Blog / Time Management
Lee Woodward, Documenting Your Vision
Every business owner has a vision of how they want their business to look. The difference for those who succeed in making that vision happen is action.
Real Estate Academy CEO Lee Woodward worked with high achiever Dan Neylan, from Dowling & Neylan, to take all the aspects of his business plan from his head and document those ideas in a plan. It will be used as Mr Neylan’s agency bible and passed on to his team to show how he wants them to operate when representing his business.
In explaining the process involved in coaching Mr Neylan through creating his business vision document, Mr Woodward said the key was to think everything through before trying to make it work.
“I made him [Dan Neylan] over-engineer a business plan so that he would ask himself the tough questions before trying to get a group of people around him to believe in the vision,” Mr Woodward explained.
“Dan Neylan is a professional. He wanted to transfer that vision back through his team, but my point to him was ‘show me it’s real’,” he added, saying a vision is not useful if only contained in one person’s mind. “Lots of people don’t have the ability to communicate their vision back through to their team. I think if you can’t see it and explain it, then probably the team can’t either. If someone can explain it really well, it means they understand it, but if they can’t explain it, they don’t understand it.”
Making your Vision Happen
Instead of thinking along the lines of, ‘if I wish hard enough every day, this will happen,’ Mr Woodward advocates a more proactive approach in business - action. “Wishing, great. Take some action and make it happen!” he said.
The crux of this issue is whether or not there is a real business behind the vision. “So many people have the jargon, but not the behaviour,” Mr Woodward said, explaining that taking the idea out of your head and putting something on paper was the real test. “Could you sit down and go through it for hours and really think it through properly? It’s a great exercise,” he added.
And Mr Neylan did just that. He spent many late nights and time away from his business documenting everything from a company description and capability statement, to where Dowling & Neylan sits in the marketplace, financials and what he wants the business to look like in five year’s time.
“There’s something really powerful about going through that process. I think he’s seen the results from such a solid piece of information,” Mr Woodward said, but added when Mr Neylan presented the vision document to his staff their attitude was “so what”, showing how important it is to be able to relate the vision to others. Now his team has bought into the plan and Mr Neylan uses it as a recruitment tool.
Key Points when Writing a Vision Document
- Be clear on the categories that count – and the ones that don’t. For example in a sales team, the team laws are veryimportant
- What are the guidelines set around the vision - you can’t play the game unless you know the rules.
- What were the previous year’s figures - you need to know this to set the numbers for this year. “A real estate sales team can just pick $1 million in sales because it sounds good, but if there’s not a $1 million worth of sales in their area, that’s just pie in the sky stuff,” Mr Woodward explained.
- Be specific and detailed about what actions are needed to make the vision happen
- Keep it simple so everyone can understand their role in the process.
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