(But a lot of people don’t know the difference)
We’ve all heard strappy, catchy mottos of a ‘vision’:
Achieve your potential (this one always makes me giggle, because I wonder what do you do when you have achieved it? I like to think of potential as never ending, but I digress…)
These are great, snappy, one-liners which are easy to remember and help be a hook for what you do, for what your vision is, but they are not a vision in themselves. If you have a motto and treat it like a vision, you’re using the wrong tool for the job.
And when you use the wrong tool for the job, the job is harder and sometimes impossible to achieve. Who would use a monkey wrench to hammer a nail into the wall? If you don’t have the right tool (a vision) doing its job, it’s going to be harder to achieve.
It’s not often a vision can be summarised so succinctly; great visionaries articulate their visions at length and then have key phrases (like mottos) which serve as a shortcut to the overarching vision. But the vision itself is a picture of what will be created, and a sentence or a few words has seldom, if ever, achieved this. If you know of one, then please share it with me, I’d love to see it 🙂
Top tip: Check – is your vision really a motto? If it is, then it’s a great aide memoir for your vision as long as you have a clear vision of what you want to create and that is shared.
Your vision might also be your mission; to know more about the difference, see my blog about the difference between a vision and mission.
About the Author
Sonia Gill is founder of Heads Up, specialising in supporting Head Teachers and School Leaders create an outstanding school culture. https://ukheadsup.com
photo credit: HikingArtist.com via photopin cc