“The Passion of a shared vision empowers people to transcend beyond petty, negative interactions,” according to Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
When you have a shared vision there is harmony among members of your work team and of your family team. You waste less time arguing about where you are going, and you tend to pull together toward your mutual goals. All this helps with balancing your life, because it saves time and energy.
You do not live on an island. You have needs and responsibilities outside yourself. Therefore, having a shared vision at home and at work makes a lot of sense, and increases your chances of success.
All family members need to buy into the vision. Everyone should be on board, showing mutual respect and a commitment to help one another achieve their individual goals. The same goes for your work team. Without involvement, team members will make no commitment.
It is said that people decide with their heads but commit from their hearts. The problem with most businesses is that they don’t inspire much trust or commitment in the hearts of their employees because they don’t let employees share a vision. CEOs and their employees have problems finding a common sense of purpose. Too often, there’s little trust on either side.
Because they’re working toward goals they feel no stake in, junior-level employees feel that they have no control over their jobs. Several research studies have proved that the mere feeling of having control over your day makes you healthier. This feeling of lack of power plays havoc with the health of junior employees.
If you are a leader in a corporation and would like better productivity from your team, your best bet is to encourage Life Balance for your team members. That means empowering them to capture their creativity, enabling them to perform better and for a longer duration.
Having a shared vision means that you are working with the following in mind:
Being result oriented.
Looking at the common ground and getting a buy-in from all stakeholders.
Seeking commitment, which comes from involvement and understanding.
Balancing the heart and mind. Involvement of heart brings commitment; involvement of mind helps with decisions.
Thinking from the other person’s viewpoint and developing a win-win attitude.
To help you achieve a shared vision ask yourself the following:
Do I use the diverse strengths of all my team members to reach a common objective?
Do I know which direction I’m going? Is my team working from the same map?
(Excerpts from the book, Life Balance, The Sufi way by Azim Jamal & Nido Quebin)