Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building and GOALAGV. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellowledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the Seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode six forty eight. Let me ask you something.
Speaker 2: If I walked up to you right now and said,
Speaker 2: tell me your vision in ninety seconds or less, could
Speaker 2: you do it? Not your mission statement from a laminated card,
Speaker 2: not a paragraph filled with corporate buzzwords, not something you
Speaker 2: copied from a strategic planning document. I mean your vision, clear, concise, compelling,
Speaker 2: Because here's the reality. If you cannot explain where you're
Speaker 2: going in ninety seconds, your team cannot follow you for
Speaker 2: ninety ti days. Vision is not the poster on the wall.
Speaker 2: Vision is direction under pressure. It is clarity when things
Speaker 2: get loud. It is the filter that decides what you
Speaker 2: say yes to and what you shut down. And most
Speaker 2: leaders are terrible at articulating it. They think vision has
Speaker 2: to be complex. They think it needs charts and bullet
Speaker 2: points and five year road maps. They confuse strategy with vision.
Speaker 2: Vision is not the spreadsheet. Vision is the headline. Here's
Speaker 2: how this works. A ninety second vision statement should answer
Speaker 2: three questions, where are we going, Why does it matter?
Speaker 2: What does it look like when we get there? That's it.
Speaker 2: If you need ten minutes to explain your future, you
Speaker 2: don't have clarity, you have clutter. I've seen leaders with
Speaker 2: million dollar budgets stumble over this question, and I've seen
Speaker 2: frontline supervisors nail it in under a minute. The difference
Speaker 2: is not education, it is ownership. When you own the direction,
Speaker 2: you can speak it without notes. Your ninety second vision
Speaker 2: statement should feel like a rally point, something your team
Speaker 2: can repeat when you're not in the room, something that
Speaker 2: cuts through the noise when someone says why are we
Speaker 2: doing this? Because if your people cannot repeat your vision,
Speaker 2: they will replace it with their own version, and that
Speaker 2: is when culture starts drifting. Let me give you an example.
Speaker 2: Instead of saying we want to improve operational efficiencies and
Speaker 2: maximize stakeholder engagement over the next fiscal cycle, say this,
Speaker 2: over the next year, we're going to become the most
Speaker 2: reliable team in our region. When someone calls us, they
Speaker 2: know it will be handled right the first time. We
Speaker 2: respond faster or communicate better, and leave zero doubt about
Speaker 2: our standards. That is vision. It paints a picture simple,
Speaker 2: it's measurable. It feels like something. Your ninety second should
Speaker 2: create emotion, not hype, not theatrics, but conviction. Here's the
Speaker 2: part most leaders miss. You have to repeat it until
Speaker 2: you're tired of hearing it. Then repeat it more. People
Speaker 2: do not buy into what you say. Once they buy
Speaker 2: into what you consistently reinforce every meeting, every decision, every correction,
Speaker 2: tie it back to the vision. If the vision is excellence,
Speaker 2: then sloppy work gets addressed. If the vision is growth,
Speaker 2: then stagnation gets challenged. If the vision is service, then
Speaker 2: ego gets checked at the door. Vision is not inspiration alone.
Speaker 2: Vision is accountability with a destination. Now let's raise the
Speaker 2: standard a bit. Your ninety second vision statement should also
Speaker 2: survive pressure. It should still make sense when revenue dips.
Speaker 2: It should still guide decisions when you lose a key employee.
Speaker 2: It should still hold up when someone questions your direction.
Speaker 2: If your vision only works when everything is smooth, it's
Speaker 2: not vision. It's a wish. Strong leaders test their vision.
Speaker 2: They ask, does this still guide us when the heat
Speaker 2: is on? Does this help my team make better decisions
Speaker 2: without me? Because that is the goal. The real test
Speaker 2: of vision is whether your team can act correctly when
Speaker 2: you're not present. If you're only one who if you're
Speaker 2: the only one who understands where you're going, you're not leading.
Speaker 2: You're just dragging. So let me challenge you with something practical.
Speaker 2: Take out a piece of paper today and set a
Speaker 2: timer for ten minutes. Write your vision in plain language,
Speaker 2: then read it out loud. If it sounds like a
Speaker 2: press release, rewrite it. Cut to the fluff, remove the jargon,
Speaker 2: make it real. Then trim it down until it fits
Speaker 2: into ninety seconds of clear speech. When you're done, deliver
Speaker 2: it to someone you trust and ask them does this
Speaker 2: make you want to be part of it? If they hesitate,
Speaker 2: you're not done yet. Remember clarity is a leadership weapon.
Speaker 2: People crave direction. They want to know that the person
Speaker 2: at the front sees something beyond today. Your ninety second
Speaker 2: vision statement becomes the anchor. It stabilizes teams during chaos.
Speaker 2: It keeps meetings from wandering, It protects standards. And here's
Speaker 2: something else. When you can articulate your vision in ninety seconds,
Speaker 2: you start making sharper decisions because now you have a filter.
Speaker 2: Does this move us closer to that picture. Does this
Speaker 2: align with who we said we are becoming? If not,
Speaker 2: it's a distraction. That is how you cut through red tape.
Speaker 2: That is how you strip out nonsense. You run everything
Speaker 2: through the lens of your ninety second future. Too many
Speaker 2: leaders spend hours building slides. Spend those hours building clarity instead,
Speaker 2: because at the end of the day, nobody remembers Slide seventeen.
Speaker 2: They remember how you made them feel about where they
Speaker 2: are headed. So if you want to lead at a
Speaker 2: higher level, start here, not with another certification, not with
Speaker 2: another book, Start with your ability to say clearly and confidently,
Speaker 2: this is where we are going and this is why
Speaker 2: it matters ninety seconds. That is all it takes to
Speaker 2: reveal whether you truly own your direction. So your leadership
Speaker 2: challenge this week is simple. Craft your ninety second vision
Speaker 2: statement and deliver it to your team. Say it without notes,
Speaker 2: say it with conviction, then repeat it until your team
Speaker 2: can say it back to you. Clarity creates confidence, Confidence
Speaker 2: creates momentum, and momentum builds legacy. And if you want
Speaker 2: more free leadership resources, head to Paulfolovalito dot com and
Speaker 2: click on free stuff. I have over twenty five free
Speaker 2: leadership documents you can use starting today. This has been
Speaker 2: the seven minute Leadership Podcast and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fello Alito podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com