Be a Visionary Leader

By Carmine Gallo

Extraordinary leaders, managers, entrepreneurs, educators, and professionals create an emotional connection with their listeners by articulating a vision so bright, so magnificent, the rest of us cannot help but come along for the ride.

Build a Vision Not a Statement

Don't confuse vision with a mission statement. A mission statement is a long, convoluted paragraph, drafted by multiple teams of C-suite executives, vice presidents, and directors over the course of hours or days that is destined to be posted somewhere in the office, but largely forgotten. I've never met an executive or employee who has been able to recite the company's mission statement. I ask all the time just for a kick. It never happens.

A vision, on the other hand, must be memorable and must have impact. Therefore, it has to be simple and profound. The challenge is, of course, attaining both. So how do you do it? By keeping your vision to ten words or less.

Sell It - Fast!

The folks at Sequoia Capital, the prominent venture firm behind such companies as Cisco, Google, and Apple, call it "the one-liner": a concise statement that tells people what you do. Condensing your vision into ten words or less reflects your command of the business and your market. As one venture capitalist told me, "If you can't say it in ten words or less, I'm not investing, I'm not buying, I'm not coming on board, I'm not leasing you space. Period."

It might sound harsh, but this venture capitalist makes a good point. We all have audiences that we need to influence. Whether they are customers, employees, landlords, bankers, or investors, they want to understand you and your message - fast! They need to "get it" so they can decide whether your company, product, or service is worth exploring.

Articulate Your Pitch

We make immediate judgments about people all the time. Do we want to do business with them, buy their product, lend them money, or join them as employees? In other words - do we want to be a part of their world? We make these judgments based on a person's ability to articulate a vision clearly and simply.

Imagine sitting in the offices of Sequoia Capital when two young college grads walked in and asked for money. Sergey Brin and Larry Page had no business experience and no track record in starting companies, but they offered something even more powerful: a one-line vision. Brin and Page told the venture capitalists, "We deliver the world's information in one click." That was it. The investors immediately "got it" and put their money behind a company called Google. This was the vision that set the stage for a conversation that would change the way most of us get our information and would make billionaires of its founders.

When Sandy Lerner and Len Bosack walked into Sequoia Capital to seek investors for a new company called Cisco Systems, they could have said something like "Based on IP/TCP protocol, we build routers, switches, and hubs that will take data and blah, blah, blah." But instead they said just three words: "We network networks."

It was simple but profound - especially at the time when computers were linked to each other within intra-networks, but the networks themselves had no way of talking to each other. With that one-liner, the partners at Sequoia got it immediately, funded Cisco, and the company went on to transform the way we use the internet to live, work, play, and learn.

It's the power of your words that will ultimately feed your audience's imagination and encourage them to back your vision and values. If you can articulate a compelling vision of the world that is specific, concise, and memorable, you will not only have grabbed their attention, but you will have captured their hearts. And where their hearts lead, their minds are sure to follow.

Carmine Gallo is a communications coach for the world's most admired brands. His book, Fire Them Up! contains insights from top business leaders who inspire through the language of motivation.