When Vision and Reality Aren't Aligned

One of my clients came to me feeling distressed, because she knew there was a disconnect between her board’s vision and direction, and where she actually was as a leader.

I was brought in initially to do strategic planning and help set the vision for the next three years. That can be a daunting task when not everyone is on the same page, or when you have folks with competing priorities.

So we went through the foolproof process that I take all of my clients through. We started with ground truth.

I surveyed the board.
I surveyed the leadership team.
I surveyed the entire organization.

I really wanted to drill down into what was going really well, what was broken, and what their vision for growth actually was. What did they truly want to see as they moved forward as an organization? How could they move together?

By going through this process, we were able to build a really strong foundation.

We created something that could last, not just a plan that got put on the shelf, forgotten about, or reduced to a project list.

Too often, strategic plans become a collection of projects. People assemble them, use them as a guiding document to get tasks done, but never connect them to the bigger picture of what they are trying to accomplish.

I am proud to report that when I began working with them, they were in the red. They had negative growth and negative financial performance.

They made the changes.

They focused on the process.

Within six months, they turned and became profitable.

Their satisfaction levels went up. Their customer service improved externally and internally. Their culture started to shift.

The big reason?

Once you have a vision that everyone can align with, and you tie specific action items to that vision, and especially when you put accountability in place for leaders to remove the barriers that always show up during growth, you can make a big leap quickly.

That is the power of having a great strategic plan.

Unfortunately, I see this play out a lot. Strategic plans are not well done, or someone flies in, provides one day of support, and then leaves.

That is not how my consulting practice works.

We start from the ground up.

We focus on ground truth.

We build a strong foundation.

Then we build out a plan that can truly sustain the organization and drive the growth they want to see internally and externally.

And we provide the support, coaching, and structure that leaders need to not only hit their goals, but exceed them time after time.

Lead Boldly,
~ MW