Michael Hyatt's Blog, page 22

Why Vision Matters in Crisis

As a leader, you’ve thought a lot about where to take your business in the next year. But major disruptions—like the coronavirus crisis—can upend your vision. It’s a disorienting time, and it’s tempting to just hunker down and try to survive. Is it even possible to have a vision for the future right now?

Why You Should Still Be Charging for Your Products

You’ve probably noticed the trend in the last week of businesses offering products or services for free to help out during the COVID-19 crisis. I applaud the impulse, but there’s a fatal flaw in the logic—the economy depends on people creating value and other people recognizing that value and willingly paying for it. 

How to Balance Remote Work and Family Life

The opportunity to work from home sounds great! But the reality of being forced to make that shift on short notice can be stressful. Add to that the school closings, work-from-home spouses, and the general uncertainty of the times. It’s nerve-wracking! You may be wondering how to keep your sanity, let alone keep your focus.

7 Benefits of Working Remotely

Leverage this Opportunity to Improve Productivity and Morale

When the COVID-19 crisis made it necessary for our team to work from home, the transition was seamless. We began as a completely remote company six years ago. And when we did add an office two years ago, it was as a place for collaboration and communication. To this day, no one has a traditional office in that space.

We’re not alone in that.

In 1980 only about 2 percent of U.S. employees telecommuted. Now at least a quarter of workers do so at least some of the time. And according to Global Workplace Analytics half of U.S. jobs could be done remotely.

Some companies, like Buffer, which has fifty employees, closed their offices entirely even before this crisis.

I still think there are good reasons for office space. For some businesses it’s essential.

But if current circumstances have forced you or your team into working from home, you may actually benefit from the experience. Here are some advantages we’ve gained from remote work.

Freedom. In the old days work was often rote and repeatable. But today’s work is more novel and creative. That means there’s a strategic advantage in giving employees the autonomy that comes from choosing how, where, and even when they work.

Focus. This kind of creative work also requires focus, but it’s hard to come by in traditional workspaces. Why? As Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson say in Remote, offices are “interruption factories.” Remote work allows us to avoid the interruptions and make progress on projects that matter.

Margin. Another value for our team is margin. Killing the commute that goes with a centralized office means our team members get more time with their families, and less with their cars.

Health. This is more important than you might think because commutes literally take years off our lives. Research shows they up our cortisol, blood pressure, cholesterol, even our weight. (See here, here, and here.)

Well being. And commuting also has a direct impact on our personal well-being. Commutes cut into our time for sleep, exercise, and shared meal times. They leave us lonely, bored, agitated, and even more likely to divorce. Working remotely has some challenges, but it eliminates several major problems.

Morale. Marked improvements in freedom, focus, margin, health, and well being mean we have incredible team morale. I’m honestly stunned by the level of infectious enthusiasm and initiative our team demonstrates. And the benefits of remote work play a big part.

Savings. Last but not least, there’s money. You can’t run an effective business with tight margins. Working remotely lets us invest our resources in our people, not their surroundings.

What about culture? I hear people say an office is important for organizational culture. It can be, but it’s not the only solution. Our culture is stellar, and we communicate through apps like Slack and Zoom.

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There is a strategic advantage in allowing employees to choose how, where, and when they work.

—MICHAEL HYATT

When we had no fixed space, we used the resources we would have put toward an office to do other things that build our culture—such as go on company cruises when we hit major milestones. Trust me, no one complained.

I hope we’ll all be able to return to having face-to-face contact with our teams soon. But in the meantime, we can leverage the unique benefits that remote work offers. Who knows? Your team may wind up being more productive than ever.

3 Actions to Lead Through Today’s Crisis

The COVID-19 crisis has created a lot of uncertainty for business leaders. Nearly every business has been affected, some drastically. Many are dealing with a dropoff in sales, learning to manage remote teams, and tremendous instability. It’s frightening, exhausting, and really shakes your confidence.

3 Ways to Inspire Your Team

As a leader, you have a vision for the future. It’s clear. It’s practical. And you know it will make a huge impact. There’s just one problem: nobody’s buying it. When you communicate your vision, all you get are shrugs and blank stares. How frustrating! 

Based on our decades of experience and that of thousands of our coaching clients, we’ve learned exactly how to get people excited about your vision. You must make it inspiring. And we can show you how. 

4 Steps to Communicating Vision

As leaders, we have to lead first by vision. If we can’t create a compelling picture of the future, something that’s really desirable, it will be very hard to motivate our team to change or to take on big tasks to fulfill our purpose.

That’s why I wrote The Vision-Driven Leader, to help leaders develop a clear, compelling vision of their own. 

Having a vision is vital, but that’s really just the beginning of vision-driven leadership. You must also be able to communicate that vision in a way that enlists others to help achieve it. 

In over 40 years of business leadership, including a stint as CEO of what was then the largest Christian publishing company in the world, I’ve learned what it takes to communicate vision in a way that makes others eager to follow. It comes down to these four steps. 

Make It Inspiring

The very first step is you have to make your vision inspiring. Everybody wants to be part of something that’s larger than themselves. No one’s individual life is really big enough to satisfy the desire we all have for significance. The chance to make a difference, that’s what motivates people.

Sure, they’ll get excited about a raise or a bonus, but not for long. Your vision cannot be about personal success or achievement. It has to inspire others to get beyond themselves and change the world for the better.

What is the change you want to make in the world? How will the lives of others be made better if your vision can be fulfilled? Show people that transformation, and they’ll jump on board with your vision. 

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There’s just no substitute for vision.

—MICHAEL HYATT

Make It Concrete

The second step is to make it concrete. Inspiration is vital, but it’s not enough. Often, the inspiration for a vision is carried through stories or values. The touch the heart and move people to take action. But what action?

You must go beyond abstractions to cast your vision in concrete terms. That way, people can see what you’re trying to build. And believe me, if people can’t see it, they will not join it.

One way to do that is to write a narrative statement that describes the outcome of your vision. Here’s an example. 

At Michael Hyatt & Co., “We want to cultivate a work culture that is congruent with our core values.” That’s one of the four basic tenets of our vision for the future. That sounds great. Many people want to work for a values-driven company. But how does that work its way into our daily operations? 

To flesh that out, we added these key details: 

We only recruit people who are highly talented, extremely competent, and possess impeccable character. They’re positive, confident, and willing to serve others.

Our employees know our core ideology, can articulate it to others, and understand how they fit into the larger picture.

Each of our employees knows his or her unique ability and is able to express it in his or her specific role.

We’re getting, again, very specific. We want our teammates to have a snapshot of what the vision will look like in real life. We’re trying to describe it with enough clarity that other people can join us in what we are creating. 

Make It Practical

The third step is to make it practical. A vision statement can be very helpful in making decisions. For example, the example I cited earlier about the culture we want to create is an extremely practical guide for recruiting. It informs how we present ourselves to prospective candidates, how we screen them, and how we conduct interviews. 

When you have a specific vision it brings clarity to every member of the organization. It enables your executive assistant, for example, to decide what appointments to schedule and which to decline. It tells your marketing team which opportunities to pursue and which to let go. When you have a solid Vision Script, as I describe in The Vision-Driven Leader, everything in your business can be filtered through it. 

Make It Visible

The fourth step is to make it visible. For any statement of vision to be effective, people have to know about it. You can’t go off somewhere to the mountain, cook up a vision, and then keep it to yourself. It has to be expressed, and it has to be expressed frequently. 

How many times do you think it’s necessary to communicate an idea before people begin to “get it”? Three? Four? Five? That seems like a lot. But according to the authors of The CEO Next Door, the true number is closer to eight. If you have presented your vision so many times and in so many settings that you’re tired of talking about it, congratulations! You’re about half done. 

As leaders, vision begins with us. If we’re not visionary, no one else on the team will be either. This is one responsibility we cannot delegate and dare not abdicate. Begin with a clear vision of the future. Then make it an inspiring, concrete, and practical tool, and communicate it relentlessly. People will follow.  

3 Challenges in Managing Change

Has this ever happened to you? You’re excited about a new project or initiative, and you can’t wait to share it with your team. But when you do, you see nothing but crossed arms and blank stares. They’re not hostile. But they’re not sharing your enthusiasm either.

What gives?

Why Leaders Can’t Ignore Vision

Vision is a critical component of leadership. Yet, surprisingly, many leaders downplay the need for it. Here’s an example. When George H. W. Bush ran for president in 1987, he knew he needed a way to connect with voters. So he asked a colleague to identify some issues that would resonate.

Not so fast, said the friend. According to TIME, instead of providing a litany of winning issues, he “suggested that Bush go alone to Camp David for a few days to figure out where he wanted to take the country.”

“Oh,” responded Bush, unimpressed by the idea, “the vision thing.”

Bush possessed many positive qualities but saw taking time to craft a vision as either pointless, uninteresting, or too difficult. And that cost him. Bush managed to win the election, but many saw him more as a manager than a leader. That perception ultimately undermined his 1992 reelection bid.

In my experience, far too many business leaders also don’t understand “the vision thing.” They’re often dismissive of, confused about, and ill-equipped to create compelling visions for their organizations. Here’s why no leader can afford to ignore vision.

People Are Hungry for Visionary Leadership

According to one study of 466 companies, respondents identified the following as one of the top-felt corporate deficiencies: “Leaders who can create a compelling vision and engage others around it.”

Our teams are hungry for something that requires their best effort, which depends on innovation in their thinking, and that inspires their imagination. And it’s up to us to ask ourselves, “Does what we’re trying to do as an organization provide that kind of inspiration?”

Some leaders have a clear mission statement or an effective strategy. But neither is a substitute for vision. Vision is an act of seeing what the future could be, then articulating that potential in an inspiring, clear, practical, and attractive way—what I call a Vision Script.

Vision Must Come from the Leader

I once worked for a CEO who wouldn’t make time for vision. He didn’t think it was his strength or even his responsibility. Instead, he appointed a committee, put me in charge of it, and said, “You guys do the vision thing. Come up with a vision for where we’re going, and then let me know what you’ve decided.”

Vision creation is not a project to be delegated to the team. The leader must generate the vision.

Your first step in developing a compelling vision is to own the responsibility for it. That doesn’t mean you can’t involve others. For example, instead of sending us off on our own, my boss could have joined us at the table. If he had, his executives could have asked him the kind of probing questions necessary to arrive at a vision he could endorse. Be a leader who makes vision a priority.

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Your first step in developing a compelling vision is to own the responsibility for it.

—MICHAEL HYATT

Every Leader Can Learn to Cast Vision

One of the reasons leaders downplay vision or don’t see the need for it is self-protection. They feel ill-equipped to create and cast a compelling picture of the future. No one enjoys doing something that feels foreign to their skill set, but this challenge is especially tough for leaders. Why? Because we assume they’re supposed to have all the answers.

The good news is that vision is not a personality trait, something you either have or don’t. Creating a powerful vision of the future is a skill anyone can develop if they know-how. That’s one of the reasons I wrote The Vision Driven Leader, to provide a simple blueprint for creating and communicating a dynamic vision of the future.

Your next step in developing a compelling vision is to learn the skills required for doing so. I’ve witnessed this transformative power of vision while coaching thousands of business leaders to win at work and succeed at life. But that only happens if you’re willing to do the necessary work to craft one.

At Michael Hyatt & Co., we conduct leadership coaching through our BusinessAccelerator program. I often hear from men and women who started a business or found themselves promoted into positions of responsibility and now feel the pressure to level up. Yet they feel unprepared. Some feel as if they’re imposters—as if it’s only a matter of time before they’re found out and lose it all.

I’ve been there. I get it. And there’s a simple reason for the prevalence of this feeling. They’ve never had the coaching to create a compelling picture of the future—something desirable, exciting, and challenging to motivate their teams. If that’s you, I’ve got good news. You can create a compelling vision and use it to guide your company forward with intention and energy. Yes, you can be a vision-driven leader. You really can.

And that all begins when you recognize that generating the vision for your team is your responsibility, then make it a priority to learn that skill.

What does the future look like for you and your business?

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As a leader, you know you should be developing a consistent reading habit, but you struggle to prioritize it. Here’s the good news—the problem isn’t what you’re reading, it’s how and why you’re reading.