Share Your Vision More Often, Publicly

Here is one of the 12 questions of the Narrative Power assessment I recently published:

“How often do you appear in public to share your vision for the future and call people to action?”

It’s easy to believe that once you’ve published a vision statement, for instance, on your website, you’re done.

In reality, building narrative power for your business requires frequently and constantly explaining publicly how you view the future for all stakeholders inside and outside your organization.

These days, the good news is that you have more effective and accessible ways than ever to do it: through writing, speaking, videos, social media, or podcasting, for instance.

Why should you consistently appear in public to share your vision?

It can take many repetitions for people to start understanding it, believing it, and acting. Your team will never complain if you repeatedly repeat yourself with clarity. The opposite is not so true.

You are more likely to get feedback when you share your vision frequently. That's crucial. So many CEOs and leadership teams come up with a view of the future that they are excited about but that nobody else cares about, unfortunately; what’s the point of articulating an excellent vision if nobody else around you gets the same thrill for it? You need to know how people feel about where you think we should all go as a community.

If you want people to see the same opportunity as you, they need to see you stare at it.

A quick thought exercise: Imagine that you’re looking at something far out on the horizon. You’re envisioning what is coming. Doing this on your own is valuable to you. But it doesn’t have any effect on anybody else. Nobody else sees what you see.

But isn’t the whole point of creating a vision to mobilize people around you?

Imagine you’re doing the same, staring at the horizon. But now, you are doing it while standing in the middle of a crowded street. People will stop and start looking in the same direction as you. I guarantee. They will assume something exciting or unusual to see in the direction of where you’re staring. They will try to find out what you are looking at so intently.

This is normal human behavior.

Tell us about what you see; tell it more often and tell it publicly.