Vision means Assertiveness

Let me tell you a story that you may have come across. You are a manager at a company that has a project to complete and the resources to complete it. Another manager reaches out to your team and wants them to take a little bit of time to work on some of their projects. Your team has worked with this manager before, and their projects are useful to the company.

You don't object.

You notice that this manager has more meetings with your team and starts to treat them as a shared resource. Mind you, they are not doing anything to take over your team, instead, they are treating your people as theirs. You feel they are encroaching on your team, but you both are still accomplishing your goals. You notice that they start treating you as if you will be the cause of their projects failing. Are these feelings justified? Should you confront the manager and settle all differences?

The truth is this problem could be avoided by having a vision.

This term gets tossed around a fair bit, but a vision is an idea of how you want the world to be. Do you want a clean kitchen? That can be your vision: all that's left is to clean the kitchen to make it as you imagine it should be.

This sounds simple. The problem is that it's actually harder to have a vision of what you want. This stems from visions being too complex. There may be many nuances and considerations that go into creating a vision.

Always remember: simplicity makes a great vision.

It makes it easier to remember, and easy to follow, and it will help you know what fits into the vision and what does not. A vision does not need to account for details, those details come later as you plan it out. This is your broad outline that is the blueprint for everything. This allows you to be assertive; if you know what you want then you will know what will work to make it real and what does not.

You can also think of your vision as a completed puzzle. See it in your mind: that's what you want. Your next goal is to fit the pieces in so that you complete the puzzle.

Let's look at the story above. If your vision was clear: you would immediately speak to the manager to explain your goals. They may not agree with your vision, but they will at least know.

Keep your vision simple at all times. It will help with your assertiveness and ensure that you will spend less time worrying.