Every organization has a vision. The difference is whether people actually believe it.

In my 17+ years working at both large companies and start-ups, I’ve learned that a vision isn’t just an idea that a leader announces. It’s something people choose to follow. Done well, it acts as the team’s north star. It provides hope and gives people a reason to show up every day with purpose. Done poorly, it creates confusion, skepticism, and eventually low morale.

I recently worked with someone who was starting her own fitness company. During her first six months, her team of coaches was energized. She shared a vision of building a company that would allow them to leverage their existing skills and develop new ones, too. Within a year, she planned to open 10 new locations, creating management opportunities for several coaches. It was an exciting vision, and her team believed in it.

After one year, however, she was still working to stabilize her operations and had opened only three locations, all of which were operating at a loss. As the demands of the business grew, she became increasingly removed from her team. With less communication, the coaches began to question not only whether the vision was realistic, but also what it meant for their own career growth. Over time, enthusiasm turned into uncertainty, and several coaches eventually left.

In her second year, she asked me to help her redefine the company’s vision. Instead of focusing primarily on rapid expansion, we started with operational stability and intentionally built the vision around one of her core values: community. That shift gave the team clearer priorities, restored confidence, and aligned everyone around a common purpose. With better clarity, execution improved, and the business eventually became profitable.

Her experience reinforced something I’ve seen repeatedly throughout my career. The visions that people commit to share three common characteristics.

Futuristic, but Realistic

A compelling vision should inspire people, but it also has to be grounded in reality. Most CEOs and business owners are visionaries. They reach their positions because they are passionate about bringing value to a community. Whether they are building gyms to help people improve their health or building airplanes to connect people around the world, they believe they can create unique solutions that make a meaningful impact.

That ambition is important because people perform at their best when they have something meaningful to work toward. However, every visionary needs to balance ambition with realism. Without realism, ideas remain dreams. And the thing about dreams is that people eventually wake up from them. People need the vision to feel achievable. When it doesn’t, people begin to lose hope and may even lose trust in the owner.

When creating a vision, ask yourself:

• What measurable goals are you trying to achieve?
• Can you lay out a realistic roadmap to achieve them?
• If you shared that roadmap with your team today, would they believe it is achievable?

Values Aligned

A vision becomes much easier to execute when it reflects the organization’s values. When the gym owner recognized that one of her core values was building a community, she was able to focus the business around it. The company was no longer centered solely on rapid growth, which had been somewhat vague for her coaches. Instead, the vision became creating a community of people committed to improving their health.

That shift gave her clarity about who she wanted to hire, and her coaches had a much clearer understanding of how to execute the vision. Together, they created quarterly community goals, such as hosting member-only events at local parks. They also prioritized celebrating members’ milestones, like the number of classes completed.

A central mission around community improved both coaching and membership retention, which ultimately improved the company’s profitability.

Buy-in from the Team

There is a popular African proverb,

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

The same principle applies to organizations. Long-term success depends on people working together, which means the vision has to be something they genuinely share. One of the best ways to create that shared vision is to involve the team in shaping it.

That doesn’t mean an owner should give up their vision or let the team define it entirely. Rather, it means creating space for people to discuss what success looks like and how they can contribute to achieving it. When people contribute to the vision, they take ownership of it. When they take ownership, they develop the agency to act on it. The strongest visions are the ones where people see themselves as active participants in creating the future rather than simply carrying out someone else’s plan.

Finally, a vision isn’t something leaders communicate once a year. It needs to be reinforced consistently. People’s memories are surprisingly short, and daily priorities can easily overshadow long-term goals. High-performing leaders continually connect decisions, recognition, and team conversations back to the organization’s vision, keeping it relevant throughout the year.

One question I often encourage leaders to ask themselves is, “How is my team building momentum toward the vision throughout the year?”

The best visions aren’t just ideas. They are the ones people believe in. They challenge people while remaining realistic, reflect the organization’s values, and give people a reason to take ownership because they see themselves as part of the future they are helping build.