Issue No. 446 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights Michael Hyatt’s 2020 book on vision—and why it dramatically changed my thinking. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and if you missed it, here’s my May review of Non Obvious Megatrends: How to See What Others Miss and Predict the Future.
Radio Station WII-FM: What’s In It For Me?
Yup. It’s still August in the Year of Covid (will this ever end?)…so here’s another “summer shorts” issue.
SUMMER SHORTS NO. 3:
The Vision Driven Leader: 10 Questions to Focus Your Efforts, Energize Your Team, and Scale Your Business, by Michael Hyatt
Here are six short-and-sweet reasons why you (or someone on your board or team) should read this book.
#1. Michael Hyatt dramatically (dramatically!) changed my thinking about vision. I’ve facilitated dozens and dozens of strategic planning processes over the years. Mission. Vision. BHAG. Core Values. S.W.O.T. Yada, yada, yada. Oh, my—I missed the really big idea: the foundational importance of vision.
#2. The “Vision Grid” on page 87. I’m a sucker for the Boston Consulting Group’s quadrant. The author’s vision quadrant positions Vision against Communication. That’s brilliant. With an abstract vision and implicit communication—you get FOGGY. But with a concise vision and explicit communication—you land on CLEAR. Other not-so-good options are CONFUSING and INTUITIVE. Hyatt nails the problems in Quadrant 2 (abstract, explicit): “…she speaks in definitive terms as she describes what to everyone else sounds like nebulous ideas.” I’ve seen this often—but never had this memorable label for this big misstep.
#3. The perfect term: “fake work!” Hyatt writes, “Why are you writing that report, meeting with those people, working on that project, or setting that deadline? If it’s not to help you realize your vision, you might be wasting your time.” If there’s an unfortunate disconnect between your vision and your daily work—call it what it is: low-value “fake work.”
#4. Radio Station WII-FM. This is funny, but true. Chapter 7 is must-read: “Can You Sell It?” Hyatt writes, “You’ve probably heard that everyone is tuned in to the radio station WII-FM: What’s In It For Me? If I’m going to take this journey with you, they’re thinking, what does that mean for me? What’s my upside? They want to know why this new vision will be good for them and why they should care.”
#5. Four characteristics of a vision that inspires. Another must-read chapter. (Actually all 10 chapters/questions are must-read.) The four:
1) The vision focuses on what isn’t, not what is.
2) The vision is exponential, not incremental.
3) The vision is risky, not stupid.
4) The vision is focused on what, not how.
#6. “The Vision Arc.” Michael Hyatt’s graph of the vision arc includes seven phases of the typical organizational trajectory through time (similar to Jim Collins’ five stages). If you don’t interrupt the trajectory, look where it leads you: Startup, Rising, Transitioning, Mature, Legacy, Zombie, Dead!
I could go on, and on, and on—but this is a “summer shorts” review. But…just one more. What if your boss (or board) is the Keeper of the Status Quo? Hyatt lists five critical steps for selling your boss on a new vision. And this wisdom when selling to influential stakeholders: “You may not always be able to get agreement, but you can get alignment.”
After you read The Vision Driven Leader, follow-up with his 2018 book, Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals. (Read my review.)
To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Vision Driven Leader: 10 Questions to Focus Your Efforts, Energize Your Team, and Scale Your Business, by Michael Hyatt. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (4 hours, 48 minutes), narrated by Michael Hyatt.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) Michael Hyatt writes, “Vision isn’t prophecy. It’s a tool not a timeline of inevitable happenings.” Did this book change your thinking about vision?
2) Hyatt: “A practical vision is specific enough to suggest strategy, but not so specific it commits you to one particular strategy.” Are we stuck on a sacred cow-type strategy?
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6 Pitfalls of Vision-Deficit Leaders
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook
The core competency in the Results Bucket affirms, “We also abandon dead horses and sacred cows.” Wow…it’s very tough to discard old strategies, but The Vision Driver Leader will help you. Hyatt asks, “What Difference Does Vision Make?” and details six pitfalls of vision-deficit leaders:
1) Unpreparedness for the future
2) Missed opportunities
3) Scattered priorities
4) Strategic missteps (“The future hasn’t happened yet. It’s imaginary.”)
5) Wasted money, time, and talent
6) Premature exits
Hyatt’s Venn diagram on page 45 pictures Vision, Mission, and Strategy in their own circles—interconnecting at the middle sweet spot: RESULTS. That’s perfect—and Peter Drucker, I’m sure, would add his “Amen!”
The Vision Driver Leader is so, so practical (three steps for this, five steps for that, and more). If your vision and mission wordsmithing is all theory and thesaurus, take time to screen this poke-in-the-ribs five-minute video, Mission Statement, from "Weird Al" Yankovic. Click here.
Click to view Mission Statement from "Weird Al" Yankovic.
For more resources in the Results Bucket, check out this webpage.
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14 BOARD QUESTIONS: Check out the 14 links to the 14 blogs on "The 14 Questions Every Board Member Needs to Ask." Start with Question 2 on this ECFA blog, "Are We Addressing the Risks That Could Send Our Organization Over the Cliff?"
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Is your creative team doing “fake work” or work that aligns with your vision and mission? Need help? Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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