There aren’t many situations in life where you don’t want things to be crystal clear. Your bathroom window is one, a surprise party is another, maybe even your memory after a night of karaoke.

But one area in which there are really no downsides to being absolutely clear is the purpose and direction of your business.

The power of a clear vision

It’s no secret that I have a real passion for clarity and helping others to get it. Having a clear vision is what gives you confidence in business, sends the right message and helps your team stay on the right track.

One of the first ever self-help books I read was Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The one step that stuck with me most deeply was ‘start with the end in mind’. Having clarity and conviction over where you’re going is an absolute game changer when it comes to getting results.

Research backs this up. When Greg McKeown – business consultant and author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less – studied over a thousand teams, this is what he found:

“The results…were startling: when there was a high level of clarity of purpose, the teams and the people on it overwhelmingly thrived. When there was a serious lack of clarity about what the team stood for and what their goals and roles were, people experienced confusion, stress, frustration, and ultimately failure.”

There’s a cautionary tale here about lack of vision, but let’s just take a moment to savour his description of those who got it right: “overwhelmingly thrived”. What business doesn’t want that?

How 20/20 vision makes a difference

In case you need more convincing that having clear goals is key to any business, here are five areas of focus and the main benefits:

1. When you’re clear about what’s most important and what isn’t, you and your team are more likely to:

• Keep goals in mind when making decisions
• Feel and express confidence in those decisions
• Speak up when it matters and see problems that may affect the end goal

2. When you’re clear about exactly what you want to accomplish, you’re all:

• More confident in your actions and determined to succeed
• Able to correct and adjust when you get off track
• Take time to celebrate when goals are achieved, which in turn boosts confidence

3. When you’re clear about your strengths and weaknesses, you’re more likely to:

• Seek out the right help when you need it
• Use your strengths to your best advantage and be able to differentiate yourself
• Build your brand and marketing around the things that you or your clients most want

4. When you’re clear about the distinct steps to achieve your goals you can:

• Get everyone focused on the same page
• Delegate without fear of micromanaging or losing control
• Move your team with great speed and buy-in

5. Most importantly of all, when you’re generally clear, you’ll:

• Recognise when you’re going off track
• Refuse to get diverted until you can establish clarity of purpose and the contribution to the end result
• Confidently determine “What are we trying to accomplish, why, and how will we know when we’ve succeeded?”
• Make the distinctions that mean the difference between wasting time and moving forward quickly and effectively

Clarity and confidence

Having a clear vision creates the confidence to pause and find your way. The confidence to say no. The confidence to speak up to prevent problems or defend against poor decisions. The confidence to stand alone. The confidence to be proactive when silence might seem safer. The confidence to take prudent risks and embrace new challenges.

Make clarity a core component of your business and the confidence of you and your team will soar… and, yes, “overwhelmingly thrive”.

Our way of creating clarity is through a ‘brand vision’ – talk to us today to explore how other businesses have built their vision and how to create yours.