THE TWELVE PILLARS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Vision: A Pillar of Entrepreneurship Performance

What will your startup look like in 5 years? 10 years?

Founders often devote their entire focus to building their product while visioning tasks get put on hold. This approach makes sense for founders because to make money, a startup needs a product to sell. Financial resources are key to survival. However, there is a fatal downside to postponing the visioning work.

Our research examining key performance pillars of entrepreneurs found that when leaders in a startup spend more time conceiving and developing their vision, the startup is more likely to be successful. So it’s not something startups should retroactively develop.

In this blog, I introduce the Vision Performance Pillar and explain what types of behaviors entrepreneurs need to enact in order to develop a strong vision and outperform their competition.

Vision as an Entrepreneurship Performance Pillar

First, let’s define vision. A vision is an ever-evolving mental conceptualization of the long-term and the highest-level goal of a startup. It is common for leaders to simplify their vision into a statement and post on their website, but it is so much more. It is a dynamic, evolving roadmap for the startup’s future.

The Vision Performance Pillar is a collection of high-performance actions that lead to the development and communication of a strong vision. More simply, performance in the Vision Pillar boils down to a set of human behaviors related to consuming, analyzing, and reasoning with information.

Here is a graphic that explains the difference between a task (the work that needs to be completed), performance (a collection of behaviors), and the outcome (the end output resulting from the behaviors).

What does high performance in the Vision Pillar look like?

Successful startups don’t just write the first thing that comes to mind when articulating their vision. Just like any other task, the quality in which it is completed can range from poor to excellent. The quality of the output (i.e., the final vision) depends on how well the entrepreneurs perform.

Are they performing (behaving) in a way that will lead to the best output?

Here are some examples of Visions behaviors that are common of successful entrepreneurs:

• Connect and integrate concepts
• Identify gaps and analyze unique market opportunities
• Research and learn about industry trends
• Imagine a mental picture or blueprint of the future

Leverage Your Team

Developing a vision does not have to be a task for a single founder. Founders should rely on their team to help grow the vision. With a team, founders can explore multiple perspectives and are more likely to identify potential barriers or challenges earlier in the product development process. Hence, giving your startup a competitive advantage.

For example, my cofounder and I consistently devote time with our team to advance our vision because we know that every member has their own unique lens, and we exploit that. Before ideas or decisions are solidified we gather team feedback, ask the team to poke holes in our arguments, disagree with us, and weigh in with their opinions. The end outcome always comes out stronger than the original because we leveraged the power of multiple minds to conceive a vision.

Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you.

— Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO

Conclusion

Strong visions are critical because they provide a roadmap for startups. Developing a strong vision (and evolving it over time) requires practice and effort — just like any other skill. If you want to learn tips on how to develop your vision, then stay tuned for our next blog.

BONUS: Here is a free worksheet to help you start developing your vision.

Have Questions or Need Advice?

At Blackhawke, we have several I-O psychologists with expertise in entrepreneurship performance and performance management. Feel free to schedule a 15-minute consultation; we’d be happy to provide some advice or answer questions, no strings attached!

About Blackhawke Behavior Science

Want to learn more about building a strong entrepreneurial team and healthy organizational culture? Visit Blackhawke’s Medium publication, From I-O to IPO, or www.blackhawke.io and get social with us on Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, or Twitter!