3 Questions You Must Answer…
Whenever you are casting vision to either your team or your organization there are 3 questions that you must answer. Now, these questions are not always verbalized, but rather they are hiding underneath everyone’s curiosity. And depending on how well you do at answering these questions can make or break the vision. Fail to answer them and people will reject the vision.
So, let’s dive into the 3 questions you must answer:
1) What’s In It For Me?
While casting vision people want to know how it is going to benefit you. Believe it or not, people want to be part of your success. Everyone feels great purpose when they know their efforts helped someone else be better off. Don’t hide from how the vision is going to benefit you somehow someway. In fact, the more you hide it or avoid it the more manipulative it appears. It’s ok to open up about how you hope to achieve a higher level of success. Maybe it’s accomplishing your dream, or attaining a position, or creating more opportunity for you, whatever it is, be honest about how it will truly impact you for the good. You don’t have to give details, but don’t act as if it isn’t there.
2) What’s In It For You?
Make sure that the people you are casting the vision to benefit somehow as well. Obviously, it can’t just be about you benefiting from the vision, it needs to be a win-win for them too. People want to be better off and attain a higher level of significance. So make sure that the vision makes it better for them or you may need to go back to the drawing board. Help them connect the dots for their success. Don’t assume people know how they’ll be affected, communicate it clearly and positively. Sidenote: be careful here that you don’t oversell it or come across as though you’re trying to convince them how great it will be. This just comes across like it’s not a good deal, but you’re manipulating it to be.
3) What’s In It For Them?
The “them” is the people you are going to impact because of the vision. It may be the clients you serve or the world you’re trying to make better. This needs to be when you communicate the big picture of who the vision is going to help. People want to feel as if they are making a big difference somehow, someway. Make sure you answer how the vision is going to make life better for the people your organization serves. This is why you ultimately exist. I like to refer to it as Steve Jobs did when he talked about making a dent in the universe.
Answer these 3 questions someway somehow in your presentation and you’ll make the vision more powerful. It doesn’t matter what order or how much time you spend on each one, just make sure you hit all three and weave it in and out of your vision casting moment.
