As I worked on my first draft of this post, two close family members fell ill, and died. This caused me to reprioritize actives and reflect deeper on the importance of strategically analyzing aspirations. After all, organizational aspirations are those things the leaders envision as the legacy of the organization in the months and years after they are gone. Those organizational aspirations should be tied to individual leaders’ personal aspirations. In my family member’s case, I am sure they had some regrets, but overall, I think they are happy with the legacy left behind. Each has a long list of accolades, accomplishments, family connections, achievements, and impact on the future. At the end of your life in your organization, will you be happy with the accomplishments, achievements, and impact of you and the people you lead in the organization?

In his book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Seven Covey challenges readers to envision their funeral. He asks them to think about what the reader wants people to say about them after they passed. Joan Garry in a recent podcast recommended a similar exercise for new organizational leaders. She suggests that the new leader write the press release announcing their departure. What will people say about you, your character, accomplishments, relationships, and legacy? How will they remember your actions? Few will remember everything you said, but all will remember how you made them feel. Either exercise will better help you understand how your aspirations inspire those you lead. 

At the organizational level, the aspirations of the organization should inspire all their stakeholders. Before your aspirations can inspire others, you and the other leaders in the organization must identify those aspirations that are common across the leadership. Those aspirations should also support the reason for your organization’s existence.

Leaders should evaluate the aspirations of employees, volunteers, clients, and customers. This evaluation helps in two ways. First, you retain quality people. Second, you attract new talent and clients. When the organization’s aspirations are aligned with leader, employee, and customer aspirations, great things happen. Gaining alignment happens when leaders collect the aspirations from people at every level of the organization. That collection provides information identifying common aspirations, fueled by their passions. You will find building on these common passions creates support for the organization’s aspirations.

In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins talks about three factors that make a company great. One of those is identifying passions. As a leader, you may find some of those you lead have passions that are not aligned with the organization’s. They might be great people, hard-working, honest; but they may need to find work in a different organization if their aspirations are out of alignment. As their leader, you can help them move in a direction that will help them feel fulfilled in another organization, and remain a champion of yours.

An organization’s aspirations become the launching pad for inspiration. In the 1980s, the US Army recruiting slogan was “Be all that you can be.” It was the beginning of the all volunteer Army, an army that was shaking off years of frustrating jungle fighting in a war that had poorly defined mission parameters. “Be all you can be”, is an inspiring aspiration. The Army promised to help every individual become the best possible version of themselves, and in turn expected those high quality people would make the Army the best it could be. In 2025, the US Army is in a similar position. After even more years of fighting two wars with poorly defined mission parameters, recruiting was falling. The Army returned to the “Be All That You Can Bel slogan. Recruiting is soaring. If the Army actually helps people be the best version of themselves, the Army will remain the best army in the world. People are always inspired to belong to an organization that seeks the best in their people so they can be the best organization. 

A short time ago, I worked on a strategic plan with a nonprofit. They worked hard to create an inspiring plan for the future and wanted to celebrate. The Executive Director held a statewide video pep rally to introduce the leadership’s vision for the future. Selected members of the Board of Directors presented parts of the plan to the membership, explaining how each goal benefited the membership. At the end of the hour, the membership was excited about the future. They could see the growth from the previous plan. The rally helped them focus on the most important things, so everyone could serve better. It was inspiring.

Inspired people work with a sense of purpose and belonging. Aspirations, become the foundation to potential new hires. Leaders determine if new business opportunities will help reach organizational aspirations. Use aspirations to improve staff evaluations. 

Aspirations provide inspiring stories of the future. Steve Jobs regularly used aspirations to motivate people to be part of the Apple story. Sharing stories of the organization’s aspirations,  inspires great work and involvement from all stakeholders. People want to belong to something that makes a difference. Meaningful work provides fulfillment and builds lasing trust. Stories help employees and other stakeholders connects their work and involvement with their dreams for the future.

Aspirations are those big dreams we all have as children. Involvement in organizations what have similar aspirations provides people opportunities to grow and achieve meaningful accomplishments. Begin by identifying the aspirations of the organization by finding the aspirations of stakeholders. Work to align organizational aspirations to individual aspirations. Once identified, aspirations become the foundation to evaluate behaviors, and identify potential staff, volunteers, and board members. Use stories to tell about an improved future for the organization and people in it. Assessing, identifying, and documenting aspirations during a strategic assessment helps organizational leaders ensure alignment across the strategic plan. When you shoot for the moon, when you miss, you still shine with the stars¹.

1. This inspirational quote was paraphrased from Dr. Norman Vicent Peale, “Shoot for the moon; even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” I believe I first became aware of this thought from either a speech I listened to by Dr. Peale, or from his book The Power of Positive Thinking. 

References

Collins, J. (2001). Good to great: Why some companies make the leap… and others don’t. HarperBusiness.

Sinek, S. (2009). Start with why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action. Portfolio.

Vago, S. (2009). Law and society (9th ed.). Pearson.

Wick, D. ( 2018). Strategy: What is your winning aspiration? Positioning Systems. https://strategicdiscipline.positioningsystems.com/blog-0/strategy-what-is-your-winning-aspiration. Retrieved 8/15/2025

Zimney, S (2024). Speaking story. WiseInk