At the beginning of 2025, I made a vision board and put it on the wall in my office, where I saw it every day. It had big things on it: travel, financial goals, professional milestones.

But it also had smaller things I wanted more of: time near the ocean, dinner parties, hiking, reading, taking better care of myself.

At the end of the year, I realized something: I had aligned my goals and decisions with my vision board, and my life felt more aligned with what matters most to me.

I don't think there was anything magical about putting pictures on a board. But there was something powerful about making what I wanted visible.

Seeing those things every day kept them in my mind as I made hundreds of tiny decisions throughout the year. And it made me think about management:

Can your team actually see where you're trying to take them?

Managers are usually pretty good at giving people goals. Increase revenue by 20%. Launch the project by November. Improve retention. Hit this KPI.

💡 The Vault Insight: A goal tells someone what you're trying to accomplish. But a vision helps them understand what success actually looks and feels like.

“Launch the new product by November” gives me a deadline.

“We want this product to feel so intuitive that a first-time customer can get value from it without us explaining it” gives me something I can picture.

And when I can picture it, I can make decisions toward it.

We tend to think of vision as something that happens at the top of an organization. But managers set vision all the time.

When you kick off a project. When you describe what you want your team to become. When you hire someone and explain what you hope they'll eventually own. When you describe the experience you want a customer to have.

Your team shouldn't have to reverse-engineer the picture in your head.

As managers, we've often spent weeks thinking about an initiative. We've had conversations our team wasn't in. We can already see what “great” looks like.

Then we hand someone a piece of the work and expect them to run with it. When what comes back isn't quite right, we give feedback. They revise. We give more feedback.

Eventually, we're frustrated because they aren't “getting it.” They're frustrated because the target seems to keep moving. Sometimes the target isn't moving, but you haven’t brought them along in your vision.

Before your next project, initiative, or quarter, ask yourself:

Then keep talking about it.

Bring the vision into kickoffs, 1:1s, feedback, and decisions until it becomes part of how your team thinks. The real power of vision isn't getting everyone excited during a kickoff meeting. It's what happens three weeks later, when you're not in the room and someone has to make a decision.

If your team can clearly see the destination, they don't need you to tell them every step to take. They can help you find the way there.

If you asked your team what success looks like right now, would their answer match yours?

I'd love to hear your answer. Just hit reply—I read every one.

—Ashley Walton, CMO & Treadmill Desk Advocate