How Is Your Vision For The Future? by Tim Connor, CSP

Words of wisdom for this week.   

“I will prepare and some day my chance will come.”

Abraham Lincoln

Everything is changing at the speed of light. New products are introduced while their replacements are on the drawing board.  New services are being replaced with more creative and sophisticated solutions before the previous or existing service can be tested for their value, results and consumer interest. 



Competitors are appearing in every corner of the world. Employees are jumping from ship to ship before you can even earn back your investment from their initial training and development.  Federal, state and local governments who want your business to succeed only so they can support their spending whims and fantasies and administrative overhead. Sound like a difficult set of circumstances to have to face every day as a manager?  Well this is my version of reality TV. 

Although I must admit I have yet to watch one of these reality shows, I can guarantee you that corporate America is facing a lot bigger and more dramatic challenges than any television survivor.

What is a manager or executive to do to stay ahead of the competition and the wants and needs as well as the expectations and often fickle nature of today’s customers and tomorrow’s buyers?  It is called vision and it is the ability to blend this vision for the future with the basics and fundamental human needs and wants that never change.

Yes, the world is changing and yes it is getting more complicated and moving faster, but people – customers and employees still want the same things they have for years:

- Respect

- Kindness

- Courtesy

- Caring

- Attention

- Appreciation

- Recognition

If your vision for the future doesn’t include all of the above you could be one of the fastest growing organizations in your industry, but with fewer and fewer employees.  Sound like a paradox?  Well, what isn’t today?

Is it possible to integrate the rapid pace of change in the world with new products, new services, faster and more intelligent equipment and computers with the human needs that each of your employees want and need satisfied?  The answer is yes.  However, it takes:

- A willingness to always put the customer first. (Both internal as well as external customers.)



- Patience and perseverance.



- The ability to blend innovation and change with the fundamentals and basics of human behavior.



- Creativity when dealing with the many challenges you face daily.



- The willingness to keep your ego in check.



- A business philosophy that is driven by making the pie bigger not just getting a bigger piece of the current pie.



- The courage to take calculated risks without all of the knowledge and experience behind your decisions.



- The ability to admit to failure, poor judgment and mistakes and then moving on, taking the lessons from these and not the fears or frustrations from their outcomes into the 

future with you.

To be a visionary is one thing. To act on your vision is something entirely different.  Tomorrow’s winners will have the vision, the courage to act on their vision and the willingness to learn from their mistakes as they move toward their vision in a rapidly changing world.

Business leaders meet to chart the future of their organization when they don't know what do with what is happening today. Government leaders stay mired down in philosophies and approaches that were held years ago when the rules were predicable. The rules are changing. The rules that are determining the rules are changing.

We are living in a crazy, frenzied time in history. The roller coaster left the starting point several years ago and it is poised for yet another rapid decent or ascent, challenging what we know, believe, feel and have forecasted.

How then can today's executive forecast any vision of what tomorrow will look like with any degree of accuracy? It's anybody's guess what the next 6 months let alone the next 2-3 years will bring.



What you can do is stay loose, flexible, positive and optimistic. What you want to avoid is remaining stuck in yesterday's paradigms, attitudes, philosophies, strategies and conventional wisdom.

What are some of the specific things to avoid as we move like a bullet into the future?

1.Believing that what worked last year or yesterday will work today or tomorrow.



2.Thinking that what you thought about the future yesterday will come to pass.



3.Status-quo thinking.



4.Conventional wisdom or thinking.



5.Using yesterday's results as a benchmark for tomorrow.



6.People who refuse to think out of the box or throw the box away.

Just a few to get you started. Never before in the history of the human race has so much happened in such a short time. And you ain't seen nothin yet…

My final thought for the week:  Visionaries in business do whatever it takes to stay a head of the curve.  They read the books, attend the seminars, they listen to their vendors, employees even observe closely whet their competitors are up to.  It is impossible to accurately predict what will happen, but you can choose to be prepared for whatever occurs. 

If you are not spending time learning, observing, and keeping the vigil on where your industry, your customers, your employees and your suppliers are going or listening to what they are saying as well as what they are not saying, I guarantee you are going to find yourself left behind at the station waving goodbye to your future business and career success.

About The Author:

Copyright: 9/2009 Tim Connor, CSP - Connor Resource Group

Tim Connor, CSP World renowned Speaker, Trainer and best selling author of 75 titles, Box 397,  Davidson, N.C. 28036 USA,  704-895-1230 (voice) - 704-895-1231 (fax) - tim@timconnor.com (email) - www.timconnor.com (Website)