Clarity of Purpose and Direction

In my book 4 Secrets of High Performing Organizations, I point out that all successful organizations and the people who lead them have four things in common.

1. Successful organizations and the people who lead them have identified and clearly communicated a clarity of purpose and direction.
2. Successful organizations and the people who lead them have the sincere commitment of every organizational member.
3. Successful organizations and the people who lead them skillfully execute the things that are critical to their success.
4. Successful organizations and the people who lead them build mutually beneficial relationships with important outside constituencies.

This week, I will highlight the important points of each of the four secrets and then provides some words of wisdom from some well known (and some not so well known) thinkers that relate to each of them.  Today, I’ll focus on clarity.

Clarity

Clarity is where it all begins.  High performing organizations begin with a mission – a clear statement of why they are in business – their reason for existence.  They also have a clear vision of where they want to be in the next three to five years.  They use their mission and vision to guide the creation three to five year strategic plans and annual business plans.  They then use these business plans to set departmental and individual performance goals and objectives. 

Organizational values are the second part of the clarity equation.  Successful organizations specify a small set of values that clearly define what’s important to them as an organization, and which provide guidance for decision making in ambiguous situations.

For example, I have five values for my consulting, coaching and speaking business.

• I believe we too often make things more complex than they really are. I help my clients simplify the complex, and develop and implement common sense solutions to their problems and issues.
• I believe in human potential. I assist my client organizations and the individuals in them to use applied common sense to achieve their full potential.
• My clients pay a premium for my services. Therefore, I provide them with extraordinary value-added services in order to justify their faith in me.
• My clients trust me. They openly discuss their hopes, fears, problems and opportunities with me. This trust is sacred. I will not violate it.
• All of my customers are unique. I honor this uniqueness. I don’t sell one-size-fits-all consulting, coaching or speaking services. I am diligent about gaining a complete understanding of each client’s unique needs before I suggest a course of action.
  I use these values to help me make decisions in situations when I am faced with ambiguity and uncertainty.

Finally, in successful organizations, everyone knows and understands the mission, vision, values and business plans and their part in making turning plans into reality.

Now, for what the experts have to about the importance of clarity.

"You read a book from beginning to end. You run a business the opposite way. You start with the end, and then you do everything you must to reach it." - Harold Geneen

"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will." - George Bernard Shaw

"Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights." – Peter Drucker

"Leaders don't force people to follow—they invite them on a journey." - Charles S. Lauer

"All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership." - John Kenneth Galbraith

"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances - to choose one's own way." -Victor Frankl

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." - Les Brown

"Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly." -Langston Hughes

"Whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy." - Brian Tracy

"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything." -Alexander Hamilton

"Goals are a means to an end.  They are a tool to concentrate our focus and move us in a direction.” - Anthony Robbins

"The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. " -Max De Pree

"Aim above the mark to hit the mark." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You control your future, your destiny. What you think about comes about. Put your future in good hands - your own." - Mark Victor Hansen

"Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blue prints of your ultimate achievements." - Napoleon Hill

"You must know for which harbor you are headed if you are to catch the right wind to take you there." -Seneca

That’s it for today.  Thanks for reading.  Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense.  Check out my other blog: www.SuccessCommonSense.com for common sense advice on becoming the career and life success you are meant to be and to get a copy of my new ebook Star Power: Common Sense Ideas for Career and Life Success.

I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Bud

PS: Speaking of Alex’s Lemonade Stand – my fundraising page is still open.  Please go to www.FirstGiving.com/TheCommonSenseGuy to read Alex’s inspiring story and to donate if you can.