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Contractormag 11655 Blankpage
Contractormag 11655 Blankpage
Contractormag 11655 Blankpage
Contractormag 11655 Blankpage
Contractormag 11655 Blankpage

Transform Your Team in Just One Page

Sept. 14, 2018
It all starts with a one-page document called “a painted vision."

Have you ever been frustrated by your team? Have you ever wished that your employees worked together? Have you ever felt that there was just a little too much uncertainty among your employees? Have you ever wished your team took a bit more initiative?

As the owner of a business, you hire a team and hope they work together for the success of the company. Problem is, they don’t seem to do that consistently. And the result? Employees can clash with each other, customers aren’t served the way they should be, revenue and profits can take a hit, and you’re left problem-solving and cleaning up messes.

But what if there was another way? What if you could get your team aligned and moving together in the same direction, as if they were a championship rowing team, each rowing their own oar in perfectly synchronized unison?

Here’s the great news: it’s possible to create a team like that. It all starts with a one-page document called “a painted vision”.

Chances are, you’ve heard before of companies that have a vision. Most of the time it’s a big deep-pocket company, and they create a fancy-sounding vision of a sentence or two. (And let’s be honest: most of the time, those fancy-sounding visions sound like the marketing department wrote a vague blurb that could apply to anyone.) To be clear, that is not what I am talking about.

A painted vision is not like one of those short, boring, overly-marketed paragraphs that big companies write.

Here’s The Powerful One-Page Vision That Can Align Your Team

A painted vision is a one-page document that clearly outlines in exciting terms exactly how you see your company running in about three to five years. It’s just a few paragraphs long (doesn’t need to be more than one page… maybe two pages if you want to add some pictures and put it on a double-sided sheet of paper).

A painted vision does just that—it paints a picture, using words, of what your company will be like. It uses short vivid descriptions that give a crystal-clear mental picture of what the company will be like.

A painted vision discusses just a few topics such as:

·       How your company’s team works together—for example, talk about how you only hire the best employees, and everyone loves working together and they always have each others’ backs.

·       How your company works with customers—for example, talk about how you only work with the very best customers, and those customers’ values.

·       How your company’s leadership leads the way—for example, talk about how your leadership team will work hard to expand the company and create more opportunities for everyone.

You may also want to include specific measurables throughout your painted vision (such as how much annual revenue you’ll generate or how many people will be in your company).

If you need help with your painted vision, just get the big ideas down in a rough draft and then hire a freelance writer to craft the wording.

How To Use Your Painted Vision For Maximum Benefit

So, you’ve created your painted vision, now what do you do to ensure that your company benefits from it and your whole team works together to turn that vision into reality?

Recommendation #1. Give the painted vision to your executive team or managers to reverse engineer the vision into targets and goals, and then reverse those targets/goals into Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that you can measure your team’s performance with.

Recommendation #2. Read your painted vision to everyone at your next all-company meeting. Get everyone’s agreement that it is a worthy vision to work toward.

Recommendation #3. Share the painted vision when you onboard new employees and get their “buy-in” early in their career with you to ensure that they are aligned right from day one.

Recommendation #4. Share the painted vision constantly in your business, encouraging people to make decisions based on it. When someone comes to you with a problem or an opportunity to consider, ask them how it could help or hinder the painted vision.

There are many more ways you can use your painted vision, too, but start with these four ways. Your team will know where your company is going and they’ll see themselves as a key part of that vision, and your team will constantly look to your painted vision to help them make better decisions.

Summary

If it ever feels like your team isn’t working together in the way you’d like, it’s sometimes because they just don’t know where the company is headed so they make it up each day. But if you create a strong and compelling vision for your company, and if you share it with your team, you’ll help your whole team row together in unison like championship rowers... turning your exciting vision into an exciting reality.

Mike Agugliaro is a Business Warrior on a mission to change the lives and businesses of service business owners. Mike and his business partner started and grew a struggling home service company into a multi-million dollar empire before selling the company in 2017. Today Mike is an author, speaker, and mentor; and he's the co-founder of CEO Warrior, a high level coaching and training organization for home service businesses. Learn more about Mike and CEO Warrior at www.CEOWARRIOR.com.

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