"As a founder, I set ambitious and interesting goals for the team, but they took their time achieving them. Why is my team not on track to reach business goals? What am I doing wrong?”
One founder, let it be John, asked the team to write a big vision. They didn't get the job done, so John is going to do it for them. John expects that when the vision is ready, the team will run to implement it.
What do you think, will they?
Of course, they won't. It's not their goal to implement someone's big vision.
The team in this case wants to make a buck, but poor John didn't keep that in mind when setting the task. They sat at the bargaining table and figured out exactly what each wanted to do. So, John finally came up with a strategy that everyone was happy with. Now the team is making a buck in the right direction.
The team doesn't need a big vision in this particular case. Some other teams may need a great vision that matches their perceptions of the beautiful. All the goals must be in sync so the team works toward the founder's vision. That's the founder's main job, isn't it?
If an employee's goals are incompatible with the company's ones, it's a hiring mistake. It's important to make sure that your goals are compatible with the team's ones at the start. And as you go along, you have to keep them in sync. Then your employees will run where you need them to.