The four key components of a personal leadership vision

Stewart Friedman, Professor of Management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and author of “Total Leadership”, wrote a great post titled “Define Your Personal Leadership Vision” discussing the four key components of leadership vision…

“Leadership vision is an essential means for focusing attention on what matters most; what you want to accomplish in your life and what kind of leader you wish to be. A useful vision has to be rooted in your past, address the future, and deal with today’s realities. It represents who you are and what you stand for. It inspires you, and the people whose commitment you need, to act to make constructive change towards a future you all want to see.

Let’s look a bit more closely at the four key components: 

• A compelling story of the future is engaging; it captures the heart, forces you to pay attention. Those who hear it want to be a part of it somehow. And they are moved.
• What does your future look like – what’s the image? If others could travel into the future with you, what would they find? A well-crafted leadership vision is described in concrete terms that are easy to visualize and remember.
• The story of your future should be a stretch, but it must be achievable, too. If it were not achievable, you would have little motivation to even bother trying.
• Finally, future simply means out there – some time from this moment forward, but not so far away that’s it’s out of reach.”

These four components provide a great way to test the strength of your leadership vision. If you test your leadership vision according to these four components, how does it stack up?

• Does your leadership vision capture the heart and force you to pay attention?
• Is your leadership vision described with a clear image of the future?
• Is your leadership vision achievable?
• Is your leadership vision within reach?

Technorati Tags: Vision, Leadership, Management, Business, Future

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4. The management of attention through vision
5. Are you investing in your personal leadership?

Tagged as: Vision