Follow-on to our "All thrust, no vector" newsletter article

If you've subscribed to our email newsletter, or are lucky enough to be on our postal mail list, you recently received a short article on "All thrust, no vector" - describing how critical direction and flightpath is to reaching your intended business destination.

This follow-on covers some hints and tips on how to completed the two action steps from the article:

1. Get clear on your business’ destination, and

2. Get clear on the path to get there.

First, the destination

Start out with a clean piece of paper and do some focused dreaming by yourself.

Bring the future to today. Imagine yourself at the future state and describe what it looks like from multiple perspectives. Think about both qualitative and quantitative measures - how would you know that your desired future will have occured? Pitfall to watch out for: getting caught up in the How to get there instead of staying focused on the What. You can double check your thinking by saying to yourself "Ok, I now have ______. What does that get me?" to find out if you are actually talking about the ends or are stuck in the means.

Tip: When you involve your teammembers, lead the conversation with your thoughts and invite their participation. While you're trying to elicit people's passions, it's important tfor you to provide the "seed crystal" to ensure that others build upon so they don't (accidentally) hijack your vision.

Second, the path to get there

Many owners make the mistake of assuming their way is "the" way. Even though you may feel differently, there are a lot of paths that can get your business to the same destination. And the likelihood of your business getting there relies strongly on a lot of other people moving in the right direction together.

One way to achieve this is to inspire ownership by sharing control of the methods with your people. Ownership is 10 times more powerful than buy-in. (Perhaps you were once an employee who couldn't own the process - a bit frustrating?) And effective leaders don't have to be physically present to keep pushing if others understand the intended outcomes and own the process.

Tip: Lead the conversation inviting your crew to share their thoughts on how we can get to our agreed-upon destination. Make sure people feel safe discussing their thoughts. Write down what they say, using as many of their words as possible, on a large piece of paper on the wall. Help them see their ideas count.

Bonus tip: When you feel compelled to drive home a point, that is exactly the time to instead ask a question that further explores the thinking behind the suggestion. Be curious and ask for how someone sees their idea working. Then when the idea well runs dry, genuinely yet gently reinforce those ideas which line up with your thinking.

Remember, it's the thought that counts, and yet it's the actions that win the game.

Update on Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 03:32PM by Chris Hutchinson

Just got informed that the second tip said "use as many words as possible" when writing down the team members' thoughts.

Whoops.

I've corrected the blog entry to what I intended to write - "use as many of their words as possible."

I've learned over the years that all the well-intentioned summarizing and clarifying I did of a person's input would unintentionally strip ownership away from the person who made it.

So now while I still strive to help condense or distill inputs, I work very hard to ensure every word I write down comes out of the person's mouth. Often if you keep people talking, they will do a brilliant short, simple, personal, and graspable summary at the very end of what they just said. That summary will follow phrases like "In other words..." or "I guess what it boils down to..." or "So, it's really like..."

Keep your ears open and keep people talking - most people are aching to be listened to and understood.