What will your business look like at its most successful? In other words, what is the ultimate state of your business? You can answer that only if you know what the desired end result is. Armed with a clear and compelling vision, you can lead your organization to achieve that result as part of a strategic communications plan. Kim Marcille, author of Amp It Up! Secrets from Science for Creating the Life of Your Dreams, says there are three ways a strategic vision can help your organization:

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1. It creates focus. When the economy is in a down cycle, the tendency is to focus on the difficulty of conducting business, the lost opportunities, and the impact on the bottom line. This negative attention can erode confidence and hinder strategic communication management. By keeping the strategic vision at the forefront of the organization’s awareness, employees and management alike can focus on generating new ideas, planning for the future, and recognizing new possibilities.

2. It encourages business and personal alignment. Whether you know it or not, you’re operating according to a personal vision right now, and every person in your organization is as well. Even if everyone has the best intentions, without a defined strategic vision, growth of the business will be slowed because everyone is working toward their own definition of success. Once you’ve clearly defined your vision and shared it, your actions, your employees’ activities, and your business’ resources will come into alignment.

3. It guides the decisions of a business. When a company is under pressure, it may make choices about solving immediate problems that may not be ideal for the long term. Once a vision has been established, management is obliged to consider the impact of any decision on the company’s ability to achieve the vision. Short-term survival may be paramount, but a company armed with a vision may discover ways to ensure its survival while preserving its ability to achieve the overall vision as well.

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