Start With the Vision: How Great Leaders Work Backward From the Summit

Michael Hyatt writes in his book The Vision Driven Leader that “vision always—and I mean always—comes first,” a principle that shapes how effective leaders move from inspiration to execution. In the high-stakes world of leadership, one truth often separates thriving companies from those that stall: vision-driven leaders don’t react their way to success—they reverse-engineer it. Instead of being pulled in a thousand directions by urgent demands, they start with the future clearly imagined and work backward, building a system that connects today’s actions with tomorrow’s outcomes.

This approach isn’t just philosophy—it’s practical execution. When climber Tommy Caldwell attempted the Dawn Wall, one of the most difficult free climbs in the world, he didn’t just hope his way up. He first envisioned the entire 3,000-foot route, then broke it down into 32 individual “pitches” or segments. As he described it, “I had a macro-concept of the line, even if plenty of question marks remained at the crucial level of putting it together.”

Caldwell’s method mirrors how great leaders bring a bold vision to life: start with the summit, then chart the steps back to the base. Each step is part of a deliberate sequence that brings the destination into reach.

The Clarity Gap: Why Many Leaders Get Stuck

Too often, leaders skip the vision stage entirely. They go straight to strategy, get buried in operations, or worse—get lost in a sea of to-do lists and tactical execution that doesn’t ladder up to anything meaningful. Harvard Business Review researchers Heike Bruch and Sumantra Ghoshal note that only 10% of leaders exhibit purposeful, strategic behavior—while 90% are consumed with reactive, unproductive busyness.

"Executives are under incredible pressure to perform," they wrote. “But many become consumed by day-to-day responsibilities, leaving little time for reflection or direction setting.” (Harvard Business Review)

Without vision, leaders end up managing for maintenance rather than mobilizing for transformation. Their teams stay busy, but disconnected. Momentum becomes motion without meaning.

Vision Suggests the Strategy

In The Vision Driven Leader, Michael Hyatt asserts that “Vision suggests the strategy.” You don’t build a house without blueprints—and you don’t build a business without a clear mental picture of where it’s going. Vision is what gives strategy its shape and direction.

Hyatt defines vision as “a clear, inspiring, practical, and attractive picture of your organization’s future.” It’s the picture that inspires your team, attracts aligned stakeholders, and keeps you grounded when things get hard.

When you have vision, strategy flows naturally. You can make informed trade-offs. You can say no to distractions, because you’ve already said yes to something more important. Without vision, strategy becomes a disconnected collection of tactics—each productive on its own, but collectively chaotic.

The Vision-Strategy-Goals Framework

The process that vision-driven leaders follow looks like this:

Vision → Strategy → Goals → Actions

Let’s break this down using Tommy Caldwell’s approach. His vision was to free-climb the Dawn Wall—something no one had done before. His strategy was to map the entire route and climb it in segments. His goals were to complete each individual pitch. And his daily actions involved training, adapting, and climbing each section with discipline.

In leadership, the same approach applies. A vision to become the leading provider in your industry suggests a strategy—perhaps focused on innovation, customer intimacy, or geographic expansion. That strategy then breaks down into annual goals: launching new products, entering new markets, or reducing churn. From there, those goals break into daily actions—sales calls, onboarding processes, R&D cycles.

This is where Hyatt says “long-term strategy and daily productivity meet.” When you connect what you’re doing today with where you’re going tomorrow, every step matters.

Why “Working Backward” Works So Well

The strength of this model lies in its sequence: it starts with clarity, then moves into execution. That’s different from the way many organizations operate. They try to act their way into clarity, which usually leads to misalignment and inefficiency.

Vision-driven leaders instead reverse-engineer their future. They start with the desired outcome and ask:

• What would have to be true for that to happen?
• What resources, systems, or capabilities would we need to build?
• What must we focus on—and what must we ignore?

It’s this kind of focused thinking that enables real progress. As Hyatt writes, “Vision is like a magnetic field: it pulls everything in your organization toward a common destination.” (skipprichard.com)

The Discipline to Stay Focused on the Peak

It’s one thing to define a vision; it’s another to maintain focus on it over the long haul—especially when daily pressures mount. Crises, team conflicts, missed targets—these things can distract even seasoned leaders.

That’s why Hyatt emphasizes the importance of vision reinforcement. It’s not enough to write a vision statement and tuck it in a drawer. Leaders must communicate the vision consistently in team meetings, strategic plans, and performance reviews. It should guide hiring, budgeting, and decision-making at every level.

Tommy Caldwell didn’t forget about the summit as he climbed each pitch. His attention was on the next handhold—but his purpose was anchored in the bigger goal. Vision doesn’t eliminate the grind—it gives it meaning.

Applying the Vision-Driven Framework to Your Business

Let’s take a practical look at how a company might apply this approach.

Example: A SaaS Company Scaling from $5M to $15M

• Vision: Become the #1 customer success platform for B2B service companies by 2028.
• Strategy: Differentiate through integrations, user experience, and service reliability.
• Annual Goals:
  • Launch two major product integrations.
  • Improve NPS score by 20%.
  • Expand into three new vertical markets.
• Q3 Focus Areas:
  • Complete integration with HubSpot and Salesforce.
  • Pilot onboarding automation flow with 10 key accounts.
  • Launch paid ads targeting healthcare and logistics companies.

In this scenario, every quarterly initiative, weekly sprint, and daily task flows from a larger vision. Teams aren’t just hitting numbers—they’re building something that matters.

Vision as the Antidote to Burnout

One of the hidden benefits of a vision-driven approach is that it reduces decision fatigue and team burnout. When people know where they’re going and why it matters, they don’t waste energy questioning every next step.

Hyatt writes, “People lose motivation when they don’t believe the future will be better than the present. Vision reignites that hope.” (The Vision Driven Leader, Michael Hyatt)

That’s what makes this leadership style so effective. It’s not just about structure or planning—it’s about meaning. When the vision is alive in the hearts of the team, even setbacks become part of a larger story.

Vision is Not a Luxury—It’s a Leadership Requirement

There’s a misconception that vision is something optional—a "nice to have" reserved for founders, creatives, or C-suite leaders. In truth, vision is the starting point for every meaningful result. Without it, you can’t lead with conviction. You can’t measure progress. You can’t build culture.

In a world that changes fast and demands much, clarity is more valuable than ever. And clarity doesn’t come from doing more. It comes from pausing long enough to ask: Where are we going? What do we want to build? What will matter five years from now?

That’s where vision begins. And once you’ve seen it, the only question left is: what’s the next pitch?

Final Word: Keep Your Eye on the Peak

You don’t summit a mountain by accident. You don’t scale a company, build a movement, or lead a team to greatness without starting with a vision. That vision becomes your compass. Your guide rope. Your reason to climb.

Start with the peak in mind. Then work backward.

Every pitch, every plan, every step—you’re getting closer.

As Tommy Caldwell showed the world, and Michael Hyatt reminds us: keep your eye on the peak. Every step counts.

References

1. Hyatt, Michael. The Vision Driven Leader: 10 Questions to Focus Your Efforts, Energize Your Team, and Scale Your Business. Baker Books, 2020.
2. Caldwell, Tommy. The Push: A Climber's Journey of Endurance, Risk, and Going Beyond Limits. Penguin Books, 2017.
3. Bruch, Heike & Ghoshal, Sumantra. “Beware the Busy Manager.” Harvard Business Review, February 2002. HBR.org
4. Michael Hyatt Interview – Skip Prichard Blog. skipprichard.com
5. Tommy Caldwell Quotes – Goodreads. goodreads.com

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