The reason entrepreneurs are often referred to as “dreamers” and “visionaries” is because of their ability to see the end product in their minds before it actually happens.  These are the people that make things happen; the ones that find a problem, envision ways to create solutions, and create teams of talented people to do the work.

Our primary purpose as entrepreneurs is to transfer resources out of an area of low yield and place them into an area of higher yield.

“Visionless” Tasks

As the leaders of companies and organizations, it is our job to engage and enable ALL of our team members to do their best work ALL the time.  That sounds like a tall order (because it is), but it’s the way organizations succeed.

When you shift away from this model, you end up paying people to do something they don’t know how to do, or worse – something they aren’t passionate about.  In other words, you waste your money, and their time and energy.

The best leaders are the ones that can not only envision where they want to go and how to get there, but can explain it to their teams so well that EVERYONE can see exactly what they need to do to on an individual basis.

Employees that can’t see the big picture only focus on the small tasks that are assigned to them.  No higher-level thought goes into their work. They aren’t actively engaged in looking for a new, better, or faster way to reach the goal.  They just do what they’re told and move onto next item on the checklist.

Yesterday, I wrote about the value of self-starters to an organization, but without a clear vision from the leader self-starters are useless.  Without a clear vision to work from, self-starters may actually push an organization in a completely different direction.

If you own a business or lead a team:

  • Do you have a vision of where you want your organization to be tomorrow/next month/next year?
  • Do your team members know what that vision is?

If you’re working for a “visionary”:

  • Do you know what the vision of the organization is?
  • Do you know what you need to do to get there?