Does your right hand know what your left hand is doing and why it is doing it? When assisting businesses and CEOs in improvement efforts, one of my first questions is, “What is your vision for this company?” After hearing their definition, I will ask department heads, associates, and assistants the same question. It’s seldom the same answer. But it should be.

This is the inherent problem with vision statements. They tend to arrive from somewhere up the chain, migrate onto a plaque or posters hung on a wall, and fade from memory.

Why am I harping on this? Because the people who work for you and with you are, for the most part, intelligent, conscientious, ethical people. (I know, I know; there are some low-level employees who seem incapable of processing anything so far-sighted as a vision statement, but I’ll address that condition later.) The people you’ve recruited and hired are responsible, and you have every right to expect them to honor their sense of responsibility. They in turn deserve to know what your company vision is and what it means. They will better serve the company, and will be better served by the company, when there is consistency between what you claim to be and what you actually do.

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