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Have you ever walked into an office space, maybe even your own, and seen a big bold, typically framed, vision statement hanging on the wall? If you have, then it’s likely you’ve asked yourself if employees really know it, let alone use it to guide their daily work.

Vision statements are great and can be very valuable, but a question every leader must ask is, “is our organizational vision providing a compelling purpose for our employees’ daily responsibilities?” If the answer is no, you have some work to do. But don’t worry, it’s highly worthwhile. Very few people are motivated to act based on a singular task alone. In fact people want to know that their work matches up with a long-term direction. Employees want to know that their work means something and is valued.

How can you help renew the passion in your organization for its vision?

• Ask yourself: “Does our current vision help define our organization’s long-term destination?” Ensure that your vision statement isn’t just a jumping off point. The end destination must be clearly communicated and understood.
• Keep it simple. A vision by nature should be easy to understand. Still, it’s quite common to find overcomplicated, complex terms muddying the waters. Just remember: If your employees don’t understand your vision, they won’t be motivated by it.
• Get an inside opinion. Ask employees for their ideas on how they feel their work enables the vision. Don’t miss out on a perfect opportunity to involve your workforce by giving them the chance to individualize the vision.
• Get an outside opinion. Validate with customers if your organization’s vision is in alignment with their current and future needs. Ultimately, if a vision is not customer-centric, it stands the risk of becoming irrelevant and subject to frequent change.
• Revisit often! As decisions are made, goals are evaluated, changes are proposed, and new strategies are defined, be sure to revisit the vision to ensure that alignment is not lost. The vision should serve as the measuring stick and help guide day-to-day decisions.

Take time to make your organization’s vision statement more than a fancy wall flower. You’ll find that your attention to and communication of your vision statement will renew a sense of organizational purpose for yourself and your workforce.

While phrases like “I give you my word” may seem antiquated in a world of contracts and dotted lines, the importance of trust-based relationships has never gone out of style. Isn’t it true that we still long to interact with a boss who is not only understanding, but trustworthy and honest as well? Would you share your personal and career goals with anyone less?

A fresh way of thinking about trust in the workplace is to understand that leaders don’t carry the burden of building trust-based partnerships with members of their workforce alone. The leadership principle of trust is based on a mutual influencing relationship between leaders and individual employees, one that requires a true interdependency of values and vision-sharing.

How can your organization get there? What does it take to build trust-based partnerships between leaders and employees? Here are the primary principles for leaders to follow:

Act with Integrity:

• Model the kind of values that employees can identify with and respect.
• Honor commitments and be counted on.

Demonstrate Caring:

• Take a genuine interest in employees’ backgrounds, interests, and motivations.
• Work toward a win-win solution when problems arise.

Deliver on the Shared Vision:

• Establish shared expectations and determine what success will look like.
• Pave the way for employees by making it possible for them to deliver their very best.

The mark of an effective leader is his or her ability to garner the trust and respect of a workforce. Once trust is established, there must be a focused, continual effort made by both parties to sustain it. This is a critical component of achieving and sustaining high performance.

Learn more about trust-based partnerships and Five Star’s “Leading the High-Performance Workforce” program.

As we move into 2009, the focus on organizational performance has never been higher. Consequently, the ramifications of low performance have never been greater. Organizations around the world are taking a closer look at performance in a large-scale effort to execute strategies that lead to high performance. Fittingly, President-elect Obama recently announced the creation of a Chief Performance Officer (CPO) position, and appointed Nancy Killefer to the role to oversee budget and spending reform in the U.S. government.

The starting point on the path to high performance varies for every organization, yet the journey to get there contains consistent components. In the case of the U.S. government, a multi-faceted strategy has been defined, but a key component is continuous process improvement. Charged with leading this reform, the CPO has been asked by President-elect Obama to “work with economic officials to increase efficiencies and eliminate waste in government spending.”

For many other organizations, the path to high performance might begin with focused and aligned leaders and/or the implementation of enabling technologies, but regardless of the starting point, the key to starting the journey towards high performance is the development of a roadmap. A roadmap defines where the organization is going and each step along the path staying the course towards high performance. It is used as an assessment tool to enable leaders within the organization to track progress and measure success.

A strong roadmap will objectively evaluate the current organization and focus on the critical initiatives needed to improve performance in each of the Five Key Drivers of High Performance™.

Realistic roadmap tips for high performance include:

• Optimize and integrate the Five Key Drivers of High-Performance Organizations across the entire organization.
• Pace implementation; not everything has to happen all at once.
• Plan incremental steps, and measure results along the way.

Has your organization defined a roadmap for high performance?