By Kara Jorvig
Part of every leader’s job is to cast a vision for their team. But as a leader, before you can cast a vision for others, you must clarify the vision you have for yourself.
There was a time a few years ago when I was desperate for that kind of clarity, and I found it in an unexpected place.
It was early December, and I was exhausted. Like most business leaders, I had been grinding all year. Hundreds of external meetings. Countless internal ones. I never took time to slow down.
And it wasn’t just business that was piling up, either. Christmas was two weeks away, and I always find myself having high expectations for the holidays with my family.
I still needed to plan for the new year — how we would kick off Q1 in a big way — but nothing was coming to me. I couldn’t create a clear vision for the future because there just wasn’t time to establish the right mindset. Then, I did something I had never done before.
I took a solo trip to San Diego. No meetings, no agenda, and no work. For a few days, I broke away from the hustle and bustle and gave myself the space to clarify my vision.
When I came home, I had a fresh perspective for myself and my business. It wasn’t the trip itself that brought me clarity; it was the practices I made time for while there. After years of implementing these practices, I’ve pinpointed a few that will help any business leader clarify their vision, too.
The Relationship Between Burnout and Vision
Burnt-out leaders rarely have clear visions.
This is a hard pill to swallow for executives. We grind. We make moves and make things happen. We feel like we don’t have time to slow down or get tired. Our work is demanding, and we also put a lot of demands on ourselves.
We aren’t meant to go this hard without any end. The daily pressures of business and personal life will inevitability pile up and cloud our vision, eventually leading executives to burnout.
When you barely have time to catch your breath or when you get swept up in the grind of the day-to-day, it’s easy to lose sight of who you are, how you want to show up for those around you and where you want to go.
That’s why it’s so important to set aside the time and space to focus on clarifying your vision. This isn’t about work-life balance; it’s about boundaries, knowing when to press pause and being disciplined in doing so.
But how do you do that?
4 Steps to Clarifying Your Vision
Let me start with a warning.
The first time I did this, I felt tremendous guilt about leaving my work, team and family behind to press pause, step away and invest in myself.
You may feel this at first, too. That’s because you’re a passionate leader, which means you’re most likely high-performing and incredibly productive. You have a huge capacity to take on multiple tasks and get things done. But at some point, the grind will impact your business and personal life. It’s just a matter of time.
If you want to avoid that eventual crash, discipline yourself with the time and space to clear your head and clarify your vision. Here’s a four-step process that can help you get started.
1. Take an Intentional Pause
When is the last time you truly disconnected? If you’re like most of the leaders with whom I’ve worked over the past year, you likely never really have.
It’s difficult to gain clarity on any topic when you’re running on empty. That’s why the first step in the visioning process is to create the conditions you need to think and dream. There is power in an intentional pause.
This starts with setting a specific time for your visioning session; I recommend a three-day process. Don’t try to weave it in between meetings or make it part of a typical work week. You can’t go from your normal high-speed production to zero in an instant. Slowing down like this is usually unnatural for leaders, so you need time to ease into it.
Clear your calendar completely for the day before, during and after your visioning session. This way, you have time to rest and refuel as much as possible in the days leading up to the session. Plus, you won’t have a pile of work waiting for you on the other end and distracting you from the task at hand.
2. Open Yourself Up to Inspiration
It’s important to create the right mindset on the day(s) of your visioning session. Visioning is unlike many other types of work that we commonly do in business. It requires a blend of creative thinking, heightened awareness and deep focus.
Here are some ideas that can help you establish the right mindset:
- You don’t have to fly to San Diego, but you should hold your session in an environment that brings you a sense of peace and joy. This could be somewhere in nature, a clean and comfortable space of your home or another quiet place that inspires and uplifts you.
- Set the vibe in a way that awakens your mind but doesn’t create stress. Aromatherapy (I prefer a diffuser, candles or fresh flowers) combined with bright, natural light and inspiring background music are a powerful mix. You want to use as many of your senses as possible to tell your mind that it’s time to explore what’s possible.
- Clear your mind. This could mean decluttering your space before you begin or relaxing your brain with a meditation exercise.
The goal is to think about the future state you desire for yourself, your business or your team. You can start by declaring your intention. Write that down so you can refer back to it later.
The most important piece is to give yourself grace with the experience. Remember that you are starting a new thing that is probably unlike most of your work. Don’t get overly tied to an outcome, and try to stay open to what the process brings you.
3. Establish Your Word of Intent
When you’re in the midst of your vision session, you can quickly get overwhelmed by the process and lost in the possibilities for your potential vision. There are probably a lot of things you’d like to accomplish. How do you narrow them down to a single vision?
Many people have success by identifying a “word of intent,” a specific theme or idea they can focus on during the session. In my own visioning sessions, I pick a word that resonates and inspires me.
Having an established word of intent also helps you stay focused on your vision after your session, when you’re back in the real world. You can use it as a lens to look through when you wake up every day. And when you reflect on your day, you can ask yourself questions like, “Did I live that out today?” and “Do I feel that way?”. Over time, your word of intent will become a type of compass that guides you closer to accomplishing your vision.
4. Create Your Vision
Once you’ve established the underlying theme or core focus through your word of intent, it’s time to build out the rest of your vision.
Most people don’t just think their way into their vision. They capture it in some sort of way, typically through a visual or written medium. This process requires you to stay open and creative, and what works best for you may be completely different from the next person. As you explore this, stay open minded about trying something new. My team and I encourage clients to experiment with some of the following tools:
- Journals
- Physical vision boards – using tag board and magazine cutouts
- Digital vision boards – using Pinterest or a graphic design program
- Mindfulness – using guided meditation with introspective questions
Remember, though, your vision board or vision journal isn’t a to-do list. It is a symbolic collection used to remind you of your vision and act as a source of inspiration throughout the year.
Bring it Full Circle
Visions aren’t just for individual leaders, so once you have your own vision established, it’s important to replicate the process for your team. Aligning teams around a shared vision is a key component of the business and leadership consulting work we do at Allegro Group and it’s critical to building high-performance teams. We recommend a combination of personal visioning and taking time as a team to connect each other to how personal and business visions impact the team as a whole.
By putting in the hard work and going through the process outlined above, you’ll be able to achieve the clarity needed for success. It definitely takes discipline, but the results are worth it when you put in the work.
Kara Jorvig is the founder and CEO of Allegro Group, a premier consulting, organizational development and talent acquisition firm. For nearly 20 years, she has partnered with CEOs and executive teams to help them assemble, activate and accelerate their A-Teams. For more from Kara, follow her on Instagram @kara.jorvig or LinkedIn @KaraJorvig and visit karajorvig.com.