By Stephen Tweed
What is your vision?
As we have introduced the Strategic Focus newsletter, I’ve been writing to you about Vision Plus Strategy Plus Talent. As a CEO or C-suite leader in home care, part of your role is to communicate your company’s Vision to other members of your team, so everyone is on the same page, and in alignment about what you want to become as a company.
What are you doing to communicate your vision? Do your team members share your vision? How do you know?
I’m writing to you today from the back deck of a lovely home on the shore of the bay near Auckland, New Zealand. Elizabeth and I are visiting with our friend, Robyn Pearce, who is a professional speaker and expert on time management and personal productivity. Elizabeth and I have been traveling around Australia and New Zealand visiting with professional speaker friends, doing some training and consulting for a home care company near Sydney, and exploring this amazing country of New Zealand.
One of the highlights of our work with Sue Mann Nursing and Community Care in Erina, NSW, Australia was seeing their Culture Wall, and reading their 30th anniversary book. This is an amazing company that is one of the largest family-owned home care companies in Australia. We talked a lot with Sue, her son Andrew, and daughter Brooke, about what has made their company so successful. Part of it is how they have created a strong culture in their company by sharing their Mission, Vision, and Values.
Casting Your Vision
One of the things I saw at Sue Mann Nursing was the very visual way they communicate their Mission, Vision, and Values. It begins with
their Culture Wall in the board room, which has photos of important people and events that have guided the company forward. Then they shared their 30th Anniversary Book that they produced to celebrate the growth of the company. This book clearly communicates the culture of the company, and what has been important to their success. And finally, a unique tool they created is a record album-shaped piece highlighting their Mission, Vision, and Values.
Vision Casting is the process of communicating your vision to others so they can help you achieve it. As I have had the privilege of working with many of the leading home care companies across the US and Canada, one of the common denominators is a strong culture created around Mission, Vision, and Values. Each of these leading companies has come up with an innovative way to communicate their vision.
The Bayada Way
Last summer I had breakfast with Mark Baiada, CEO of Bayada Home Health Care. We met at Uncle Bill’s Pancake House in Avalon, New Jersey while we were both having some beach time. As soon as Mark sat down he handed me a unique plastic accordion folded care called “The Bayada Way”. This card summarized the Mission, Vision, and Values of Bayada Home Health and how they share their desired culture. If our breakfast conversation, Mark talked about how he formed the company, and why he felt it is so critical to a leader to create a strong culture in the company.
Mark makes sure all of his employees get a copy of this card, and uses it in a variety of ways to promote the culture of the company and their brand promise.
Put your Vision in a Box
Another creative way to communicate your Mission, Vision, and Values is to put it in a box. Sandi McCann is CEO of Home Care of the
Rockies and a member of our Strategic Growth Mastermind Group. Sandi used a local marketing firm to create a unique gift box containing a coffee mug, and several items to communicate the company’s culture. She had these gift boxes delivered to all of her employees. Then she and her sister produced a video in which they discussed their Mission, Vision, and Values, and why these are important to everyone at Home Care of the Rockies.
Probably a third or more your employees are visual learners. They learn and remember best by seeing the message communicated visually. The others are either auditory learners or kinesthetic learners. Auditory learners learn by hearing, and kinesthetic learners learn by doing. As a leader, you need to think about all three ways of communicating in order for all of your team members to be aware of you Mission, Vision, and Values; to understand what they mean, and to apply these principles in their daily work life.
Visualize your Vision
Take some time right now to go back and look at your Mission, Vision, and Values. Review how you have communicated them to your team members. Look at the visual messages you have sent. Are their new unique, innovative, and inspirational ways you can re-communicate the elements of your culture to your people?
For more insights on how you can use your creativity to cast your vision, stay tuned to Leading Home Care and the Home Care CEO Forum for times and dates for our upcoming Virtual CEO Round Tables. You will also see great examples of how top tier home care companies visualize their vision by attending one of our Private Duty Field Trips.
