Developing Your Personal Vision

Is one of your key challenges typical of what we see from owners and directors within many recruitment businesses  - a desire to scale and grow but your plans are constantly thrown off course?

Quite often, one of the reasons for this is them having made the move from being a great recruiter to now becoming a Director, MD or Owner, but the challenge of growing and scaling a business is completely new territory

Despite these leaders having a 3 to 5 year growth or expansion plan, they are struggling to deliver  these plans. We continually hear:

• “I know what I want, but I don’t know how I’m going to get there”.
• “The day to day demands of business and crisis management is taking up all my time & focus. Stepping back is impossible
• ”An ever changing market is giving me problems breaking the plan down to clear month by month actions & KPI’s.

The result?  Their plan remains a dream, not a roadmap.

So why do these issues occur and on such a consistent basis? Why aren’t their roadmaps being executed?

The answer lies within looking at how you prioritise Personal vision vs Company vision. Whilst you could be forgiven for thinking Company Vison is the underpinning focus and that glue that keeps you on course , it is actually Personal Vision which pushes the drive for plans to be executed, irrespective of  market conditions – even in a global pandemic!

Personal Vision vs Company Vision

You’ve all  heard of vision and mission statements before.  But one of the things we’ve seen on our travels is organisations very much focus on the company mission and the company vision.

Well, we think that’s a mistake. And this is why.

Remember all those times when you were interviewed and asked  “so, where do you want to be 5 years from now?”

Being asked that question by HR or a senior Directors was a check list you could probably fit into the overall culture of the business and won’t throw their highly structured career progression chart into disarray.

Being asked that question by the Owner, The CEO, the overall leader of the business, was a very personal question to make sure their vision is going to be achieved.

As a Leader, it’s the personal vision that drives your business focus

Whether you’re a business of 100 or a business of 5, do you know what you personally want? And by when?. What do you actually want to achieve?

Defining your Personal vision

As leaders, we talk about our Company vision. We say we want our business to achieve X,Y,Z – and that’s all well and good – but we forget to go back one step and define our Personal Vision.

If we don’t personally know where we’re going, it’s hard to say where the business is going and what the plan is.

Without you knowing “ I’d like to have migrated from contingency to pure Executive Search in x,y,z sector, in 3 years” or “ I’d like to retire in 7 years” or  “I’d like my company to be in a position to seek £10m investment in 2 years” – there is no starting point to your plan

It’s all down to what you want.

Once you have clearly defined your personal vision , then it’s the plan that will help you get there

For your Personal vision, what are you seeing in your mind’s eye? What does the future for you, personally look like?

Spending time visioning, thinking about what you want, where you want to go and when you want to achieve it by, are the first steps on the roadmap and defines the blueprint of your plan to becoming an excellent recruitment business.

Planning and Executing your Personal vision

Whether their business consists of 5, 50 or 500 staff,  many of the Owners and senior leaders of the recruitment businesses we work with, tell us  they want to create the structures and process for a highly efficient and growing business.

Yet, most people don’t start off their business planning with Personal vision. They may have a mental picture, but spend more time and give a higher priority creating the Company  vision.

Some years down the line, we meet these owners, and they tell us whilst their business is growing, it’s not where it could be despite all the hard work and talent in the business.

Then they tell us about some of the barriers preventing them from executing their plans, such as:

• Their managers have blind spots and are resistant to risk or change.
• They’re looking for exit and need improved process to realise the value.
• It’s all about cash flow & business today. There is never enough time to plan for tomorrow.
• Their plans for growth but are struggling to create or maintain a culture of excellence.

These problems are happening because way back in the beginning that Personal vision wasn’t clearly defined.

Without the Personal vision, the plan can’t happen and without the plan , you can get thrown off course at many times, by many people, for many different  reasons.  If your Personal vision is not crystal clear, it will be easy to lose focus

But if you know you want to be in a specific area in 3 years, not only will your personal vision motivate you,  that authentic passion you have for it, will in turn motivate your peers , senior leadership team, and in fact all of your employees