What is a Vision Statement?
A Vision Statement:
Defines the optimal desired future state - the mental picture - of what an organization wants to achieve over time;
Provides guidance and inspiration as to what an organization is focused on achieving in five, ten, or more years;
Functions as the "north star" - it is what all employees understand their work every day ultimately contributes towards accomplishing over the long term; and,
Is written succinctly in an inspirational manner that makes it easy for all employees to repeat it at any given time.
Leaders may change, but a clearly established Vision encourages people to focus on what's important and better understand organization-wide change and alignment of resources.
Defining an organization's Vision is not always easy for senior leadership to do. James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner wrote an article about this challenge for Harvard Business Review, "To Lead, Create a Shared Vision (link is external)."
Kouzes and Posner, also creators of "The Leadership Practices Inventory," analyzed responses from over one million leaders about this. The data indicated that one of the things leaders struggle with the most is "communicating an image of the future that draws others in - that speaks to what others see and feel." Kouzes and Posner's research also indicated that "being forward-looking - envisioning exciting possibilities and enlisting others in a shared view of the future - is the attribute that most distinguishes leaders from non-leaders.