It might surprise you to know that with a few words, your team will likely experience higher job satisfaction, motivation, commitment, loyalty, pride, and productivity.

What words could generate such resounding results?

The answer is your vision. And if effectively developed and communicated—addressing the broader organizational questions, “Why are we here?” and “Why is it important that we’re here?”—it can move mountains.

Early in his presidency, John F. Kennedy shared his vision for the U.S. space program by challenging the scientific community to reach the moon before the turn of the decade. While his proclamation had its skeptics, the message galvanized the scientific community around this unprecedented picture of the future.

When leaders articulate a vision in this manner, it serves four key purposes. First, it clarifies, articulates, and defines the purpose of the entire organization. Second, it serves as a motivator and a directional beacon for all followers. Third, the words implicitly or explicitly prompt people to action through their desire for affiliation with a noble cause. Fourth, it invites feedback that can be evaluated and processed.

Whether you’re creating or revitalizing an organization—a manufacturing site, shipping department, service call center, or local bank branch—you need to have a vision.

An effective vision has several unique characteristics. It must be compelling and plausible, as it must be translated into organizational realities. It must allow followers to imagine the desired future state of the enterprise, serving the long-term interests of all constituents. It must have focus such that followers will understand it as the basis for all future decision making. It must be relatively simple, easy to communicate, and easy to explain. It must be ambitious and inspirational, having both intellectual and emotional appeal.

It may focus upon excellence, industry leadership, continuous improvement, quality of life enhancements, noble cause, societal responsibility, stakeholder values, and be customer-centric.

Vision statements need to be the reason that you get out of bed in the morning.

To commence a collective dialogue and provoke thought about an “ideal” organizational vision statement, there are several worthy considerations; two are exemplary.

First, in their book Competing for the Future, Hamel and Prahalad outline a series of conceptual questions for organizational leaders to consider when pondering the future state of their markets and organizations. These include contemplating tomorrow around what customers you’ll serve, the channels that you’ll reach them through, the competitive landscape, the basis of your competitive advantage, the source of your sales and margins, and the identification of the product, services, or technological capability that will make your organization unique.

Second, in Good to Great, Jim Collins referred to the “Hedgehog” concept, suggesting that great companies have a deep understanding of the concerns around “What are you deeply passionate about?” “What you can be the best in the world at?” and “What drives your economic engine?”

The intersection of these differentiating questions is the essence of defining your organization’s vision.

Don’t underestimate the time and effort required to develop a vision statement. It’s hard work, requires teamwork and consensus-building, and you must involve the right people. At the most senior levels in larger organizations, identifying a vision statement usually falls upon the shoulders of the CEO and the executive committee, who then take it to the board of directors for discussion, editing, and approval.

You are your CEO and the decision maker of your team. Get the opinions of your key constituents. Use a facilitator if necessary to keep the discussion on track. If helpful, get the reactions of a focus group of employees (or the like; preferably opinion molders). You may obtain some terrific input.

You can find some examples of vision statements in Appendix B, “Vision/Mission Statements,” available for download on the book’s Web site.