Selection and Maintenance of the Aim
High value customers are those who identify with you. By identifying your aim and acting in accordance with it, these customers become your promoters.
Just like in a military context, the Selection and Maintenance of the Aim is the single most important principle. It directs where you place your efforts (Concentration of force, Economy of effort, Offensive action, Surprise); what you protect (Security); motivates with whom you work (Cooperation, Sustainment, Maintenance of morale); and lets you pivot to exploit trends while maintaining your credibility (Flexibility). In a sports club, this aim is represented in the vision.
In selecting a vision that enables high value stakeholders to identify with and support you, your club's vision must be:
Positive; A positive vision enables you to continually strive for improvements resulting in the positive reinforcements that are shown to be more effective over time. Fear-based visions are short term as they stimulate the fight or flight response, however, continuously need to find new and more evil forces to maintain the same level of motivation.
Inclusive; Every stakeholder must be able to feel they are able to contribute to the vision. To this end, the vision must be clear enough such that stakeholders (especially staff) can see how they contribute to its achievement in a way they control.
Externally focused; Just like military action is never an end but always a means to an end, so too is a sports club a vehicle to advance an endstate. Trust begins to emerge when we see that people and organisations are driven by reasons that go beyond self-serving.
Resilient; a vision based on the current environment is not enduring. There will always be new technology, new trends, new beliefs and new political situations that will require you to change your business model.
Idealistic; communicate the vision in such a way that it represents utopia; a place that is near impossible to reach. It is the “I have a dream…” statement that enables the continual striving to its achievement.
Maintaining your aim then means continually acting in accordance with it. This extends to everything you do; your hiring decisions, the products or services you sell, other organisations you engage with, the advertising channels you select, the actions of your executive and representatives, etc. By maintaining the aim, you become predictable to your stakeholders (members, coahces, parents, sponsors, etc.), gaining their trust and their buy-in to your vision.
Having your business act in accordance with a greater vision is enables you to exploit the speed of trust that establishes the buy in of key stakeholders and establishing a corporate culture that promotes long term success.
Dead guy quote: “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” Dwight D. Eisenhower