Marilyn O’Hearne with the power of vision in unlocking potential, prosperity and peace. We know that vision is a really powerful agent for energizing and inspiring people and moving people and organizations forward. Teams, leaders and coaches I work with discover vision serves as a guiding light. Vision is a desired future and potential is also about developing that capacity for the future; becoming the best person or organization possible, so all can live in prosperity and peace (my vision!).
They are both future oriented and very energizing, so what gets in the way of activating vision to unlock potential, prosperity and peace? One thing I am finding right now is the volume of all the background “noise”: everything else that is going on in our world that can distract and discourage us from achieving our vision. How do you filter out the “noise” and achieve your vision?
1.Take time to get clear, starting with taking a few deep breaths to literally clear our brain. Neuroscience tells us that those deep breaths change the blood flow so we can access that creative decision making neocortex part of our brain.
“What do you mean, my vision?” a coaching client asked when I asked how their coaching session goal tied in with their vision. Clarity and focus on vision provide the energy and motivation to move forward, with our brain already engaged and focusing on that desired future and its positive outcome. Research supports a clearly communicated vision being a key factor for leadership and team success as well as talent retention. Leaders and teams partner with me, utilizing a choice of multiple tools, to clarify vision. My vision is on a poster on the wall next to my desk where I can view it multiple times a day.
Take time in our VUCA world: Volatile, Uncertain, (Culturally) Complex and Ambiguous to get clear on our vision and then to
(2) Clearly communicate it so that others can be engaged helps us to achieve this desired future state. It is energizing and inspiring especially when people can understand their role they are playing in helping to achieve that vision. So number one is getting clear on your vision. Number two is clearly communicating your vision.
3. Keep your vision message consistent so that it stands out amongst all the other messaging. That takes a plan. So I just ask you today, leaders and coaches, how are you doing on your vision?
I am inviting and challenging you to take a couple of minutes at least weekly to take a few deep breaths and check in with yourself on how clear is your vision, and how clearly are you communicating it in a compelling way so that people are getting engaged and are inspired? Then you will be activating that energy to move your vision and organization forward, leading to greater prosperity and peace.
I look forward to hearing how you are doing on activating the power of vision to unlock potential, prosperity and peace by clarifying and consistently communicating your vision.
Leaders and coaches, apply for an Unlock All Potential strategy session on how to best move forward in achieving your vision.
Besides following these three steps and coaching, how can you clarify your vision, especially as a team? Use this proven process, or I can facilitate it for your team: https://www.marilynoh.com/vision-unclear-use-proven-envisioning/
What visions inspire yours and keep you focused on yours? Desmond Tutu’s book, God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time, energizes me and my vision. God’s dream, as Tutu describes it, “is a dream of a world whose ugliness and squalor and poverty, its war and hostility, its greed and harsh competitiveness, its alienation and disharmony are changed into their glorious counterparts, when there will be more laughter, joy, and peace, where there will be justice and goodness and compassion and love and caring and sharing. I have a dream that swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, that My children will know that they are members of one family, the human family, God’s family, My family. Please help me to realize it.” (p. 19-20)
Nancy Kline’s books on establishing a “Thinking Environment,” including her vision of how that can move us from polarization, also inspire me.
Stay tuned until next week. Thank you.
To your full potential, prosperity and peace (and our success, we are in this together!),
Marilyn O’Hearne, MSW, MCC, LLC; CQ MCC
