Your vision is where you want to be, communicates what you want to achieve and should inspire others to follow you. Every successful business owner starts with a vision and works out what journey needs to be be made to make it happen. To ensure that you have clarity about what you want to achieve, it is important to document your vision and make it visible to those around with you. As a business leader, you need to ensure you know what you want to achieve so you can set objectives, have a clear direction, motivate your employees and bring your stakeholders on the journey with you and a vision statement can help you do this.
What is a Vision Statement?
A Vision statement is a few short sentences that communicates what you company wishes to achieve in the long term (5-10 years). It provides a statement that can shape, guide and align the operation of your business. In short, a vision statement communicates the direction of the business.
” I envision a world where every financial advice firm can clearly communicate their vision”. That’s the vision statement for this article.
Why Should a Mortgage Advice Firm Have a Vision Statement?
Without a Vision statement it’s impossible to form a good strategy. If the business doesn’t know where it’s going, it would be naive to assume that it will naturally find the right course. In addition, Vision statements have many advantages such as:
- A good Vision will inspire and motivate your employees
- A good Vision will give you focus and clarity. Marrying short term operations with a long term strategic view
- A good Vision will ultimately help you perform
- A good Vision can help shape the culture and behaviour that your business desires which is hugely important in financial services
What is the difference between Vision and Mission?
This can be confusing. Think of a Mission statement as what you do today or the HOW, and a Vision of what you will be like in the future or the WHY.
Can Vision statements change?
Absolutely – your Vision can be refined, can alter over time, and be reviewed as much as other parts of your strategy. It’s best practise to not alter the focus annually though, as you want people to believe in the Vision and go on the journey with you.
How long should a Vision statement be?
It should be short and memorable in order to engage your employees and customers. For reference, the average Vision statement is 18 words.
What should I consider when writing my Vision statement?
I’d recommend considering the following when constructing your Vision statement:
- No more than two sentences and keep it under 30 words
- Keep it simple and digestible
- Avoid metrics – these don’t belong in your Vision
- Be specific in your wording and your make it relevant to your market
- Make it inspiring and ambitious
- Align it to your culture and values
Struggling for inspiration? Take a look at these examples of Vision statements within the financial services industry.
Regions Financial
Their vision is “To help our customers and communities realise their dreams by anticipating, understanding and meeting financial needs.”
CitiBank
Their vision is “To be the most competent, profitable and innovative financial organisation in the world.”
