Vision: The Secret to Passion, Productivity + Profits

GROWING UP, I was always deeply inspired by stories about people coming together to accomplish something far greater than what they could as individuals.

Whether it was a small group helping a person in crisis, neighbors helping neighbors or a business interacting with its customers, all intended to make an impact.

Years later, after becoming a certified business coach and consultant, I added talk-show radio host to my resume with a weekly two-hour business show.

During this time, I interviewed the owner and employees of the world-famous Pike Place Fish Market, a small business in Seattle that went from near bankruptcy to world fame and success in less than a year (It is featured in the business training movie FISH!)

In that moment, I knew I was meant to work with businesses and their teams.

After the Pike Place Fish Market interview, I was hooked. I knew I had the conviction and innate skills to bring teams together to experience increased unity and passion while catapulting their productivity and profits.

Many business owners feel challenged when it comes to creating a team. These challenges may include having a team where employees don’t take ownership or follow through on promises, don’t take their work seriously, don’t put the customer first or rarely think like an owner.

Alternatively, businesses may find they have a good team but they want to take it from creating good results to extraordinary results, so they make various attempts to build a more team-oriented environment.

They try various approaches, but inevitably throw in the towel when nothing seems to work.

Many businesses succeed in creating a place for a group of individuals to gather, but most fail to create places where individuals come together as a team that genuinely cares about the business, the customers and achieving breakthrough results as much as the owners and managers.

Why is that? Many businesses haven’t taken the time to create an exciting vision for their employees. The secret to building a great team starts with uniting your employees with inspiring goals.

Most of us set goals in our business or personal lives based on what we believe to be possible. Because of this, we end up simply repeating past performance, calculating what we’ve done last year and making incremental improvements.

We do this because we’re afraid to move outside of our comfort zone and doubt we’re great enough to accomplish big things. 

So we settle, and settling is not exactly an inspiring way to live your life or do business.

Choose to Live From Your Vision Daily

Regardless of whether you seize it, every day brings an opportunity to create a vision that has employees leaping out of bed to go to work.

And it’s not the kind of vision you write only to file it away in your notebook and check it off your leadership to-do list. Instead, it lives and inspires every team member daily.

I love leading businesses and their teams toward compelling, transformational visions.

When I share some of the visions my businesses have created, some think, “That should’ve been OUR vision!” They believe all the good visions are taken, but they aren’t. Every business is unique. Every business can have a vision that resonates with its employees and leaders.

And it is a humbling experience: I never know exactly what will get created. It’s as much a surprise for me as it is for the businesses I work with.

Your Weekly Action Step and Practice

Do you feel frustrated or disheartened at times by how your team is showing up? Take heart. Leadership starts with leading yourself.

The secret to causing a breakthrough in others is first causing a breakthrough in yourself. 

This week, take a few quiet moments to reflect on this question:

If my leadership and business were about something greater than my own personal concerns, beyond making money, increasing profits or someday retiring , what larger vision would genuinely inspire me?

What kind of impact would deeply move me, inspire me and make the work I do feel meaningful?

P.S. Your busy season doesn’t have to come at the cost of morale, energy, or leadership confidence. Build a team that shows up with purpose, passion, and pride... without burning out. Schedule a complimentary 30-minute conversation to discover how.

About Leslie

Leslie Cunningham helps small business owners and leaders create teams that care by transforming the leader first. With more than 30 years of experience, she specializes in personal leadership development that builds confident communication, strengthens accountability, elevates ownership, and creates cultures where people are genuinely motivated to perform. Leslie is an award-winning leadership expert, internationally published author, national columnist, and radio personality.

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