The vision statement, a key element of your strategic plan, needs to incorporate many elements. The following list contains elements that you can include in an effective vision statement (you don’t have to use every one, but keep them in mind when you’re writing or evaluating):
Audacious: Your vision represents a dream that’s beyond what you think is possible. It represents the mountaintop your company is striving to reach. Visioning takes you out beyond your present reality.
Capitalizes on core competencies: Your vision builds on your company’s core competencies. It builds on what you’ve already established: company history, customer base, strengths, and unique capabilities, resources, and assets.
Futurecasting: Your vision provides a picture of what your business looks like in the future.
Inspiring: Your vision engages language that inspires. It creates a vivid image in people’s heads that provokes emotion and excitement. It creates enthusiasm and poses a challenge.
Motivating: Your vision clarifies the direction in which your organization needs to move and keeps everyone pushing forward to reach it.
Purpose-driven: Your vision gives employees a larger sense of purpose, so they see themselves as building a cathedral instead of laying stones.