Ask questions. Make sure that they have understood and have made sense of where we're going and why, so you can say, will you repeat back to me what I said? And I always like to caveat this with, like, I want to make sure that I've communicated this properly. I do this with my team all the time. I was like, can you repeat back to me what you just heard me say? Because I don't know if I actually made sense in what I said. So asking somebody to repeat back to you what you said is not a bad thing, but I would caveat it with, I just want to make sure I communicated that clearly. You can ask, what is super clear about this vision? What could be clearer? You could ask, what's most important about this vision for you? What will stand in our way of achieving the vision?

Leah Roe

You could also ask somebody, how would you describe the vision in your own words? This is one of the reasons why we talk about the vision weekly at the Perk. And it's not just me talking about the vision. Other members of my team will take turns explain what the vision is from their perspective. And again, we all share vision moments. So that's important for me, as the ultimate leader of the organization, that it's a way for me to understand, okay, I have clearly communicated the vision. Okay, we're all aligned and owning this. A tip for communicating your vision is talk about your vision in a way that signals that the other person is coming with you. So this is a way to build belonging on your team. It's kind of like if you were in a relationship. I don't know when I was dating a guy in college, and he'd be like, one day when we get married and have kids, and I'm like, oh, man, we have a future together, I am in this. But if he was like, Next year when I go to Australia, and I don't know what you're doing with your life, but I'd be like, oh, okay.

Leah Roe

There's no future with this person. They've signaled to me that we are not going to be together a year from now, so I'm not going to put a lot of time, energy, and effort into this relationship. So when you communicate your vision to somebody or to your team, indicate that they're coming with you next year, when we've totally crushed this project, what will be different for us? That person knows, okay, my leader, they envision that I am going to be a part of this team a year from now. Now I feel more connected. Now I feel more aligned. Now I feel like I belong. So a couple of tips, too, on a lot of times, when companies or teams are coming up with their vision for the year and the vision has evolved, it has changed. And so the vision now requires your team to do things differently. So when your vision requires change, ultimately change is hard. Humans, we don't love change, and if there's no compelling reason to change, we won't do it. Why would we do it? It's a lot of work to change. If there's no compelling reason, we're not going to do it.

Leah Roe

So you need to paint a very clear picture for your people explaining the reason why you can't stay where you're currently at, why we need to change. And so again, I like to lean into curiosity with teams and not just tell them this is why we need to change, but have them be a part of the process so you can say, sure, we can keep doing exactly what we're doing now and stay where we're at. We can do that. And if we choose to do that, what will our customers miss out on? What will our team miss out on? What will our company miss out on? What will you personally miss out on if nothing changes? So involving people in that discussion is a really great way to get people more motivated to actually change. Questions?

Participant

Yeah. Are you going to share this deck because there's a couple of slides on here honestly that I'm actually going to go through the exercise with some of my team.

Leah Roe

Absolutely. Thank you. You are welcome. You weren't taking screenshots fast enough. I'm just kidding.

Participant

Honestly, I don't multitask well so I was just listening and I didn't do.

Leah Roe

You know that only 2% of people can actually multitask?

Participant

I can tell that to my eleven year old daily. I'm not going to take up the call on that. It's so frustrating. She keeps telling me I can multitask really good, dad. I'm like, don't you even start. You don't know the science.

Leah Roe

You don't know the science. Zach, were you going to say something?

Participant

Yeah, I was just going to say John's a tremendous kiss ass. I got to say he can't multitask. He was just listening intently. Leah. Yeah.

Leah Roe

I love it. So good. Any other questions on communicating the vision or thoughts? Okay, let's talk about connecting your team to the vision. So kind of Diana, like what you were talking about earlier when something's just not compelling to you and you don't feel personally connected to it. I don't know. I don't want to say you're disengaged or not working really hard because I'm sure you were, but it's just different. So when you're personally connected to the vision of the team or of the company, it gives you purpose in your work. It increases your motivation, engagement, passion, and your sense of belonging on the team. So how do you do that? How do you connect your team to the vision? Well that requires that you are able to answer these questions with your vision. What is in it for them? What's in it for your teammates? How does their work tie to the vision? Why should they care about the vision? And in order for you to really be able to answer these questions, you have to know your people. You have to get to know them. You have to know what is their vision for their life and their career?

Leah Roe

What do they personally want? Where do they personally want to go? How will working towards this vision help them achieve their personal goals, their professional goals. You need to know, what do they value? What motivates them? Oh, Troy, you raise your hand.

Participant

Leah this is so key because you can have a presenter like, you're an amazing presenter. We all love you, you know that. But you involve us. And if you are presenting and just talk over everybody like, this is going to be our vision. This is what we got to do. Nobody's going to buy into it. Nobody is going to be excited about it. And so I love getting to know your people and just involving them in every step of the process because it is only going to be more successful by doing that step. I was just going to can I add to that too quickly? I think what struck me about this slide is we focus a lot of this I'm sorry. We focus on this a lot with new people when we interview them.

Leah Roe

Right.

Participant

But we don't really talk to people who've been in our company for five or ten years or 15 years, and are they still motivated by the same things they were two years ago? So that's what struck me about this slide.

Leah Roe

I think that that's a really good point, because it's kind of like we talked about earlier, where company visions evolve. People's personal visions of their life and what they want evolve as well. So I'm assuming for those people, things have changed since they started the company 15 years ago.

Participant

Zach it's really funny. It's like when people get new cell phones and they give the new customers the better deals. Sometimes the legacy employees like the last to know about a change, but the new ones are like, whatever deck they're going through. Like a legacy employee? I didn't even know we were doing that. Is that a thing?

Leah Roe

Love the cell phone thing. That's funny. So a tip to get to know your people and connect them to the vision is don't do all the work yourself. Don't try to figure out the answers for yourself. Get curious with them. Ask them questions. What personally excites you about this vision? In what ways does working towards this vision align with your own personal and professional goals? Hear it from them. What will excite you to get out of bed every day to work towards this vision? And in what ways does your work directly contribute to achieving this vision? I'm sure my teammates are annoyed at me by how many times I ask these kinds of questions, but I really like to know when they're working on something like, what's exciting about this work for you? How does what you're working on right? How does this project, how does this align with your personal and professional goals? I can make assumptions and think, I know the answer, but I like to get curious and hear it from them. And they've yet to be like, this is the worst it has no alignment with what I want to do personally and professionally, but maybe they're slying to me.

Leah Roe

Okay, we're almost to the end, so I want you to focus on making vision part of your team culture. And again, like, kind of like what Dan was talking about, the cell phone thing. It's not that we talk about vision during the interviews and onboarding, and then we never talk about it again. Make it part of your culture. So make it common practice to communicate the vision, to ask questions, to ensure your team is clear on the vision. You can make it part of your practice that your team knows when they're working on something. One of the questions you're going to ask is like, okay, and tell me again, big picture, how does this all align to our vision and have them answer it. You should get in the practice of asking, what's the vision? Where are we going and why? When you're not clear on the vision for a project or for the year or for the team. And then also set, communicate, and hold clear expectations. Once we know where we're going and why, let's set expectations and make sure we're getting there in the way that we want to get there. And that's where culture comes in.

Leah Roe

But we're not talking about culture today. Okay, you did it. You made it through the Vision Master class, just so you all know. And we only did three of the steps today. This is usually a four hour workshop when we go through all the four steps. So you should feel very good about yourselves that you were able to just crush through and retain all this in, like, 35 minutes. I would be a terrible coach if I let you all leave here today without making a commitment for action. Because ultimately, that's what coaching is. We can have these big conversations, we can learn some new things, but then ultimately, we need to take our learning and put it into action to positively change our lives, our leadership, our culture, our teams, our businesses, all that good stuff. So I want you to write down on your paper what is one thing you are taking from today that you are going to put into action in the next 30 days. What's one commitment you're going to make?

Participant

Leah, can we annotate on your page?

Leah Roe

Yes. How fun. Steph, do you want to explain if anyone wants to annotate?

Steph Llano

Yes. So if you go up to the top of your screen view options, you hit there, there's a drop down box. And then you'll see annotate. About three, four down, you hit annotate, then it'll give you a different kind of top area that you can choose, like mouse, text, draw. You just want to choose text. And then you can go ahead and type on the screen on Leah's slide and then just click away when you're done. And then it'll show up for everybody on the screen. So Troy said look within to challenge myself. Diana, actually assess and write down my vision. Yes, write it down. Make a picture. Make a visual. What else? And if people want to call it out, they can too. Make our owners do the cocktail napkin exercise. Yes. Things change. Does anyone want to say theirs out loud? Steph, what's yours? Leah. I knew you were going to make me say mine out loud. Mine is to actually I'm so terrible at the cocktail napkin piece every single time. Like literally I was googling on my other screen.

Participant

Like, how can I draw this thing? And so I'm going to commit to actually putting some effort into this cocktail napkin and getting something drawn out because I always end up with a blank square on my paper every time we do it. So committing to getting something actually on my square.

Leah Roe

Love it. Other people said face my fears. Check in about a big task to make sure it is still a priority and aligns to the vision. Love that one again. That's that co ownership, right? Co owning clarity. Co owning making sure that the stuff I'm working on is aligned to the vision. Remind vision. Go for it. I'm so sorry. I was going to say, since I don't have a team yet, I've been thinking a lot about how do I co own my vision with my clients, how do I get them to kind of adapt a mindset of a vision that I have for a partnership with the company. So I think putting that into words and then running this assessment against how I'm essentially selling my services, because I'm very tactical at this point and I think there's a lot more vision to be shared 100%.

Leah Roe

And it's not even just with clients, but also with vendors. Like, I'll share my vision with contractors that we have because I want to make sure that what they want to do, aligns with where I want to go and why I want to go there. And so it's an easy way for them to get bought in and align too. Absolutely. Okay, can we clear the screen? My amazing team. Woohoo. Look at that. Okay, so John, you asked earlier. Yes. You can get a copy of today's slide deck and also a vision framework digital workbook. So it has all these activities in it plus some other ones. So it's a really good way to use that with your team. So if you john, I already have you marked down that you want a copy of the slide deck. So if anyone else wants a copy plus the digital workbook, just either email me or you can just make a note in the chat and I can make sure maybe Steph or Dan or Emily you guys can get if people put in the chat. And that's it. You all are amazing. You totally crushed it today.

Leah Roe

And so I think we have. I know that some people have to leave at 930, but we technically have until 945. Right, team? So I'll open it up now for questions, comments, thoughts, ideas, celebrations.

Participant

I just want to say thank you. I actually came in kind of raw with it. Zach just invited me, so I jumped in and I'm very happy I came to this. This is great learning experience. So thank you for bringing me along.

Leah Roe

Thanks for coming, Zach. Was that him sucking up again.

Participant

20 minutes ago? Got to keep it going. Thousand cuts, right? That's what they say. You'll continue to enjoy it, though. It feels kind of like a group of really good friends that get together and just learn together and love learning together. It's an amazing group.

Leah Roe

Thanks, Troy.

Participant

So I'll say that Leah and I are going out of town next week. In a small team like Leah is really the engine that keeps this thing going, but she's communicated the vision so well that Stephan, Emily are able to make decisions without us and right decisions and good decisions for the company. They're very clear on where we're going. Glia has full faith they're able to do that. So whether you're a small company or you just have a small team in a big company, being able to rely on your people and they know what to do without you looking over their shoulder, correcting them is really important to Leah and I because we don't have heartburn about walking away for a couple of minutes. Because your team could either do nothing or they could go really far in the wrong direction.

Participant

Dan, that's a really serious comment. That is everyone's dream of having a company with loyal, energized, amazing employees. And I'm sure they have tons of confetti they can throw while you guys are gone, too. So that's kind of a funny thing. But seriously, that's a really yeah. Emily and Steph. Good job.

Leah Roe

Yeah. And I will say it's not because I'm so great at communicating a vision. Emily, happy two years. Emily's been with us two years now. Steph is almost four years. And again, we have co created and our vision and gotten aligned. And we're always getting curious with each other and asking questions and making sure what we're doing is still aligned to the vision we want. Leah, I have a question on the co creation aspect. I spend way too much time and energy thinking about what having a first employee would look like. But say I go through this exercise, I create this vision, this person comes on board. How much since you're trying to co create this, how much is dictated and how much is changed because of those individuals that are joining teams? Like, does the vision shift with each person or should the vision be solid to guide people together? I guess. What's the percentage? Give me a formula. Okay, so it's 17. Okay. Thank you. What do other people think. So what I'm hearing, Dan, is like, if I have this rock solid vision, if I'm bringing people on, how malleable is it?

Leah Roe

How much can it change with other people coming in? Well, yeah, the influence, right. We acknowledge that each person entering a company changes the culture a little bit. Right. So does it or does it not change the vision? Because you want to be adaptable to people's ideas, right. That's why you hire them. It's to bring them in and let them explore their own version of the business practice. That's something I'm thinking a lot about through the presentation. It's like how much is dictated to people and how much is co created and changed over time dictated that word strikes.

Leah Roe

This is what the vision is. This is where I want to go and why and all this stuff like, what do you think? Do you want to come on this ride with me? And honestly, we've added employees as we've added contractors. Our vision has gotten bigger because now we have new energy and ideas. Like Stephan, Emily and Dan, they're all bringing new energy and ideas. So where my vision was here when I started the company. Now it's expanding. So it's fun. From my experience, I don't know how others yeah, I was going to say diana oh, go ahead, Susan.

Participant

I was going to say it's your company, so it's got to be your vision. And you're inviting people. Exactly what Leah said to get in the bus. If you're thinking good to great, where you're getting people in the bus, making sure they're in the right seat, but you're all going the same way, how you achieve it? Where the new members ideas come in? Because right now you can only do it your way, but they're going to bring another level of energy, creativity and skill set to the team overall. And like Leah said, you just go up from there. But it always has to be your vision, and you're going to find people that align with that vision and then create. So it will shift somewhat over time, but it won't change radically because you can't lose control of your own business.

Leah Roe

Very true. Steph, were you going to say something?

Steph Llano

Yeah, I was just thinking about like when I so I was the perks first employee, right? Yeah, you were. Our vision was very I guess the vision wasn't very different. Like our why has kind of always stayed the same. I guess it's like how we do it, and our vision has tweaked and changed throughout time.

Steph Llano

And I guess from my experience, it was never that Leah dictated the vision, it's that she initially created it. She holds it, she can see really where it's going, and she's the one who's really pushing us forward and keeping us all aligned in it. But every time that we bring in a new person, it's not that the vision changes, it's just like that now. We're all working together and we don't expect Leah to have all the answers just because it's her vision, right? It's like all of our vision. So I think your question of do I need to have hiring my first employee? How much of my vision do I need to have? I think it needs to be clear and clear enough for someone to want to join you and hop on with you, but not enough where you need to make you need to have all the answers, right. Like, you can figure that out together. So I think that's kind of we've gotten more clear on our vision, I think, as our team has grown. And that's just from having everybody kind of in it and helping us get there. So not that you need to have all of the answers with your vision right away.

Participant

Maybe it's just saying, Leah, you inspire the vision to keep growing.

Leah Roe

Funny thing, when I learned the tip of signal that the relationship is going to continue, that they're a part of the future. It's a way to create belonging. So when it was Emily's two year anniversary, I put a gift of an 85 year old woman and I was like, Emily still kicking it at the park. Honestly, we talk about that. We are going to raise all of our children through this company. We talk about that. That's a vision of the perk is that we are a longevity company. We're not working for acquisition or anything like that. We want to be around forever. And I'm going to make these people hang out with me until I'm 80 years old. Sorry you have to do that. All right, any final thoughts or celebrations or visions? What is it? Before we not debrief, you're going to say Declane?

Participant

I just want to say thank you. This is really timely for our organization, for John and myself in particular. And a lot of really good things came out of this for me today, so thank you.

Leah Roe

Great. Awesome. So glad you guys could come. Amazing. Well, you're all awesome. Oh, Dan. Were you going to say something?

Participant

No, that's my wave.I'm trying to be trying something new and see if it sticks.

Participant

Don't give up yet. Don't give up.

Participant

It takes every day for 14 days or 21 days. Habits. Yeah, obviously I don't have habits because I don't know if it's 14 or 21.

Participant

That was 23 times or something.

Participant

John, you were multitasking when you learned that. Totally.

Leah Roe

Awesome. All right, well, you all have a great day and if you have any questions, please reach out, feel free to email me and we'll get those workbooks sent out in the slide deck and sign up for next month with Diana Too burnout to balance. Yes. Okay. Thank you.