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.
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: Michael Hyatt writes, “Vision isn’t prophecy. It’s a tool not a timeline of inevitable happenings.”
Hyatt: “A practical vision is specific enough to suggest strategy, but not so specific it commits you to one particular strategy.”
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