with greg layton

The Inner Chief is for leaders, professionals and small business owners who want to accelerate their career and growth. Our guest chiefs and gurus share powerful stories and strategies so you can have more purpose, influence and impact in your career.

Listen on

Over the next 25 weeks, I’m going to share the 25 elements that form the Chief Maker HP Teams – Tx Model, starting with creating a team vision.

The aim is that every Monday I’ll introduce one element so you can spend the week focusing on improving it. Even just getting 5 or 10% which means after  25 weeks you should have made real change and have a measurably higher-performing team.

So what exactly is the Chief Maker HP Teams – Tx Model and what does it consist of?

Chief Maker High Performance Teams Model

These 25 elements that fall under the 5 pillars of the Chief Maker HP Teams model are:

1. A MISSION

We have a clear vision and goals steeped in a bigger purpose with a clear strategy & metrics to align the group.

2. PEOPLE

We have the right people with the right capability in the right roles.

3. CULTURE

We are a united team who is constantly improving in a challenging and enjoyable environment.

4. TOOLS

My people have the systems, processes and hardware to perform their role with excellence.

5. EXECUTION

We have strong governance of our transformation to keep the clock ticking.

Over the next 5 weeks, we’ll focus on your Team's Mission, which has 5 critical elements:

  1. Vision (What)
  2. Purpose (Why)
  3. Strategy & Tactical Plan (How)
  4. Values & Identity (Who)
  5. Goals (Proof)

Creating a Team Vision

All teams must have a vision. It must be crystal clear and help your people rise to a new level in their thinking and action.

Imagine for a minute you’re building a house and you have a team of workers who are building the house for you. Would you say, “We are going to build an art-deco house. Now let’s go to it.”?

No, you’d give them a detailed set of drawings, with descriptions of fittings and everything so they know exactly what they have to do with their time.

Remember, a vision isn’t just a strapline. A vision should be co-developed into a colourful picture of the future, full of symbols and written stories of where you will be when the vision is achieved. It is proudly shared and hung on the walls throughout the workspace and anyone can describe what you aim to achieve over the next 2 to 5 years.

A great vision captures your true spirit and aspirations as a team and leaves a legacy that everyone is proud of.

A Vivid Vision

Cameron Herold, the founder of COO Alliance and NY Times Bestselling Author advocates developing a Vivid Vision. This is a detailed, 3 to 4-page document that lays out a clear, logical vision of what your company will look like in three years.

When completed, it’s meant to be woven into your company’s or team’s culture, guiding your employees decision making and giving all involved clear goals to strive for.

Usually, creating a Vivid Vision is a very involved process that can take quite some time to get right. For a large business, that should be as long as six months to get right; for smaller teams with less complex challenges, it can be shorter. He offers these tips when developing your vision:

  1. It’s important not to get caught up in the ‘how’ of things. Instead, dream big and worry about the ‘how’ later;
  2. You’ll need to be free of the day-to-day worries of running your business. You need freedom in order to visualize your future;
  3. Get out of your office and go somewhere inspiring where you can let your mind wander;
  4. Turn off your computer. No matter how much willpower you have, the temptation of email or web surfing will be a distraction;
  5. Get out of your comfort zone, think out side the box—choose whatever cliché works for you. Just be creative, even outlandish. You’ll be amazed at what you can come up with. It’s a surefire way to create a fun, dynamic vision you and your team will love to strive for.

Now over to you

To kick off our 25 weeks to building your high performance team this week, your focus is creating a team vision for your team. Ask yourself,

  • How crystal clear is it?
  • Is it aspirational enough that it challenges the group to be better?
  • Has everyone bought into it and is across it?
  • Does is it align to the wider business?

Remember, your vision is a vital filter for all decision-making and strategy development. So give it the time, energy and investment required.

All GREAT Chiefs spend a lot of time creating a team vision and get very good at vision development.

Stay epic,
Greg

Next article in the High Performance Teams series:

Pillar 1/Mission: Part 2 – Purpose