Visionary Leadership: A Roadmap to Peak Performance and Success | Episode 273

Scott McCarthy [00:00:00]:

You. A vision with no action is just the dream. Action with no vision is a nightmare. Today we’re going to talk about a vision and its importance to you as a leader, to your team and your organization. That’s right. We’re going back to the basics today, folks, because the basics are what matters the most. So you ready for this? All right, let’s do it. Welcome one, welcome all to the Peak Performance Leadership Podcast, a weekly podcast series dedicated to helping you hit peak performance across the three domains of leadership.

Scott McCarthy [00:00:56]:

Those being leading yourself, leading your team, and leading your organization. This podcast couples my 20 years of military experience as a senior Canadian Army officer with world class guests to bring you the most complete podcast of leadership going. And for more, feel free to check out our website@movingforwardleadership.com. And with that, let’s get to the show. Hey. Yes. Welcome one, welcome all. It is your Chief Leadership Officer, Scott McCarthy.

Scott McCarthy [00:01:34]:

Thanks for tuning into today’s episode. I’m solo and I thought what a great time to revisit the basics, the very basics of leadership. And I thought that was important because from time to time, we just need to revisit it, right? So that’s what we’re going to talk about today. We’re going to talk about the importance of a vision, but we’re going to talk about it not just in the standard way that people talk about a vision. We’re going to talk about across how we discuss here at Moving Forward Leadership ecosystem. That’s my podcast, that’s my Facebook groups, that’s my elite mastermind the whole ecosystem. I know it can be confusing sometimes everything’s got a little bit of a different name, but that’s because each one’s got a little bit of a different goal and the name should be representative of its goal, I think. Anyway, I’m sure some business guru out there would completely disagree with me.

Scott McCarthy [00:02:40]:

But you know what? I’m satisfied. I’m happy. More importantly, it is achieving my vision, so therefore it’s working for me. So let’s talk about what a vision is in the first place, right? And before we actually dive into that, if you’re new to the show, I’m going to be diving into my three domains of leadership. And if you’re new to the show, you don’t know what those are, here is a quick rundown. The three domains are, one, leading yourself. You the individual leader, okay? You who you are. The person on the other end of this microphone, which probably has earbuds in or has a speaker going listening to this show, okay, that is leading yourself.

Scott McCarthy [00:03:36]:

Next is leading your team. The individuals that make up your team, maybe that’s your team at work, maybe that’s a school group, maybe that’s a sports group. That could be your family. But it’s the Johns, the Joe’s, the Sally’s, the Susans, all the individuals within that team. And then finally, it’s leading your organization. And that is the institution in which you’re leading. And again, that could be maybe your work, maybe it’s a subsection within your work. You don’t need to necessarily lead the whole company, but you are leading your department or your section, your team, whatever that is, the institution of what it is you’re leading.

Scott McCarthy [00:04:30]:

This part can be confusing for some people. If you’re looking at it from a sports analogy, you’re leading your team, the team, the name, the logo behind it. If you’re looking at it from a personal standpoint, it’s your family. For me, the McCarthy family, not the individuals, not my sons, my wife, but rather my institution of my family. And we think about the problems that we look at in leading our families. For example, the scheduling, the budgeting, the vision going forward. Okay, those are how we lead. So this is what we’re going to dive into today.

Scott McCarthy [00:05:16]:

And I’ll tell you a little personal story about importance of vision for yourself. And this podcast, this brand, this side hustle of mine, is part of a greater vision which I am slowly striving towards. I am striving. I have a vision of me working in my own home office, coaching people, running mastermind communities, learning more about leadership, writing about leadership and running this business full time. That is my vision. Why? Because that will enable me to have a life which is completely the opposite of the life I have right now as a member of the Cane army. A life of flexibility where I get to make my own decisions, I get to set my own hours, I get to decide what I work on, all that type of things. And most importantly, I can be there for my family when I want to be.

Scott McCarthy [00:06:31]:

And we’re going to use this as an example moving forward. Mind the pun. All right, so let’s talk about how I got to this vision in the first place. How did I develop my personal vision and then how did that spin off into leading the team and then leading my organization. So let’s talk about, first off, some key aspects of what makes a vision in the first place, what you want to think about deeply. And you want to take some time here, setting yourself up for success, not rushing to failure. You want to truly take some time here. And that is think deeply about your values.

Scott McCarthy [00:07:27]:

Your passions and your long term aspirations. Values, passions, long term aspirations. So when I think about this and I think about what it is, where my vision ended up, here are the things that really tied together. So values, obviously my family, I value security, I value consistency, I value hard work, value dedication. These are a few different values of mine. When I looked at Passions. Well, obviously I have a passion for leadership, but I also have a passion for continued learning. I believe in the whole ideology behind Kaizen, which is Japanese, loosely translated for continuous improvement.

Scott McCarthy [00:08:35]:

And I’m sure one of you out there listening knows Japanese and probably goes, that’s not actually what it means. Please let me live my dream here, if you may. Okay? But from what I understand, kaizen, or however it’s pronounced in Japanese, means continuous improvement or something to the effect thereof. That is a passion of mine. Another passion of mine is talking, speaking to others, meeting other people, very social person. So when I started looking at and my first vision was that I knew I wanted to have a job. That gave me later in life, once I decide to retire from the military, gave me the flexibility to work when I want to work, at the same time be able to do it from home so that I can support my family as needed. That was a long term, aspiration still is.

Scott McCarthy [00:09:46]:

I am not there yet. But even before I started the podcast, I was actually volunteering for a now defunct site and we started podcasting. I was like, wow, I really like this. Once the site went down, I sat there and thought and this is where my values, passions and long term aspirations kind of hit. They bell together and the light bulb went on. Well, I’m passionate about leadership. I enjoyed this podcasting thing. I value growth.

Scott McCarthy [00:10:36]:

Why don’t I try a podcast? That’s what I did one day, long time ago. Please don’t listen to episode one. It is probably horrendous, but you’ll see the journey if you do this thing doesn’t happen overnight. And it’s kind of like achieving a vision. So the wall here is that I sat down, I said, okay, let’s give it a shot. And for a while there, I was just doing it for the sake of doing it, just kind of doing it as a hobby, more so than anything else. But then as I started looking around and it’s just like when you get a new car, when you get a new car, suddenly what do you realize? You see all the same cars around, your eyes are opened up. Okay, when you start a podcast and you start podcasting, you start noticing things and you start realizing things.

Scott McCarthy [00:11:36]:

And that’s what happened to me. One day I realized that this show could be part of something bigger, it could be part of my own business. I started looking at the other businesses which revolved around podcasts and lo and behold, I started developing my vision. So what I did was I sat down and I started visualizing at the end first when I achieve what I want to achieve, where will I be? I’ll be running a mastermind community, doing one on one, coaching with some individuals and giving keynote speaking engagements. Those were my big three. And I can see that, I can see myself doing those things and I can see me working from home, running the business with a team supporting me and ultimately being successful to the point where I’m happy, content, life is good now, just as I said in the intro. That’s great. That’s my vision, I can see it.

Scott McCarthy [00:13:02]:

But if I don’t take action to it, then it’s just a dream. That’s just the dream of having a flourishing business revolving around this podcast and the other things of the ecosystem. So I knew I needed to take action, but what action? So again, I started visualizing looking at the other shows, the other businesses out there that revolve a bit around podcasts, and started looking at what they were doing and saying, okay, how does that relate to my vision for myself? And then I started developing a roadmap of goals, working my way back to where I was today. It’s basically like deconstructing where it is. You want to end up at the end of your vision. That, my friends, is known as your desired end state where you want to end up in the end where your vision ends. So I start setting goals, start working my way back, and then as I move forward, I developed a mission statement for my business. That mission statement, which I’m sure if you’ve been following me for quite some time, is this moving forward.

Scott McCarthy [00:14:37]:

Leadership is here to empower, support and develop people to become true leaders and not turn into bosses. We’ll inspire, motivate others to become leaders and by doing so, help the world to be a better place. That is the mission statement. And that’s the type of statement you want to have for your vision. Yourself needs to be short and concise, but at the same time you want to have some oomph behind it, as you can see, right? And add some metrics to it. For us, it is developing leaders to become leaders, not bosses. Hence the tagline lead don’t boss. And you’ll see where if you go through the episodes, you’ll be able to pick out where that came from, at what time that came from, I should say.

Scott McCarthy [00:15:44]:

So the final thing is that you want to make sure when you’re developing your own vision that your personal values and goals are aligned. Okay? If you’re not aligned, you will fail if your vision. So if I didn’t have the value of helping others, then this vision would fail because I wouldn’t be out there providing content to help you, but rather I would be out there helping, providing content which I believed would sell. And the reality is that you would see through this. You would see that I was just trying to make a buck and that I didn’t really care about your needs. That is why you need to make sure that your personal vision and your values are aligned. Without that, you’re not going to be successful. And I talk about this when I talk about goal setting and I talk about values based goal setting.

Scott McCarthy [00:17:07]:

Very similar, absolutely linked. And as we get closer to the new year, we’ll definitely talk about that again. So that is talking about your own personal vision. Now let’s move into leading your team. Your team needs a vision how that team is going to operate. You need a vision. You need a vision for how that team is going to gel, how they’re going to work together, how they’re going to interact with each other, what they’re going to achieve together. And you need to share that.

Scott McCarthy [00:17:55]:

And in fact, more so than sharing it, you need to sit down and develop it with them because it’s a vision for them as well as you need to get their buy in in order to achieve it in the first place. Because they’re going to be the ones who are to go out and go after achieving that vision on your behalf. So when a team has a vision, you can boost motivation, you can boost cohesion. Those are two great things. When I was in a former job leading a small cell of members and I had this vision for the team, I said, folks, we’re going to achieve this. This is how we’re going to go about doing it. What do you think? And people put up their hands, they agreed or they added in a few points of what they thought were important and we went after and we got it done. And let me tell you, the cohesion of that team was incredible.

Scott McCarthy [00:19:05]:

Still to this day, one of the best teams I’ve ever worked with. That was years ago. Why? Because we together developed that team cohesion. I supported them, they supported me, they knew I had their backs, I knew they had mine. And together we moved forward. So again, very similar steps to developing a vision for yourself. Use it. Look long term, what’s the desired end state? Work your way back, make sure that your team values are aligned with the goals and ambitions that your team has and do it that way.

Scott McCarthy [00:19:51]:

And then finally, a vision for your organization or leading organization. This is crucial when we talk about strategy and strategic planning. Each one of your organizations has a strategy. Like, Scott, we’re just a low level little team in the big multinational corporation. Yes, but you still have a strategy. You still have to think in strategic ways because that is how you go forth and achieve great things. Your strategy is what’s going to bring long term success to your organization. And one of the first things is you make sure that you have your values set up and you actually adhere to them because they are actually your organization’s values.

Scott McCarthy [00:20:53]:

If you say you value customer service, yet every chance you get, you deny customers requests for refunds or exchanges, returns, what have you. You find every way to nickel and dime your customer. You provide them with the worst service possible, with the least amount of customer service reps possible. That is not valuing customer service. You have to live these values. And then again, just like in leading yourself, in leading your team, your values of your organization has to be aligned with the desired end state of your vision. What is it? Where do you foresee your organization being in five years for moving forward? Leadership in five years, I’m looking out. I am foreseeing more Mastermind members in there being a part of our community, in fact, the community itself, taking care of itself, the members being able to help each other, support each other, coach each other, and either kind of guiding the ship per se.

Scott McCarthy [00:22:20]:

I foresee as a business that we are actually truly operating like an actual business right now. Yes, I am operating as a business, but I am very much bootstrapped running. It in my free time where I can find the free time and so on. So the vision is out there. I have goals set for five years, two years, one year, six months from now, end of this year even. Okay? There are goals set. And basically I am using this vision framework to push this company into being a full time true company. No longer a side hustle, no longer just a hobby project, but a true company.

Scott McCarthy [00:23:19]:

And that’s the vision. So with that, this is where part of our Mastermind community comes to play. If you haven’t heard about our Mastermind community, it’s our leader growth mastermind. It is where we help each other become the best leaders possible that we’re meant to be. And if you’re looking and you’re struggling to develop a vision for yourself or your team or your organization, well, we can help you with that because we’ve done that and we will do it again. We are going to be doing that in the near future. So think about it. And if you’re struggling, come check us out.

Scott McCarthy [00:24:11]:

Come join us. Get the support that you need that you’re not getting anywhere else. Get access to coaches, have peer support with our weekly group calls, so much more. So check us out. You can check out all the information@leaddomboss.com mastermind again, that’s leaddomboss.com mastermind. So that is it ladies and gentlemen. I’m going to just wrap things up and remind you, okay? And actually before we wrap things up, I do want to share a couple little tips and tricks ideas. There is no right or wrong way to develop a vision.

Scott McCarthy [00:25:00]:

Some people have different things. Some people like vision boards where they kind of write out where their vision is and they kind of plaster pictures all around that of things that inspire them or motivate them or make them think about what their vision is. That works. Other people like doing word charts, spider diagrams, other people like to journal it. Whatever way works for you, works for you. Kaiban boards are becoming popular now, even in vision making. Using those boards and lining goals at different times, setting them up that way. So just think about what it is that will help you.

Scott McCarthy [00:25:51]:

One, clarify. Two, plan. And then three, execute on your vision. So again, visualize it. Think about your values. Think about your passions. Look at your desired end state. Work yourself back through that process, setting goals and markers along the way.

Scott McCarthy [00:26:16]:

Okay, where do I want to be at five years? Where do I want to be at two years? Maybe three years, one year, six months, three months, four weeks, what have you. Setting goals and most importantly, taking actions towards those goals. Just as I said in the intro, vision without action is just a dream. Maybe it’s time to stop dreaming. If you need help with that action part, we’re here and we’re waiting for you. You just got to come and join us@leadboss.com. Mastermind with that, ladies and gentlemen, until next time, take care. Remember, as always.

Scott McCarthy [00:27:07]:

Lead. Don’t. Boss. See you again later. And that’s a wrap for this episode, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for listening. Thank you for supporting the peak Performance Leadership podcast. But you know what you could do to truly support the podcast? And no, that’s not leaving a rating and review.

Scott McCarthy [00:27:27]:

It’s simply helping a friend. And that is helping a friend by sharing this episode with them. If you think this would resonate with them and help them elevate their performance level, whether that’s within themselves, their teams, or their organization, so do that. Help me help a friend. Win win all around. And hey, you look like a great friend at the same time. So just hit that little share button on your app and then feel free to fire this episode to anyone that you feel would benefit from it. Finally, there’s always more there’s always more lessons around being the highest performing leader that you can possibly be, whether that’s for yourself, your team, or your organization.

Scott McCarthy [00:28:16]:

So why don’t you subscribe subscribe to the show via move movingforwardleadership.com subscribe. Until next time. Lead. Don’t, boss. And thanks for coming out. Take care now. Bye.