We pointed out that her exclamations were cueing her for failure, and asked her to think of a positive, realistic statement she could say, which would be a better cue for her success. She thought about it, and then said, “I know this subject so well. I’ve got this.” We’ve worked with this woman for several sessions over 3 years, and this was her best interview.
The next time you’re about to do an activity you are unsure or uncomfortable about, think of how you can cue yourself. Instead of “I don’t know how I’m going to do this!” you can say, “I actually have all the resources I need to get this done.” Instead of “Oh, I hate this, I wish I could get out of doing this talk,” find your own version of “I’ve got this.”
Cueing to Shape the Perceptions of Others
There is one final way to apply cueing. It is especially important for the workplace. How can you cue others so that they perceive you and your work the way that you want them to? In other words, what words would you like people to use to describe you when you are not in the room?
This is something we first heard about from Wall Street CEO Carla Harris, who writes about it in her book, Expect to Win.9 She tells the story of how, early in her career, her boss said to her, “Carla, I don’t think you’ll last on Wall Street. You’re just not tough enough.”
Now, as an African American woman who put herself through Harvard Business School, she knew she was as tough as anyone, but she realized that wasn’t others’ perception of her. So she launched a systematic campaign to use the word “tough” to describe herself in casual conversations. When a colleague would ask her opinion about something, she would say, “Are you sure you want my feedback? You know I can be really tough.” After 3 months she knew she had succeeded when she overheard two people at work talking in a hallway about her. One was saying, “I’m going to show Carla this presentation and see what she thinks of it.” The other said, “Are you sure you want to show it to her? She’s so tough!”
Carla Harris suggests that you think of three adjectives you want people to use to describe you when you are not in the room. These adjectives should be truly congruent with who you are, and also qualities that are valued in your workplace. Use them in conversation to describe yourself whenever possible.
For example, if “strategic” is one of the words you choose, then the next time someone asks you to work on a project you can say, “This is great. I’m a strategic thinker and I can really apply that skill on this project.”
If the words you choose are results-oriented then you could say, “I’m glad you’re asking me to take the lead in this report. I’m all about results, and this report will definitely have an impact.”
The mistake many people make is assuming their work speaks for itself. They believe if they are strategic, then others will notice. If they are punctual, then others will perceive it. To talk about it seems like some kind of bragging. They don’t seem to realize that most people often don’t notice much about their co-workers. Even worse, one screw-up often determines the perceptions of others far more powerfully than a dozen assignments done well. The reality is, people are forming their impression of you based on fragmentary information – including gossip and their own inbuilt biases – which might be quite wrong. Of course it is vital that you genuinely possess and use the qualities you tell others you possess!
A client from Asia recently told us she applied this technique with the word “innovative.” She was able to measure its success by noting that “innovative” appeared on her performance review a few months after she started using the term to describe herself.
Exercise
Try this now as an exercise for yourself. Write down three adjectives you would like people to use to describe you when you are not in the room:
1.
2.
3.
Now imagine your boss or a colleague asking you a question, and think about how you might answer using one of your adjectives. Obviously you don’t have to use all three of your chosen adjectives in every conversation, but repetition is important. When you repeat the same adjectives over and over, after a while people start to associate the quality in relation to you. They can’t help it.
You can do this same exercise for your ideas or your goals at work. If you are part of a team with common objectives, make sure everyone uses the same adjectives to best spread the perception you want. Here are some examples:
Adjective: game-changer. Used in a conversation: “This project is a game-changer. It’s going to give millions of people too poor to have a bank account a way to save for their children’s futures.”
Adjective: affordable. Used in a conversation: “The best thing about this program is that it’s affordable. In fact, within 2 years it will save several millions over the old way of doing things.”
Now that you know how to effectively use cueing, you’ll want to use this powerful tool every time you communicate strategically.
Chapter 15
Vision
Vision is the single most important element for creating transformation through communication. Vision draws an organization, a community or a nation forward together, and it does so in a very specific way. Here’s how we define it:
A vision is a picture of an imagined future, a future people desire for themselves, and a future that will take collective effort to create.
When these three elements combine, you have the ingredients for storytelling about how we will get from an unsatisfactory present to a desired future that with effort we can attain. This is the essence of vision: it’s how we write the next chapter of our collective destiny.
The key to a powerful vision is simply this: People who hear your story of the future want to make it their story of the future too. The world’s great visionaries express the dreams and aspirations of their people. You can see these principles brought to light in the words of four great visionaries of the twentieth century:
Martin Luther King Jr: “I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls…”
Mahatma Gandhi: “A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”
Nelson Mandela: “We fight for and visualize a future in which all shall, without regard to race, color, creed or sex, have the right to vote and be voted into all elective organs of state.”
Aung San Suu Kyi: “I don’t believe in people just hoping. We work for what we want. I always say that one has no right to hope without endeavor…we are confident that we will get to the negotiation table…”
These three elements – a future picture that people desire, requiring effort – must be conveyed as the story of the audience’s journey to make the vision a reality. When people see the story unfolding in their mind, they begin to grasp that it is possible: racial equality for all Americans; votes for every citizen in South Africa; independence from Britain and self-determination for Indians; democracy in Myanmar. If it can be imagined, it can happen. This is how vision inspires and motivates us.
Holding that image in our mind’s eye stimulates and feeds our natural desire. It’s like blowing gently on a single flame in a campfire, adding the oxygen that leads to greater combustion. The truth is, each of us contains a tremendous amount of potential energy in the force of our will. We call it will power. Vision ignites that energy. When we work towards a vision, we feel alive, engaged and happy.
Vision can be personal as well as organizational. Individual artists, students, entrepreneurs, professionals such as doctors and lawyers – all can be inspired and motivated to succeed by a vision of who they want to become or what they want to accomplish. This might be as straightforward as a painter imaging what their canvas will look like when complete, or an inventor conceptualizing a new design for a technology that does not yet exist.
Getting clear about your creative or professional vision channels and unleashes your energy towards creating it. It’s like a mental gr
appling hook. Imagine you are Batman – or some other flightless superhero. You face a high smooth wall that’s impossible to climb. You throw your hook up over the wall, it hooks itself to the top, and then you climb up the attached line. Vision does that for each of us: it helps you reach seemingly unattainable goals, one step at a time.
Some people use a visual of their vision to motivate them. If your vision is to help educate children in Africa, then a photograph of African children reading at their desks would be a visual reminder you could place on your wall or as your computer wallpaper. Another motivational tool is to share your vision with others. The act of speaking about your vision fires your imagination, and when the person you are speaking to responds with enthusiasm and interest, it can further fuel your own passion. Social media is another great way to share your vision. By putting the story of what you are seeking to accomplish out into the world, you place some pressure on yourself to actually do it.
Two ambitious sisters we know, Cidalia and Natalia, are great examples of this. They decided they wanted to climb Mt Kilimanjaro together. Both women are professional business leaders in their forties and have never done anything like this before. They decided not just to do the trek for the sake of the adventure, but to also turn it into a fundraiser for DC Children’s Hospital. So they set up social media sites and sent emails to all their friends, and raised over $250,000. Their vision grew into something with great purpose and momentum, but putting it out into the world also made it impossible for them to turn back. (We are happy to add the sisters made it to the summit and down again safely).
Vision Statements
If you go to any corporation or organization’s website, you are likely to run across a vision statement. Everybody knows it’s important to have one. Yet there seems to be great lack of clarity about what a vision statement is, who it is for, why it’s important. Vision gets confused with mission, and both are sometimes confused with strategy. Sometimes what is written on the corporate website makes no sense at all, and you can tell the organization has only displayed a “vision statement” because somebody told them they needed one.
Vision, mission and strategy can be well explained by visualizing a simple graphic created by Simon Sinek, the author of Start with Why.10 Sinek’s idea is that successful businesses and organizations know their purpose, their “why.” But he says when most companies communicate with their customers and clients, they start by explaining what they do (“We build great computers. Want to buy one?”). A few companies might explain how they do what they do (“We combine innovation in design with excellence in customer service”). Not very motivating, Sinek concludes. Why would you buy from this company and not from any other?
When you start with your why – explaining the purpose and the values that drive you – you will draw customers to you who see their personal values aligned with yours. Continuing the example of computer companies, Sinek says that Apple’s marketing starts with why. He paraphrases Apple’s vision like this: “In everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo.” Then he moves to the how: “We do this by building cutting-edge technology that is sleek, intuitive and easy to use,” and finally he gets to the what: “We just happen to build great computers. Want to buy one?” The result, according to Sinek, is that Apple has loyal customers who see Apple’s values as being similar to their own, and so people will buy a computer or an MP3 player or a phone from Apple without hesitation. “People don’t buy what you make, they buy what you believe,” he concludes. (For the record, we would like to note that on its website in early 2015, Apple does not have a clear official vision statement.)
Sinek uses a “Golden Circle” to explain his idea of communicating vision. The golden circle consists of three concentric rings, with the Why on the inside, then the How in the middle, and finally the What on the outer rim. Smart companies communicate from the inside out – starting with why. These three rings correspond directly to our topic:
The Why is the Vision Statement
The How is the Mission Statement
The What is the Strategy
Now we can illustrate vision, mission and strategy with the example of an organization we know well, the global environment group WWF. Their vision, articulated on their international office’s website is:
…to build a future where people live in harmony with nature.
This phrase matches well the three characteristics we identified of a good vision: a picture of a future that people desire and that will take collective effort to create. It’s not a particularly strong visual image, but it’s catchy.
Next, WWF’s mission statement explains how they are going to achieve their vision of this future world:
Our mission is to conserve the world’s biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable.
And their strategy then explains the specific plan of action they are following to fulfill their mission and attain their vision:
1. Conserving the Earth’s most outstanding places.
2. Conserving species that are particularly important for habitat or for people.
This strategy is then articulated through the list of specific places and species they seek to conserve, and for each, the specific goals they will work towards achieving. In this way, everything the organization does fits into the overall vision they are seeking to create.
Who is your organization’s vision statement for? Many people mistakenly think a vision statement is primarily for outsiders and supporters, so that they can get a sense of what the organization is all about. It is true that a clear vision statement does this, and indeed, it’s a great tool for finding and creating allies, advocates or customers who want to align themselves with your organization. But this is not the most important role of a vision statement.
First and foremost, a vision statement is for the leaders and staff within the organization. Vision provides them with a sense of direction and purpose. That sense of purpose is what guides everything an organization does and says. Carter Roberts, head of WWF US, once told us that when an organization is created, its founders stamp it with a specific DNA, and that DNA runs through the organization even generations later. Following this metaphor, one could say an organization’s vision is the genetic code of its DNA that governs how it expresses itself in the world.
Without a clear vision, an organization’s energies can become dissipated as it tries to do too much, works in too many directions, or simply loses its sense of purpose. A clear vision statement helps to keep an organization focused and coherent. In addition – and this is really crucial for any organization – a strong vision makes it possible for strategy and even the mission to be re-evaluated from time to time to make sure they are still aligned.
To sum up, getting your vision statement right is invaluable for an organization externally – in terms of how others perceive and interact with you – and internally – in terms of how you expend resources, preserve your integrity, adapt to change and look to the future.
Crafting Your Vision Statement
In crafting a vision statement, keep our definition of a strong vision in mind (a picture of the future that people desire, requiring collective effort). Add to that the “Four Cs” that make for a good meme (Concise, Concrete, Connected and Catchy). The problem with many vision statements is they get long-winded and bogged down in details. This makes them less memorable and less clear. You want a vision that anyone can hear once and remember.
Exercise
Here’s a list of vision statements from a variety of organizations. As you go through, answer these questions:
• Which vision statements seem strongest to you?
• Which of the “Four Cs” of a good meme does each include?
• Overall, does each vision statement leave you with a clear idea about the organization and its corporate DNA?
BBC: To be the most creative organisation in the world.
Human Rights Campaign: Equality f
or everyone
Oxfam: A just world without poverty
Center for Global Development (development think-tank): Ideas to Action: Independent research for global prosperity
Ducks Unlimited: Filling the skies with waterfowl today, tomorrow and forever.
Habitat for Humanity: A world where everyone has a decent place to live.
The Nature Conservancy: Our vision is to leave a sustainable world for future generations.
WWF: Our vision is to build a future where people live in harmony with nature.
Greenpeace: Solutions to deforestation exist. We’re campaigning for zero deforestation globally by 2020.
World Vision: For every child, life in all its fullness; Our prayer for every heart, the will to make it so.
ASPCA: That the United States is a humane community in which all animals are treated with respect and kindness.
Goodwill: Every person has the opportunity to achieve his/her fullest potential and participate in and contribute to all aspects of life.
Save the Children: Our vision is a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation.
Charity: Water believes that we can end the water crisis in our lifetime by ensuring that every person on the planet has access to life’s most basic need – clean drinking water.
Clinton Foundation: To implement sustainable programs that improve access worldwide to investment, opportunity, and lifesaving services now and for future generations.
The Master Communicator's Handbook Page 12
