How to Communicate a Vision & Get Buy-In (Michael Hyatt)

Want to know what makes a compelling vision stick in people’s minds? How can you get others excited about your goals and future plans?

Communicating your vision effectively is a crucial leadership skill that can transform ideas into reality. Whether you’re leading a small team or an entire organization, the ability to convey your vision clearly and persuasively can make the difference between success and stagnation.

Keep reading to get Michael Hyatt’s advice on how to communicate a vision in ways that inspire action and create lasting change.

How to Communicate a Vision

Once you understand how to craft and develop your vision, it’s time to move on to the next step of the process: convincing others to join you in pursuing your vision.

Hyatt explains that you need other people on board in order to make your vision a reality. That’s why it’s essential that you convince your team, your superiors, your peers, and the rest of the company to invest in your vision. We’ll explain how to communicate a vision, how to sell it, and how to address reluctance and opposition.

(Shortform note: Hyatt’s advice on getting others on board with a vision reflects another key psychological principle that underpins human behavior in group settings: social proof. This principle, developed by psychologist Robert Cialdini, suggests that people are more likely to adopt beliefs or behaviors when they see others doing so, especially those they respect or identify with. As you convince more and more people to get on board with your vision, others will naturally join in, lessening the amount of convincing you’ll need to do in the future.)

According to Hyatt, you must communicate your vision effectively to ensure understanding, calm uncertainties, and boost confidence. Good communication lets people know exactly what they’re moving toward so they can identify actions that advance that goal and can take those actions with confidence. Your team should also see your enthusiasm for the vision, which can encourage their own enthusiasm. When you don’t communicate your vision effectively, people don’t know what the company is moving toward or what they should prioritize. This leads to stress, wasted energy and time, and discouragement.

To communicate your vision effectively, use clear, simple, and exact language to describe what you want to see. Avoid buzzwords and business jargon like “synergy,” “cutting-edge,” or “amplify,” as these can make your idea seem less substantive. Don’t assume any part of your vision goes without saying. Your team won’t know anything about your vision that you don’t clearly convey to them—and a team can’t work toward a vision they don’t fully understand.

A Sellable Vision

Hyatt explains that your vision must be sellable. In other words, you need to be able to convince other people to embrace it and invest their time, money, and effort into achieving it. The process of convincing others can help you improve your vision by getting feedback—which in turn can make people more likely to invest, as they’re more likely to contribute to building something they helped devise.

(Shortform note: The phenomenon of people being more likely to invest in something they helped devise is a cognitive bias known as the IKEA effect, (named for the furniture chain’s assemble-it-yourself business model). Using feedback from others to improve your vision—and highlighting their contributions when presenting it—can make it easier to convince them to invest their time and effort in itt. However, there is a drawback to this effect: Working hard on something can make a person overvalue it, due to a psychological need to feel that their effort wasn’t wasted. To avoid this drawback, set up regular check-ins with others to get their less emotionally-invested input on your vision’s achievability and value.)

Hyatt defines four groups you must sell your vision to: your team, your superiors, your peers, and your company.

Your Team

Hyatt recommends pitching your vision to your team first because they’re the ones who will work with you to realize it. Address their concerns about change so they understand why you’re proposing it and how it’ll benefit them. Don’t rush the feedback process, as it’s key to helping you refine your vision.

(Shortform note: Hyatt’s recommendation to pitch the vision to the team first and then engage in a thorough feedback process, while well-intentioned, may have some drawbacks. First, this approach has the potential for “design by committee,” a phenomenon where the original vision becomes overly diluted or compromised as it’s adapted to accommodate various team members’ input. This can cause an idea to lose its innovative edge or transformative power. Second, extensive feedback processes can significantly slow down decision-making and implementation, which may be counterproductive in fast-paced business environments.)

Your Superiors

Hyatt explains how to convince your superiors—or, if you’re CEO, your board of directors or investors: Don’t surprise your superiors with your pitch, as they’ll be more likely to reject it if they’re caught off-guard. Instead, schedule a time to discuss it with them.

Additionally, commit to getting your superiors to embrace your vision. Don’t make your pitch until you’re sure it’s a truly good idea and you’ve prepared to answer any issues they may bring up. Present it in a logical, clear way.

(Shortform note: Presenting an idea to superiors can be daunting, even if you’ve scheduled a designated time and prepared a great pitch. Experts offer some tips for making these meetings go more smoothly. First, make sure you have a good understanding of your superiors’ dynamics and tendencies, such as body language. For example, if you know your CEO tends to purse their lips when they disapprove of something, you can read this tell during your presentation and adjust course to head off their uncertainty. Second, stay focused on your pitch and be ready to gently redirect the conversation if it gets off-task. However, be prepared to stay quiet as they discuss the viability of your idea so you don’t come off as pushy or annoying.)

Your Peers

According to Hyatt, you also need to sell your peers in leadership and supervisory positions on your vision. This not only gives you more feedback opportunities but can also smooth the process of implementing your vision. By discussing their feedback early on, you can address any of their concerns in a more private setting—rather than having them publicly disagree with you and potentially damage the company’s overall investment. Even if they still disagree with you following your private discussion, your willingness to hear them out will make them less likely to publicly complain.

(Shortform note: The concept of social proof can be particularly important when convincing your peers, as it allows you to use peer pressure to your advantage. However, Hyatt’s recommendation to discuss your vision with peers privately may have an unexpected consequence: the formation of informal alliances or coalitions within the organization. By discussing ideas with peers individually, leaders may inadvertently create an environment where small groups form around shared interests or concerns. This could pit small groups against each other instead of unifying them under a single vision.)

Your Company

According to Hyatt, you must also convince the entire company to invest in your vision. To do this, explain your vision thoroughly and frequently. Repetition is key—Hyatt says you can’t communicate your vision too much. People will misunderstand or forget your vision much faster than you expect, but constant repetition keeps your vision at the forefront of their attention and keeps them focused on achieving it.

(Shortform note: While communicating your vision thoroughly and frequently can help keep your company’s focus on achieving it, it may actually be possible to communicate your vision too much. Repeating it too frequently may cause “message fatigue,” a phenomenon where employees become desensitized or even annoyed by the constant repetition of the same message. This overexposure can lead to diminishing returns in terms of engagement and understanding, and can cause employees to tune out or become resistant to the message.)

Addressing Reluctance Toward Your Vision

Even after you’ve appealed to all four of these groups, Hyatt says, you’ll likely still find that you have some people who are reluctant to invest in your vision or are even opposed to it. He says you can prepare for these challenges in advance by cultivating three traits:

• Perseverance: You must be able to continue in the face of continual rejection. Focus on why your vision is so important, and the effect it’ll have when you eventually succeed.
• Authenticity: Hold true to your values. Since your values inform your vision, this is the only way to actually fulfill your vision, and it’s key to maintaining the trust of others.
• Dedication: You must be totally dedicated to the whole vision. Don’t let people lower your standards or undermine the vision. Instead, defend it and encourage other people to maintain it. Remember the greatness of the vision and why it’s important, and then talk about it to others, refusing to settle for less.