Get buy-in by living the vision. Certainly communication is the key and making sure that vision is understood and realized by each individual. [Make sure] the individual knows the benefit that it ultimately provides for themselves and the company.
So very often I read vision statements and they’re just mounted on a wall, which, to me, doesn’t do a lot. You have to live, breathe, act and communicate your vision every day and explain how your decisions are based on reaching your vision. If you don’t have the cause-and-effect relationship, the vision is never thought of and no one knows what it means and no one acts upon it.
In our discussions for [going green] I said, ‘This is why we’re doing it: It ties to what our goals are, our mission and our vision, so we must follow that direction.’ There were certain people who said, ‘Well, it costs more money.’ Yes, it does cost more money, but really, it’s a long-term investment, and we will make the commitment because in the long term, we will receive the benefits.
You have to take the time as necessary for them to understand to their level, not necessarily your level. You have to meet people where they are, and it means different things for different people.
I think on an individual level, it’s good for a leader to talk to different employees and ask them what the vision means to them. But it’s better on a one-on-one level versus being in the middle of a group session, because that can [make] people uncomfortable.
For us, making the commitment toward the green building also means a commitment in our space. We have recycling programs. We have instituted a policy of … paper elimination. You can’t just talk the walk; you’ve got to follow it all the way through.
And you’ve got to keep it simple. If it’s complex, it’s not going to work. You need to energize them, giving them a sense of making a difference.
Tie individual goals to the vision. We ask each individual to set their goals for the coming year, and then they meet with their immediate supervisor and review the goals, agree to the goals and then tie them to the overall vision of the organization.
And then quarterly, the individual and the person that person reports to meet and discuss how they are reaching their goals or not reaching their goals and what tactics are important. So it’s better than a New Year’s resolution, which is forgotten about two weeks later.
A simple example may be, under the premise of ‘leading development solutions’ in the marketing department, part of marketing skills are to make sure that we’re not just the leader and no one knows about it. So part of the goals of marketing would be, ‘How do we enhance the internal and external knowledge that we are leading the area in our approach to things?’ and tie in to that.
There would be specific items that talk about quantity of articles, certain seminars or discussions we’ve had with outside parties, and other measurements. So it can’t be subjective. For it to be measurable, it has to be quantifiable.
[If] it’s more or less, ‘OK, here are your goals,’ if it’s not tied to the overall goals, then it’s not effective. We raise some questions such as, ‘How does this goal compare to last year? How does it tie to the vision?’
When we do the year-end performance reviews, we help set the stage of each individual, what their accomplishments were, what the hope and expectation is for the next year. It’s kind of like an ever-evolving approach.
How to reach: Neyer Properties Inc., (513) 563-7555 or www.neyer1.com
