Any successful business leader will need to be able to achieve their organisation’s goals – but what does a goal look like, and how can you transform them into reality?
How to communicate company objectives as a successful business leader
 Central to being a successful leader is to not only to have a vision that drives you but to be able to communicate that vision with the team around you, inspiring them to help you achieve it.
In this edition of Live it – Lead IT, I’m going to be discussing the topic of goals. How can you internalise them and how can you get others around you to do the same? Undoubtedly there is a myriad of techniques out there on how to do just that, but the one that stands out the most starts not words, but with a picture.
The power of an image
 Whether you need the motivation to participate in Ironman, prep the garden for winter, or get your diploma, at the most basic level we, human beings, are inspired most by images. What drives us are big pictures of what we want to achieve.
With a powerful visual image, we can bring ourselves to undergo severe training to get the body we want or endure hours of classes we might not feel in the immediate moment motivated to participate in. A positive, colourful picture of our future can act as a major incentive in achieving your goals.
Equally, a non-attractive picture can deter you from achieving your goals or see you do things half-hearted. Doing something to avoid being nagged, for example, will see us unengaged and therefore not performing to the best of our ability. And herein lies the difference between a desire to reach a goal, and a desire to run away from responsibility.
The essentials of business leadership
So what does this mean when we translate this to the world of business?
Essentially what it means is that if you are, or want to become a successful business leader, you need to:

* Understand your purpose
* Understand your goals, and your company’s goals
* Understand how to translate these to your team to ensure these goals are achieved

More often than not, leaders fail on the final step. Many a time, employees are under pressure to achieve goals that mean nothing to them – like attaining an increase in shareholder value for example. This does not translate into anything meaningful for them; they’re left instead with a picture of an abstract graph in their head, hardly something that will see them leaping out of bed in the morning. And while your team may have obscure targets placed on them, they’re still without a clue as to the actual objectives – the real purpose behind why your organisation actually exists.
Bridging the gap
So – where does that leave you? Well a successful leader will be the bridge between the company vision and the team. A successful leader will know how to communicate this vision in a way that each can understand and internalise. A successful leader will understand the difference between ‘understood goals’ and ‘taken goals’ and how to deliver this into the heart and minds of their employees. Listen on for this edition to learn how to translate powerful images to your team, and achieve your desired success!
Yours
Olaf Kapinski