What do I want to do? What should I want to do? Is that the same thing? Should it be?
For some reason I have trouble distilling all my ideas, passions, wants, and wishes into a single sentence. I know what I love, what I truly want to do, and what I value. It's just hard to condense it all down. So, I figure I should turn to the experts and see what they recommend to create a vision statement. First step… Google!
I started my search with Vision Boards. I have never created one, but I’m pretty curious about them. I know people who have created them, and proudly display them in their offices. To learn more, I checked out Huffington Post. According to this article, “the more your board focuses on how you want to feel, the more it will come to life.” Using that as my guide, I came up with how I want to feel: passionate, fearless, intelligent, valued, trusted and trustworthy.
Okay—that’s a start. I would love for my vision statement to be about how I want to feel, as well as how others feel about me and the work I do.
First attempt:
C-Change Learning and Development will prepare managers, and their teams, to meet the future of work head-on. By developing their soft skills, the managers trained by us will be strong and confident leaders of their teams, supporting them in their efforts to do great work.
Not bad… Maybe a little long. Also, I really like the feeling of being trusted and trustworthy, and that's not in that statement.
Second attempt:
We are recognized learning and development professionals, leading the charge in preparing managers, and their teams, for the future of work. We will gain their trust by providing the tools and support they need to reskill, upgrade, and be great! In the process, C-Change Learning and Development will also be great!
Again, a little long, but not bad….
Third attempt:
C-Change Learning and Development is the trusted leader in soft-skills training, supporting managers and their teams in their efforts to do great work! In the process we do great work too!
I can live with this one. But, I recognize it will need to be considered, massaged, revised, and improved on as time goes by and my business becomes more entrenched.
If you have any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, or hints, please send them my way. In the past, I’ve worked on vision statements with a team, where we brainstormed, tried lots of ideas (maybe argued a bit), and came up with something that inspired us all. I don’t have a team—yet. (Note: my vision statement refers to “us’ and “we”, as I aspire to have co-workers some day soon.) So, for now, I invite you to be part of my “team” and help me come up with a statement that is just right.
Laura Sukorokoff is the Founder and People Maximizer at C-Change Learning and Development. She believes soft skills training is the future of learning and development work and this is her area of passion. Call upon Laura—she’s ready to help your managers reinvent their skills. Check out www.cchangelearning.com to learn more.
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