#bealeader With A Personal Vision Statement
A vision statement is sometimes called a picture of your company in the future but it’s so much more than that. Your vision statement is your inspiration, the framework for all your strategic planning.
A vision statement may apply to an entire company or to a single division of that company. Whether for all or part of an organization, the vision statement answers the question, “Where do we want to go?”
What you are doing when creating a vision statement is articulating your dreams and hopes for your business. It reminds you of what you are trying to build.
By Susan Ward
A Vision Statement: When we think about Vision Statements, we immediately think about our workplace, corporation, business, etc. How many of us think about our own Vision Statements? A Vision Statement for our lives? A personal Vision Statement to help us map the direction in which we wish to go?
It is important to truly understand what a Vision Statement is, how a Vision Statement creates a future to fill with what we want. How can a Vision Statement map out our pilgrimage through life, work, love, and learning? What makes having a Vision Statement, whether personal or business oriented, for the future important?
Let’s start with a definition of a Vision Statement. A Vision Statement is an expression of the faith you have in your future, the future of your company, your employees, your school district, your family. It is the dream you have spun of all the hopes, dreams, aspirations that inspire you. It is a statement of a blossoming passion. Where do you want to go? What will it look like when you get there? By envisioning your future, you are designing it, visualizing and creating it. You are writing the story of your future.
Vision Statements are not just for companies, corporations, districts, divisions. They are for all of us. They are for the common person, or the uncommon person. If we take the time to create a Vision Statement for ourselves, we can begin designing the life we wish by setting goals, a mission statement (our purpose for doing what we do), and action plan (a set of steps and goals that are measurable to take us towards that Vision Statement). It will help provide us with purpose, with the impetus and motivation, the INSPIRATION to get to that to which we aspire.
I want a school full of inspired self-motivated teachers and students. I want them to all be feeding their passions and creating journeys to take them far into the future and beyond. I want them to create personal legacies that will weave together creating a tapestry rich with life and lessons and the joy that comes from overcoming obstacles in following that vision. I want a school full of people visualizing their futures filled with their interests, their passions designed by them and for them. It is incumbent upon me to help everyone with whom I work to create a personal Vision Statement. The statement could be one that is able to be flexed into any segment of their lives or one just for them, and another for their classroom. I want to ask: why are you here? In this place in this time? What do you want to create in your life? How do you want this to be in three years? In 5 years? Do you have a vision for TODAY? What do you want your students to have for their futures based on what you teach them or create with them TODAY? Can you create a Vision Statement that will grow with you, with your life? Will your students’ Vision Statements get them where they need to go for the rest of their lives? Can you, will you live your Vision Statement?
I am not sure if my own Vision Statement will remain constant over my lifetime or if it will be refined and grow as I do. If I believe it, repeat it often enough, live it fully every day it will happen. Using my Vision Statement, I can build my action plan based on the good that I do now, the strengths that I practice daily. I can set forth the outline of the path I will follow and the story I will write. I will cut the edge of all I set out to do.
- Posted in: Education ♦ heart-based leadership ♦ Innovaiton ♦ leadership ♦ passion
- Tagged: #bealeader, Vision Statements
gillardp 
Thank you so much for inspiring me with your vision statement, nudging me to refine mine. My vision statement has changed over the years but my core task of exploring love remains the same. Every time I read your posts, I think how lucky those kids are to have a principal like you.
Thank you for such a warm compliment. I enjoy searching for ways to improve my practice of living life fully and try to pass them on to others, including kids. Your kind words inspire me to continue to search, practice, and share.
Peg, I love this post. So on point with vision and leadership. Thank you so much for sharing this and always being such a great leader #bealeader 🙂
I am glad you liked the post, Jen. I didn’t want to put #bealeader in the title and have it NOT showcase the Heart and Soul of #bealeader. I appreciate the directions that the chat and the Google+ group take as they both make me think a lot.
Peg
Thanks, Peg. It’s an honor to have you in the #bealeader community.
PEG!!
Thanks for this wonderful post. I am a big advocate of future planning and Vision Statements are a way of deciding exactly what we want. its a committment. I see vision statements as a defining moment when we take responsibility for who we are NOW and who we are in the future. I am working on a seminar where we show people how to remove the past from their future and put it back in the past, thus opening up a wider space to write the future. A vision statement, as you have outlined it, gives clarity. It’s faith. faith in now, faith in the future.
I am certain that your future and those around you, and especially the kids you are principle for, is in very safe hands
Thank you for sharing this message, it was a pleasure to read and gave me a lot to think about….I may have to quote you in my Seminar!
All the best
Dave
Very grateful for your comments, Dave! I would be honored to be quoted in your seminar. It sounds incredibly valuable. Designing our own legacies and considering what kind of energy we want to leave behind when our time is up here on Earth is another of those areas I explore.
Have a great week!
Peg
Reblogged this on Christopher Jordan and commented:
I had written a personal vision/mission prior to this blog post with help from the @ThriveJournal; “Through faith, honor and a strong system of values, I will be an effective leader who provides the opportunity for growth, knowledge and positive influence.”
What is yours!?
Thank you! I am glad you found this post helpful. I am continuing to refine my Vision Statement but it is basically focus on “Cutting the edge of all that I do and am involved in.” I find this more active than the typical “To be ON the cutting edge. As I examine this more fully in each of my roles in life, I refine it. I love your Vision Statement, it is very powerful!
Thank you! It definitely takes some self understanding and reflection, both of which I needed anyway! I thoroughly enjoyed your post and it was an honor to reblog it! I wish you luck in your development of a vision/mission statement!
Reblogged this on GingerSpice and commented:
A great read from our #bealeader Community member Peg Gillard
Great post! I have seen this over and over again in my professional and personal life. Once I got clear on what I wanted (the vision), the how almost took care of itself.
That is so true! Deciding what we want or where we want to go clarifies everything else. Sometimes we get stuck on the how before we’ve even settled on the Vision itself.
Thank you for writing~
Peg
Good article. “If we take the time to create a Vision Statement for ourselves, we can begin designing the life we wish by setting goals, a mission statement (our purpose for doing what we do), and action plan (a set of steps and goals that are measurable to take us towards that Vision Statement).”
Some leaders that I know who are developing their mission statements are more focused on the big picture—their vision, where they want to take the team, their goals and objectives. The bigger picture is important and can’t be overlooked, but leaders also have to remember the “small stuff” that may impact staff.
You are absolutely correct that some folks lose sight of the details. Some get lost in the details and because they never share their vision, those who need to be working towards the vision can’t see it or find it. It certainly takes all of us and our unique skill sets to collaboratively work towards the greatest we can be. Thank you for your response and visiting my blog!
Peg