Visionary Leadership

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Imagine the Possibilities

For this exercise, you need to put your negativity, pessimism, and cynicism on the shelf. Take a look at the lists you’ve developed from the previous exercises and imagine how you can reinvigorate or revitalize current products and services. Imagine who else might benefit from the strengths and assets you’ve listed. Are there other potential markets you have not tapped? Are there other ways you could organize skills, assets and strengths to create new products or services that better fit the needs of your current customers?

For this exercise, ask yourself questions that start with “What if” or “How could we.” The challenge is to stretch your thinking…to really push yourself to envision new products, new markets, and new ways of doing things. Don’t be bound by the confines of today’s reality. This exercise is about envisioning what the future can become.

Brainstorm Opportunities

Now that you’ve identified assets, resources, areas of service and a multitude of possibilities, it’s time to determine how to bring those things into reality. What opportunities might exist for bringing the ideals and concepts you’ve defined into your daily, weekly, monthly and annual activities? What resources and revenues will you need? How can potential avenues of service be integrated into your way of doing business (or your job)? With whom can you create mutually beneficial partnerships to provide your products and services in a way that meets a need, while receiving a fair revenue in return? With whom can you partner or to whom can you turn for trusted advice and a helpful perspective to put the needed resources into place and create the opportunities.

This exercise is about making dreams into reality. It’s about finding the resources (and the time) to create the future that you want to create. It’s about creating tangible action plans to bring to life a vision of the future that eradicates the fears and challenges your organization is currently facing. It’s about answering the question “How can we do it?”

Align Your Vision with Your Action

Without tangible action, all the time you’ve spent developing your vision will be wasted. Nothing gets done, and those fears you envisioned may very well become reality. Now it’s up to you to put your plan into action. What can you do today to begin gathering the resources you need? What can you do this week to initiate the process of bringing your opportunities to life? What will you do to share your vision with others, to inspire them, to gain their support and commitment? Typically, the most significant challenge any leader faces is in the implementation of vision. While there is no “one-size fits all” formula for success, most visionary leaders do several things:

Step 1: Clearly define the value of your vision. Paint a picture with words that shows people at all levels of the organization how your vision benefits them. If you have to sell your ideas to senior management, show them how the future you foresee will address the risks the organization faces, and remind them of the dangers of not taking action. To motivate subordinates, outline the tangible benefits that they will receive from making the vision a reality. Show them specifically what’s in it for them, and ideally get them to add their ideas to shape your vision, improve upon it, and make it their own.

Step 2: Communicate. Transforming an organization or even a department is a major undertaking. People will be afraid, uncertain about what it means to them and what needs to be done. As a leader, you’re job is to eliminate their fear and remove the doubt. Provide crystal clear directives. Frequently remind people why the changes are occurring and what the end benefits will be. And help every individual to see his or her importance in making the effort a success.  At the same time, be realistic in communicating with others. Don’t downplay the difficulty of the challenge or the risks. People will be much more likely to believe you when they perceive that you are realistic.

Step 3: Remember, change requires change. Unfortunately, not every one will agree with your vision. And even some of those who do agree with you will not have the skills or attitude needed to make your vision work. As a leader, the toughest job you will face will be changing your team. To succeed, you must be willing to remove those people who impede progress and do what ever is necessary to locate and hire the talent you need.

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