Do you know how to write vision statement? I’m sure you might have heard the term before, but do you know what it means? The term vision statement has became very popular in recent years. It’s so common for people to be talking about “their vision statement”. But what does it mean? What exactly is a vision statement?
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What is a vision statement?
Similar to a mission statement, a vision statement provides a concrete way for stakeholders, especially employees, to understand the meaning and purpose of your business. However, unlike a mission statement – which describes the who, what and why of your business – a vision statement describes the desired long-term results of your company’s efforts. For example, an early Microsoft vision statement was “a computer on every desk and in every home.”
“A company vision statement reveals, at the highest levels, what an organization most hopes to be and achieve in the long term,” said Katie Trauth Taylor, CEO of writing consultancy Untold Content. “It serves a somewhat lofty purpose – to harness all the company’s foresight into one impactful statement.”
Why does this matter? Research shows that employees who find their company’s vision meaningful have engagement levels of 68%, which is 18 points above average. More engaged employees are often more productive, and they are more effective corporate ambassadors in the larger community.
Given the impact that a vision statement can have on a company’s long-term success and even its bottom line, it is worth taking the time to craft a statement that synthesizes your ambition and mobilizes your staff.
What is the difference between a vision statement and a mission statement?
Before determining your vision statement, you need to understand what it is not. It should not be confused with a mission statement. Those statements are based in the present and designed to convey why the business exists to both members of the company and the external community.
Vision statements, on the other hand, are future-based and meant to inspire and give direction to employees of the company rather than customers.
“The vision is about your goals for the future and how you will get there, whereas the mission is about where you are now and why you exist,” said Paige Arnof-Fenn, founder and CEO of Mavens & Moguls, a global strategic marketing consulting firm. “The vision should motivate the team to make a difference and be part of something bigger than themselves.”
“While a mission statement focuses on the purpose of the brand, the vision statement looks to the fulfillment of that purpose,” added Jessica Honard, co-owner of North Star Messaging + Strategy, a copywriting and messaging firm that serves entrepreneurs.
Although both mission and vision statements should be core elements of your organization, a vision statement should serve as your company’s guiding light.
“A vision is aspiration. A mission is actionable,” said Jamie Falkowski, managing director at marketing and communications company Day One Agency.
How to Write Vision Statement
Brainstorm the Vision
- Address your core values. Identify the values that exist at the center of your organization. Ask yourself why your organization currently exists and what hopes or ideas led to its founding.
- After identifying your core values, you’ll need to evaluate your organization with respect to those values. Determine which aspects of your company are aligned to those values and which aren’t, then consider what you should do to better align yourself to those values in the future.
- Your vision statement should match up to your organization’s core values. To that end, you’ll need to retain any elements that currently fulfill your values while also incorporating new elements that can address those values more effectively.
- Focus on problem solving. Companies typically succeed when they can solve a problem or provide something that fulfills various needs and wants. Determine what problems or needs your company addresses.
- If you haven’t done so already, identify your customer base and figure out what concerns the average customer within that base. Create an “ideal customer” in your mind, then ask yourself what you want to do for that specific customer.
- After determining what you want to do for your target customer, think about how success will look if you manage to accomplish that goal. The idea of success that you imagine here should morph easily into the overall vision you hold for your organization.
- Visualize the future. If you have a hard time identifying your vision from your current perspective, try to imagine your organization five to ten years later.
- It may help to draft an imaginary news article describing your organization’s ideal future. Write about its biggest accomplishments and compare it to the competition. The accomplishments you hope to achieve should be transformed into elements of your vision.
- Dream big and scale down as needed. When you start brainstorming, don’t worry too much about how realistic your goals seem. Only evaluate the practicality of your dreams after getting them out into the open.
- For instance, your ultimate goal might involve global success even if your organization is currently a local, small-scale operation. List global success among your dreams during the brainstorming state, then evaluate the practicality of that dream once you sit down to write out your actual statement. Scale back the reach of your goal as needed to make it seem easier for others to grasp.
Draft the Statement
- Define your output. Your input is what you put into your organization. Your output is the result of those efforts. Use wording that focuses on your output rather than your input.
- For example, a clothing boutique stocks designer clothes and sells those clothes to fashion-minded customers. The “stocking clothes” part is the boutique’s input; introducing customers to those clothes is the boutique’s output.
- Be specific to your business. Avoid writing generic statements that could apply to any company in any field. At the very least, you need to make sure that your vision statement addresses the industry your company exists within.
- Something generic like “customer satisfaction” won’t paint a vivid enough picture. In this case, you’ll need to describe what customer satisfaction looks like within your field. For something like a clothing boutique, this would mean pairing fashion-minded customers with the best styles or introducing them to the latest trends.
- Give it a twist. Even within the same field, your organization has plenty of competition to work with. If there’s something positive about your business model that varies from others within the field, reference it within your vision statement.
- For instance, if you own a clothing boutique and a large portion of your stock comes from local artisans, mention that in your vision statement. Doing so could help attract those interested in supporting local business.
- Focus on the future. Vision statements describe goals. In other words, you’re conveying something you hope to make happen rather than something that is currently happening or currently true of your organization.
- For this reason, most vision statements rely on action-oriented verbs: “to be,” “to become,” “to make,” etc. Instead of saying what your company is, describe what you hope your company will be in the future.
- Balance ambition with realism. The statement needs to be ambitious enough to excite people, but it also needs a dose of realism. If it doesn’t seem achievable, you might have a hard time finding support.
- This is when you may need to start scaling back the “big dreams” you included in your initial brainstorming sessions. If you own a small business but are on a clear path toward global success, that might be a legitimate goal you can include in your vision statement. Typically, though, you’ll need to redefine the scope of your vision to a smaller scale that will be easier for others to accept, like your community, your state, or your country.
- Draw in the senses. While it isn’t strictly necessary, addressing the “real life” senses of your potential supporters allows you to plant an image in their minds, and that image can make your organization’s vision easier to remember.
- The simplest way to do this is typically with a visual. For instance, instead of making “happy customers” your goal, describe your goal as “smiling customers.” The latter creates an image, and that image conveys a stronger message.
- Limit the length to one sentence. Your vision statement should be short enough to memorize, so aim for one sentence consisting of 10 to 15 words.[6]
- At most, you vision statement should consist of no more than two sentences and/or 30 words. If you feel the need to have a long, detailed vision statement, you should also create an abbreviated version that’s easy to recite from memory.
- Use clear, simple language. Aside from brevity, a good vision statement also expresses clarity. Avoid complicated wording or inactive phrasing.[7]
- People both inside and outside of your organization should be able to understand the statement, so avoid technical jargon, industry buzzwords, and metaphors.
- Avoid using past tense or the passive voice. You’re looking toward the future, so your language needs to do the same.Advertisement
Finalize Your Vision Statement
- 1Adjust as needed. Don’t expect to craft the perfect vision statement from the first draft. You should go through at least two drafts of your vision statement, if not more.
- During your first draft, only focus on getting everything down that needs to go down. Think about things like length and language, but avoid fixating on them.
- Review your first draft and revise it as needed, paying closer attention to the finer points you skimmed over previously. Keep the elements that seem most important to you, but rephrase poor wording and remove elements that weigh things down without adding much value.
- Seek feedback. Once you feel satisfied with your vision statement, ask someone else to review it. Choose someone who has both wisdom and integrity. This may include mentors, colleagues, or marketing professionals.
- Understand that you may receive both positive and negative feedback. When your statement is criticized, ask yourself if the criticism genuinely seems warranted. Seek a second opinion if you aren’t sure.
- Revise your vision statement again if you receive negative criticism that makes sense. When you finish, return it to the original critic and ask him or her to evaluate the effectiveness of your changes.
- Spread the vision. Once you complete the final draft of your vision statement, you’ll need to spread it around. Communicate your vision to your employees, investors, and potential customers.
- Follow your vision statement as sincerely as possible, too. If you aren’t letting your vision statement guide the path your organization takes, you didn’t craft an effective or true statement.
- Your company and industry will naturally change over time, of course, and your vision statement may grow outdated. When that happens, reevaluate your vision and start the process anew to create an improved statement that better reflects the current times.
Who shapes your vision?
The first step in writing a vision statement is determining who will play a role in crafting it. In a small business, it is simple enough to gather the insight of every member of the organization. In a larger operation, you may need to be more selective while still ensuring that you capture a range of employee voices.
To accomplish this, Brandon Shockley, director of research at branding and marketing firm 160over90, recommends hosting a series of workshops with key stakeholders who represent a cross-section of your organization. You can assemble teams to create alternate versions of the statement and receive feedback from the rest of the company.
Falkowski also suggests individual stakeholder interviews as an effective way to encourage candor among all invested parties and to gather real and honest feedback. Employees can identify common themes and describe the organization’s future in words or pictures as a basis for a vision statement.
Vision statement templates and resources
If you are still stuck on how to create a vision statement and cannot afford to hire professional help, you can easily access a host of downloadable worksheets and templates that offer a framework for developing a vision statement. These five worksheets can help you refine your vision statement:
- Smartsheet: Vision statement worksheet
- Diggles Creative: Brand vision worksheet
- Whole Whale: Nonprofit vision and mission statement worksheet
- Lone Star College System: Worksheets for developing mission and vision statements
- Khorus: Mission, vision and values worksheets
These free resources offer step-by-step instructions to help you identify your company’s key values, priorities and goals, bringing you closer to articulating your unique vision. You can use them yourself or collectively with your staff.
20 examples of inspiring vision statements
Checking out some memorable and distinct vision statements may be all the inspiration you need to write your own. Here are some of the best.
- Amazon: “To be Earth’s most customer-centric company where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”
- Ben & Jerry’s: “Making the best ice cream in the nicest possible way.”
- Caterpillar: “Our vision is a world in which all people’s basic needs – such as shelter, clean water, sanitation, food and reliable power – are fulfilled in an environmentally sustainable way, and a company that improves the quality of the environment and the communities where we live and work.”
- Google: “To provide access to the world’s information in one click.”
- Habitat for Humanity: “A world where everyone has a decent place to live.”
- Hilton Hotels & Resorts: “To fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality.”
- IKEA: “To create a better everyday life for the many people.”
- Intel: “If it’s smart and connected, it’s best with Intel.”
- LinkedIn: “Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.”
- Oxfam: “A world without poverty.”
- Patagonia: “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”
- Prezi: “To reinvent how people share knowledge, tell stories, and inspire their audiences to act.”
- Samsung: “Inspire the world, create the future.”
- Smithsonian: “By 2022, the Smithsonian will build on its unique strengths to engage and to inspire more people, where they are, with greater impact, while catalyzing critical conversation on issues affecting our nation and the world.”
- Southwest Airlines: “To become the world’s most loved, most flown and most profitable airline.”
- Sweetgreen: “To inspire healthier communities by connecting people to real food.”
- TED: “Spread ideas.”
- Walgreens: “To be America’s most loved pharmacy-led health, well-being and beauty company.”
- Warby Parker: “To offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially conscious businesses.”
- Wyeth: “To lead the way to a healthier world. By carrying out this vision at every level of our organization, we will be recognized by our employees, customers and shareholders as the best pharmaceutical company in the world, resulting in value for all.”
Tips for crafting your vision statement
A vision statement should stretch the imagination while providing guidance and clarity. It will inform your company’s direction and set priorities while challenging your employees to grow. Above all, a vision statement must be compelling – not just to the high-level executives of your company, but to all employees.
Often, the hardest part of creating a vision statement is coming up with wording that truly defines your values and shines a light on your corporate identity without sounding too vague. A specific and unique vision statement is a good place to begin distinguishing your business from the rest of the industry.
“Vision statements should demonstrate how the world will be different now that your business is in it,” said DeJong. She believes there needs to be legitimate passion behind a vision statement in order for it to be effective. “So many leaders play it too safe with their vision, and this is a big mistake when it comes to developing a brand people actually care about.”
Based on our expert sources’ advice, here’s a quick recap of what to do when formalizing a vision statement that reflects the uniqueness of your organization:
- Project five to 10 years in the future.
- Dream big and focus on success.
- Use the present tense.
- Use clear, concise, jargon-free language.
- Infuse it with passion and make it inspiring.
- Align it with your business values and goals.
- Create a plan to communicate your vision statement to your employees.
- Prepare to commit time and resources to the vision you establish.
Your completed vision statement should offer a clear idea of your company’s path forward. Honard said that many of her clients have used their vision statements to direct their overall plans for the future. For example, they’ve adopted new marketing initiatives to move them closer to their vision, pivoted their focus to clearly reflect their desired outcome, or doubled down on one particular aspect of their brand that is working in service of their vision.
Conclusion
A vision statement is a short summary of what a company, business or organization aspires to be. It might include some specific plan about how its process will succeed in making itself a reality. A vision statement focuses on the end goal and it gives a motivational push to push on through all the obstacles that could stand in your way toward success.