A strong, compelling, shared vision can be a very powerful thing. Here’s just a brief summary of what it can do:

Vision directs.
A strong vision guides decision-making, even in the toughest of times – perhaps especially in the toughest of times.

A friend recently left her company. It’s in an industry that’s gone through layoffs – several rounds – over several years. She said she’d had enough of “vision-less” change, cuts that seem entirely random. She’s willing to take the risk and move somewhere new – even at the mid-point of her career, even in challenging times – rather than to continue to swim in directionless, uninspiring, uninspired waters any longer.

She decided to follow her own vision for her life. Which leads to the next point:

Vision clarifies and compels.
Driven by a dream, one takes action. Because a vision is so powerful when it’s one you share, periodically stop and check to see if the dream you are following is truly your own. Perhaps it’s one you “inherited” from someone else, or one you were told you had to follow. Maybe the vision you’ve been following was once true for you, but it no longer moves and inspires you.

Periodically revisit and refresh or renew the intensity of the dream that guides you.

Vision connects.
A clear and compelling vision expressed as a picture, can be posted in an area where a team sees it regularly. With many teams I’ve led or advised, we created and used such a “billboard.” The quick visual reminder of their dream was an important conscious and unconscious reminder and intensifier of their shared direction. It enhanced the teams’ ability to move over, around or through barriers that might have stopped other less focused, less unified, less driven teams.

Make your vision visual. Post it in a place where you and your team will “drive by” it regularly.