Episode 11: People-Forward Leadership Podcast: Creating Your Team's Shared Vision
Hello, hello, welcome to the People-Forward Leadership™ podcast!
In today's episode of the podcast, we're going to talk about something I think leaders often overlook – crafting a shared vision that articulates your team's unique promise of value. In many ways, it’s like your team’s brand. Without a clear promise, you're just gathering bodies, not hearts and minds passionate about your mission. Hiring the right people starts with knowing your promise. It's not just about skills, it's about finding people who share your dream. That helps to build that empowered ecosystem we all want on our teams.
Creating a shared vision is a part of building an "empowered ecosystems." If you've been following this podcast, you'll remember we talked about this in episode 6, where we explored building team accountability and gave some tips for that. But today I want to share how creating a clear shared vision actually forms the foundation that makes an empowered ecosystem possible.
And without a shared vision, an empowered ecosystem simply can't function effectively. Research from Gallup shows that organizations with high employee engagement (which often stems from a clear shared vision) are 21% more profitable than those with poor engagement. Engaged employees are committed to a vision and feel they're playing a valuable role in helping to achieve it. This commitment makes employees more productive, with organizations reporting 22% higher productivity when engagement is high.
Think about it – a clear promise keeps you and your team members anchored, focused on what you're really here to do. It's not just about checking boxes or meeting quotas. It's about understanding your unique contribution to the larger mission.
It’s also beneficial for your and your team’s relevancy inside of the organization. For example, what happens when budget decisions are being made and your team has no idea how to showcase their value within the organization? What happens when the organization needs to conduct layoffs, and your department is unable to demonstrate its contribution to the organization’s bottom line? Or what if you find yourself in a position where your company has been acquired and you need to explain and prove why your team needs to be retained as is?
When your team has a strong vision and promise it helps the team build a sense of unity, cohesion, and pride. A shared vision motivates team members by giving them a sense of purpose and direction. A team’s promise helps the team gain recognition for its achievements, both internally and externally. Without a shared vision and promise you can limit career progression because your contributions to successful team may go unnoticed. It can negatively impact performance because your team may feel disengaged, which could also lead to reputation damage to the organization. After all, a dissatisfied team member won’t speak well of your leadership or the organization on a whole if they lack purpose and focus.
So I ask you: If your team could talk, what would it say it's here to do? Not just the technical aspects, but the deeper purpose?
People today want to work for something that matters, something they can believe in. The workplace has evolved dramatically. Back in the day, work was just work, right? You clocked in, did your job, clocked out. But now, work is about meaning, balance, alignment with personal values. Your team members want to know that their daily efforts connect to something meaningful.
I mean, have you ever invited someone on a trip without telling them where you're going? Try it sometime and watch what happens. They’re going to first ask you, "Where are we headed?” Before they can commit to the journey, they need to know the destination.
Your team is no different. If you're asking people to join you in doing important work, they need a compelling destination – a vision that excites them and gives meaning to their daily efforts. When they have that clear vision, they become invested not just with their time and skills, but with their hearts and minds.
I was working with a leader in the Pharma industry recently who was struggling with team cohesion. Her team members were all talented individually, but they weren't rowing in the same direction. When I asked her what her team's unique promise of value was, she looked at me blankly. "We do what the organization tells us to do," she said. And that's when I knew we had work to do.
What was fascinating was how quickly things changed once she worked with her team to create a shared vision. They decided their unique promise was to "translate complex data into actionable insights that drive strategic decisions." Once they had that clarity, her team members started to see and feel the value in their work and contributions to the team and the organization on a whole. They started taking more initiative wondering in what other ways could they “translate complex data into actionable insights.” They started solving problems collaboratively through the lens of their unique promise. That's the power of connecting vision to an empowered ecosystem!
As I said, your shared vision and promise – your team's brand, if you will – creates your reputation throughout the organization. So you want to be intentional about crafting it to ensure it highlights your collective skills, experience, and values. Think about what makes your team distinctive. Are you known for innovation? Reliability? Exceptional customer service? Deep technical expertise? Bringing diverse perspectives together? Or translate complex data into actionable insights?
Your shared vision will influence how you see yourself, how your team sees its work, how the organization perceives you, and ultimately how effectively you deliver results. And here's the empowering part – this is within your control. You get to craft this narrative together.
I always encourage leaders to gather input widely when developing this shared vision. Ask questions like:
"What is the promise of our team?”
"What would our clients or internal customers say about the value we provide?"
"What would team members say about why our work matters?"
Then look for patterns, words that resonate, and descriptions that feel authentically true to who the team is and aspires to be.
This doesn't have to be a formal, lengthy mission statement. In fact, the most powerful team visions can often be expressed in just a sentence or two. But they should be clear enough that everyone on the team can understand, remember, and connect with them.
A technology team I know defined their shared vision as: "We make complex systems simple for everyday users." Straightforward, right? But it completely transformed how they approached their work. That clarity led to more autonomy, more proactive problem-solving, and ultimately an empowered ecosystem where the leader could focus on strategy rather than day-to-day operations.
You can look to other companies for examples of this.
Take Warby Parker, an eyewear company. Their promise is “to inspire and impact the world with vision, purpose, and style.” Think of it as your team’s North Star – the guiding light that helps everyone navigate decisions, priorities, and how they show up every day to do their work. As a leader, it will also help you to be the steward of that guiding light for your team.
If you’ve seen the movie Drumline, it provides such a great analogy. The movie focuses on a band at a historically Black university. The band had a motto: "One band, one sound." This phrase was designed to articulate that while everyone played different instruments and were exceptional musicians individually, it wasn't just about individual excellence. It was about the collective "sound" the band produced that differentiated who they were and how they would succeed. The band leader’s job was to foster that promise.
As a leader, each member of your team will bring exceptional talent, but the key isn't just about creating individual superstars. It's about creating a powerful team that delivers results in your organization. You become "one band, one sound" by creating a shared vision where everyone has a part, a responsibility to the success of the collective. When that shared vision is clear, your team members naturally develop a sense of accountability to each other, not just to you as the leader.
So here are a few practical steps to help you get started with creating your shared vision and unique promise:
First, schedule dedicated time with your team to explore this topic. This isn't something you can rush through in the last five minutes of a staff meeting. Give it the importance it deserves.
Second, ask powerful questions that get below the surface. Beyond what you do, explore why you do it. Ask how you approach your work differently than others might. And most importantly ask, "What's our unique promise of value?" This question gets to the heart of what makes your team special.
Third, listen for themes and patterns. What words or concepts keep coming up? What energizes people when they talk about their best work as a team?
Fourth, draft something together and test it. Does it feel authentic? Does it inspire? Does it differentiate?
And finally, use your shared vision consistently – in team meetings, one-on-ones, when communicating with stakeholders, and especially when making difficult decisions. A vision that's crafted but not lived quickly loses its power.
When everyone understands not just what they're building, but why it matters and how their specific team approaches it uniquely – that's when magic happens. When your team operates from that place of clarity and conviction, there's no limit to what you can achieve together. That's how you build a truly empowered ecosystem where people thrive.
That’s it for this episode. Thanks so much for joining me and until next time, keep leading people forward. I'll see you soon.
