If you want employees to
buy in to your vision, you
have to involve them in creating it, says Craig Erlich.
When Erlich’s company,
pulse220, was developing a
plan for the future, his key
people all had a stake in the
outcome of the vision.
“They all have an opportunity to participate in crafting
what that vision sounds and
feels like,” says Erlich, president and CEO of the marketing and corporate events company that posted 2007 revenue
of $10 million.
Yet, before you can get
employee buy-in, you have to
take charge and put the plan
in motion to create the vision.
Smart Business spoke with
Erlich about how to develop
and communicate a vision for
your company.
Q. How do you create a
vision?
The first thing is, as a leader,
you need to be able to crystallize who you are and what you
want to become, and you’ve
got to take time out to do that.
Once you set in place who you
are and what you want to
become as an individual, you
can look for ways to channel
that energy.
I set aside time in my day or
my week to really get deep
into who we want to become
and how we’re going to get
there. Then, I repeat it and
repeat it and repeat it. Then, I
repeat it some more.
Q. How do you crystallize
that vision of who you are?
It has a lot to do with determining what your core values are and your guiding principles as a human being. That
manifests itself by the things
you do and the people that
you surround yourself with,
whether it’s workwise or personally.
It’s just taking the time and
investing the time and really
digging deep. There are a variety of ways that are more subjective to do than testing and
things like that. I think that’s a
good way to provide a baseline. Then the most important
thing is acceptance. Maybe it’s
not everything you want to be,
so you can work toward
changing it, but first,
you have to accept it.
