Michael Nichols | Leadership Made Simple

Leadership Made Simple

Creating Your Business Vision

Write Create Business Vision Michael Nichols Simple Leadership

Early in my career, I experienced a number of incredibly difficult challenges in a relatively short period of time. I know you’ve been there too.

Although my team was experiencing record-setting achievements, relationships were strained and my influence was dwindling. I couldn’t make sense of it. And I didn’t understand why my colleagues resented my passion for my work, my aggressive goals, and the long hours I put in.

I loved my work and I loved the outcomes. I loved my team and how they were growing. But it never occurred to me that my passion, energy, and achievements would intimidate those around me. After all, I was laser-focused on improving the organization we were all part of.

Their fear morphed into resentment. I began pushing harder, defending the vision and strategy, and reacting to challenges. As you might imagine, none of this improved the situation. In fact, it made matters worse.

It should have been obvious

Finally, an administrator shared with me what should have been obvious – “Michael, your team doesn’t trust you. Some don’t even like you.”

This feedback was extremely painful for me to accept and even more difficult for me to understand and process. I was in denial. I simply could not bring myself to see from their perspective. Yet I was convinced that the work environment was not sustainable – for me or for my team.

The decision

So, on the recommendation of a friend, I hired an executive coach to help me work through life and business planning, priority management, and decision-making.

This decision was a life-changer for me. In fact, Sarah (my wife) and I recently spent an evening with several of our friends – they sat in the restaurant and joked about how differently I now approach my life and work.

What vision can do for you

Most organizations have a vision statement somewhere in a file or on a conference room wall. Yet, unfortunately, these vision statements seldom serve as an energizing guide toward exponential growth and remarkable success for the organization.

A vision is energizing. It’s enlivening. Vision is the guiding motivation for all great human efforts. I get that. My problem was not vision – I didn’t understand how to get focused and stay focused on the vision. I was not communicating vision effectively.

To address these challenges, I developed a Business Vision tool to help me think through and write out my vision. My experience creating a life plan and a business vision, regularly reviewing them, and updating them, has been transformational. These documents have kept me on track as my family, friends, career, and other interests have grown. My life and work are fast moving. And when work gets hectic, my business vision and plans get me back on the path to my envisioned destination.

The challenge was – I spent more than $30,000 working with a coach. And I didn’t want you to have to do the same.

So I wrote a book

Realizing the importance and potential of the business vision tool for leaders in diverse markets, I have compiled my experiences and the process into a simple, step-by-step book.

In reality, Creating Your Business Vision is less a book and more a career planning experience. I intentionally made it short so you could read it in one sitting. For a limited time, you can get a free copy of Creating Your Business Vision by submitting the form below:

Click here to download a free copy of Creating Your Business Vision.

In the book, I will take you through:

  1. The story of a struggling leader and how to find clarity on what matters most in your work.
  2. The basics of vision and how to create a career, position, team, or organizational vision.
  3. A four-step process for identifying where you are NOW, and how to get from there to where you want to be.
  4. A step-by-step process for leading your team through vision development
  5. Planning templates, Word documents and PDF documents, that will make it easier for you to create your plan and keep it up-to-date.

You can do it too

I now have greater clarity and purpose than ever before in my work. And I’m able to create very specific plans to move toward the enormous goals of my vision – daily, weekly, quarterly.

Creating my business vision has been one of the best business decisions I’ve ever made. It will be for you too!

Creating Your Business Vision Book

Click here to download a free copy of Creating Your Business Vision.

Want to Purchase a Copy?

You can buy the book in your favorite format from your favorite retailer.

eBook
Kindle | Nook

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Paperback 
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Free Gift

What you think, matters to me. It helps me to continue to improve content and resources for you and many others like you. So I’d love to hear your thoughts about the book – what you liked, what didn’t make sense, what impacted you, etc.

If you’ll give me your feedback using one of the options below, I will send you a free copy of the popular Creating Your Business Vision Template – an exclusive companion resource for this book.

To share your feedback with me…

  1. Leave a review on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. If you don’t do anything else, do this! There are a lot of books out there. And the ones that spread do so because people keep talking about them. When you tell a friend about Creating Your Business Vision or leave a review, it does more than you will ever know.
  2. Comment on this post.

Then, email me and I will send you the Creating Your Business Vision Template.

Thank you so much for your continued support of my new book! It means the world to me.

Now, let me know how I can serve you – Seriously! I am looking forward to hearing about your success!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. I love this book. Very practical and easy to read. Many great ides and tips. I will recommend this to all of my employees.

    Reply

  3. Any business without a vision will fail.Thanks for the free download. Question- why aren’t the other free downloads promoted on your site note working?

    Reply

  7. Creating a business of your own is everyone’s dream, but not many of us have management or business degrees from top B schools, all we have is a Dream. Thank you for giving us such books to hep us achieve our goals.

    Reply

  11. Dear Michael, thank you so much for sharing these highly meaningful insights. A real source of inspiration. Much appreciated.

    Reply

  13. The book does appear to offer interesting perspectives and tit-bits. Would love to read it.

    Reply

  16. Are Direction and destination part of the vision or do we outline the direction and destination before we plan a Vision ? I just signed up and read your thoughts!

    Reply

  18. This is a great book that every business person of any kind should have! Whether you’re just getting started or need to take the time to refresh your vision, this book has all the helpful tools you need to get moving in the right direction. Much of what he shares translates well for pastors looking for help with creating vision for their churches as well. Highly recommended!

    Reply

  19. Michael lays out the steps to Creating Your Business Vision
    in a simple, easy to understand way. A
    half hour of reading can change the rest of your life if properly applied. The
    concepts in this book are essential for long term success not only in business,
    but also in our careers, teams, and personal lives. A lack of planning leads to
    mediocrity or total failure in the long term, but a well-developed and properly executed
    business vision leads to greatness. So it’s time to ask yourself if you want to
    stay on the path of mediocrity, or are ready to start down the path of
    greatness with a quality business vision. If you choose the latter, Michael is
    ready to show you the steps of Creating Your Business Vision.

    Reply

  20. Simple and effective! Many books on vision spend way to many words telling you what to do. In Creating Your Business Vision (which is about more than just business) , Michael gets straight to the point with simple questions to be answered by you and your team. He includes relevant examples – but not an overwhelming list of how others have done it. I am preparing to do some planning with my team in the next few weeks and this book is the guide I will be using.

    Reply

  21. Many businesses and individuals spent a great deal of time and energy creating a massive document to articulate their vision, mission statement, or goals only to see that document sit on the shelf until the next year when someone thinks about it again. Unfortunately that meaningless effort clouds most of our opinions and thoughts about spending valuable time on our vision.

    But, in fact, it is likely the most important effort we can put forth as a business or individual. In his new book, Creating Your Business Vision, author Michael Nichols has taken the drudgery out of writing a business vision by presenting a short and well-written instructional manual. It is a simple read because it is so compact, but it is packed with informative methods and tools to aid you in creating your business vision. Two things really impressed me about the book and the author.

    First, Michael does not write his vision and then forgets about it. He spends some time each week revisiting his vision to keep it alive and important. Secondly, Michael emphasizes the process can be used in all aspects of life and is not limited to just business purposes. As a retired school administrator and business leader, I have struggled many times in the past with formulating a vision. My only wish is that Michael had written this book earlier in my career because I found it to be extremely helpful.

    Reply

  25. Michael,
    Thank you for both your generosity and authenticity. After viewing yoyr link, I see this as a valuable resource that I can share. Especially on my website: sheercareercontent.com

    Reply

  33. I was more interested in the basics of vision and how to create a great team,
    or organizational vision. In my Business School a class in Organizational Behaviour
    taught me about vision, mission and conviction. Vision can’t be contained in any particular culture; it reaches into every culture and changes it by changing the lives of the people within. It doesn’t just abandon the old and replace it with the new.
    Instead, it transforms it from the inside out. I also wrote my business vision.
    But I also wrote it out by hand first.

    “Creating your business vision “is a good book and I find the reading very informative and insightful. I liked the core convictions, core purpose and Mount Everest goals very much.

    Reply

  34. Hi Michael!
    I tried to get the copy of your book, “Creating Your Business Vision” but the website stopped in its tracks because I am already a subscriber to your newsletter. Am I missing something?
    – Crystal Rector (Crystal the Pet Nanny)

    Reply

  35. Hi Michael!

    We are connected on Twitter, and I am now visiting your site. As I was reading “Creating Your Business Vision” above, one sentence really grabbed my attention:

    “But it never occurred to me that my passion, energy, and achievements would intimidate those around me.”

    That is so true! As a fairly new entrepreneur, I have been shocked by it. It made me smile to see you say the same thing. I have certainly learned that everyone will not celebrate your success – succeed anyway!

    Keep up the great work! I

    Cheers!

    Reply

  36. Thanks for the book, I’ve gone through it – some interesting
    ideas and suggestions. I like the idea of core convictions being portable. The
    core convictions section might also induce cognitive dissonance in many people
    esp the question “If I had enough money to retire, would I continue to
    live my core convictions?”

    Writing the vision by hand may scare a lot of people who
    have gotten used to typing on their computers or iPads 😉

    Were you at all influenced by the vision quest from the
    medicine wheel when writing the eBook?

    Great vivid writing. Simple.

    Reply

    • Thank you for your thoughtful response, Steve. Like many people, I also typed my business vision. But I wrote it out by hand first. This is just what worked for me.

      That seems to be the beauty of the eBook – you can do either. Fill in the blanks in the book itself. Or open it (print it out) and use it as a guide to type a vision document.

      Reply

  37. Hi Michael, Thanks for this free ebook. It just arrived on time as I am currently building my team. It’s really a great help. Cheers 🙂

    Reply

  38. “But it never occurred to me that my passion, energy, and achievements would intimidate those around me.” It is interesting to note that this may be true for one who is striving to reach individual goals.

    Reply

  39. “Creating a vision statement” can be invigorating. I have worked for others and their vision statements I am understanding how important it is to have my own vision statement. Thank you.

    Reply

  42. Yes I have done the same stuff myself. Following and being influenced by Peter Senge Robert Fritz, Peter Block and Chris Agyrys. it seems to go on deaf ears though. one generation take it in but then do little until the next generation come along take it in get excited but do nothing. Even when you give it a way for free. On the other hand I find that if I am out there on a bus in a pub… and get to talking about getting what people really want from life , I can be a catalyst towards them getting what they want. In the new year it is my intention to work with the lesser accomplished people in our community those that try but fail or cant afford big consultant fees. I will do this to help people grow. I wonder how it will go down. i hope you take into account those people at the bottom of the pile who might get some of this stuff off you. Best of luck in your venture but be true to people

    Reply

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    Reply

  45. Hi Michael:
    I just read your ebook, Creating Your Business Vision. I find the reading very informative and insightful. I liked the core convictions, core purpose, the Mount Everest goals, and of course the vivid description. I plan to complete the exercises tonight. Thank you so much.

    Reply

    • Thanks my friend. After you work through the tool, email me and let me know about your experience. I’ve enjoyed connecting with you on LinkedIn. Let me know how I can serve you as you revisit your vision.

      Reply

  46. Thanks a million Michael. I look forward to reading your book and acting on the inspiration it offers : )

    Reply

  48. Thanks Mr Michael for such  a splendid, enthusiastic,zealous and intensely story and hence above all inspirational. I have really liked your enthusiasm,the great interest you had in realizing the benefits and the secrets of setting up your business vision plan  which many of us don’t and I personally face challenges which really project on me . I have had dwindled life since i joined my company,having  false impression   of reality but above all working in society having  colleagues with begrudge minds , in actual sense i love my work,but am not valued as to the strength and love i put in as i some times even inspire my friends about loving what their work,even spending some money to buy some necessary tools,materials,transport costs,airtime amongst other things,thus i do it because i like what i do but what pains me most is that am less paid ,claim fee not given,payments made not in time however i have had dwindled life experience in my job career but i ‘m enthusiastic and i have hope in my life since i live a positive life and i get inspired every day hence since i have come a cross Mr Michael the Author who writes and inspires, teaches great and wonderful articles to wards the development of human kind . However I look forward to learning how to write good and fascinating business vision plan which will help me so much in this tender Month of Jan and sensational year 2013 with bigger plan.       

    Reply

    • Absolutely. Open one of the daily email updates you receive. Scroll to the bottom of the email and click on the eBook link. It should take you directly to the download. Let me know if you have trouble.

      Reply

  51. thank you so much for this great inspiration to write the vision and make it plain. I always talked about that I was going to right down my vision. Then I read your EBook and I started to jot down little notes here and there and next thing you know I’ve completed my whole vision rough draft. I have to tweak it a some more with my team but it’s definitely a huge leap n the right direction. So I thank you so much = and also for the encouraging emails too! They are helping me to become more savvy on the business relationship aspect of it all. i pray that God continues to bless whatever you and your wife put you all hands to do.

    Reply

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