It is great to have ambitious targets and a dramatic vision for the future, considering what the business might become. It’s even better if you share that vision with your team but the step that all too many miss is to break down the overall target into achievable steps.
It is great to inspire and enthuse the team by sharing that target, but you need to make use of that enthusiasm and enable them to help you achieve those goals.
Think of your plan as if it were an assault on a mountain. You and your team would have to plan where you were going to rest each night, where you were going to eat, who was carrying which bit of equipment and so on into great detail. Every member of the team would have their assigned tasks to complete, and would fully understand and buy into those tasks knowing how they contributed to the overall plan.
I would argue that business is both more complex and simpler than climbing a mountain!
It is much more likely that in your business not everyone is as motivated and driven as you, the business leader. You have to spend more time explaining persuading and cajoling team members! On the other hand, you are probably not risking life and limb leading a business – it just feels like it sometimes.
So break down your plan into little pieces, departmental targets and objectives, into smaller timeframes (a year is way too long) and get your team to recognise and see how they can contribute to overall steps.
Remember the old saw about how to eat an Elephant – one mouthful at a time. In business, get your team to help and just the bones will be left in no time!