Friday Q&A: Is a company’s vision created by one person, or by a team?

Every Friday, we’re answering your questions about business, startups, customer success and more.

Happy Friday!

This question was asked in response to our recent post about the importance of vision.

The context of Spencer’s question is that he and two other leaders are running a family business.

But many startup co-founders share this same challenge.

There’s no “right” answer that’s absolutely true for everyone. It’s your business and you can decide how to run it, and there are successful teams where vision is set by an individual, as well as successful teams where vision is set by a team.

However, both of those scenarios are monumentally better than the more common alternative, which is that each co-founder has their own idea of what they imagine the “shared” vision is.

This happens often when co-founders start a business based on the shared vision that they create⁠—that’s those long nights spent sketching, brainstorming and passionately debating about the future⁠—and then, when their schedules fill up with day-to-day tasks, neglect to continue those discussions in favor of focusing on more tactical issues.

Those discussions need to continue. That vision needs to keep being shaped, and that alignment needs to continue being kept in check.

Otherwise, it’s natural for each co-founder’s idea of the vision to deviate from the others’, because they only have their internal perspective on which to base that vision on.

So in short, you and your co-founders or co-leaders can choose how to set your vision.

But be deliberate about regularly checking in with each other to make sure you’re aligned. And if you’re not, get aligned, because misalignment is death.

I’m very curious to hear from others who have dealt with a similar challenge. Leave a comment and let us know how you tackle this!