“A few examples: healing political rifts among nations now set on destroying each other, finding creative and practical ways to feed the hungry, and strengthening our increasingly fragile environment.”

You indeed met a group of miracle makers! I say this because the group expressed the vision being fully aware that, “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”.It is highly exciting. I would request you to post a brief account of the group’s reasoning behind the conclusion that the 3 goals were achievable in a reasonable time span.If the reasoning is convincing many would join and support them.

I am sure you and other moderators would have brought to their notice the following.
• Arafat, Rabin and Peres were awarded 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for “their efforts to create peace in the Middle East” but it still eludes these nations.
• According to International Food Policy Research "about a billion people were malnourished" in 2004.and the rising food prices after that year might have added many more.
• The G8 Toyako summit of July 8, 08 took a ‘momentous’ decision to cut the green-house gases to ‘HALF' by 2050! That too if India and China make equal commitments. That means another decade's delay. I hope your group’s more practical.

Hi Stewart,

I am a young (30) french manager and I loved your post. But I have a comment :
You say that the Leader has to have a vision of the future, and if this vision is concrete/compelling/achievable enough, the team will naturally follow.
I would say that the role of a good manager is to allow this vision of the future to appear by making participate all of his team.
The vision of the future should not be imposed from top to down but be a work of the team.
That way, the team will feel a lot more implicated and the manager will appear as a real leader.

What do you think ?

I agree! The most useful personal leadership visions start with what really matters to you and take shape with the practical knowledge of what matters to the people around you, the stakeholders from whom you need support and commitment.

A leader can have the most exciting and compelling vision of the future. But if that leader fails to share that vision with those that support and participate in it's attainment, it becomes an unmitigated failure. All too often, people in positions of leadership fall into the trap of thinking that their charges should blindly follow them. "Trust us...we're doing great things...really..."

Have the vision.

BE the vision.

SHARE THE VISION.

A key challenge (in both my successful and unsuccessful experiences) is "bringing the pack along with your vision." To align with Gary, it seems that this attribute of leadership is the most important, and that the four elements described in the article are key not only to the vision, but to the person drafting the vision.

It's great to want to "save the world..." but it's more important that the person drafting the vision believe in it. As a result of that lack of confidence, the organization may not believe in the vision and they are more conceptual than practical.

The worst situation is where organizational or individual vision statements are "more for show than for go." Out of a feeling that a vision is a necessary component, the effort to ground the vision in reality and then aligning that with both personal and organizationa. An example might be that an organization has a vision for values, behaivor, and conduct, but people don't believe it's relevant to them, so they don't apply those values to their behaivor. It made sense when the consulting firm said that we had to have one. I can hear the sales pitch now..."All the other companies have one, and you aren't complete as an organization without one. Your organization will not achieve its promise without a clear vision about..."

My key message is to reinforce the four key elements:
* A compelling story of the future is engaging and the image is compelling -- people will ask "what's in it for me?" That should be answered.

* It's a stretch, but achievable, and shows results (to both the organization and to the individual) -- People are willing to work hard for a vision that they believe in, and for one that gives them benefit. Again, if people see improvement in their work, or new possibilities that provide them with something that they can use to improve their lot in life, they will give you more than you ask.

Just my $.02.

Interesting bit of exercise!
Would have liked to be present to see the leadership visions of all.

Had read this somewhere - 'Know the Way, Show the Way, Go the Way'

Essentially, as a leader, you must know where you want to go. This is an absolute must. If the vision for the future is not crystal clear in the mind of the leader and also on paper, it will tough to show the way to the team.

It should be safe to assume that the team will have a buy-in on the vision - not because the boss says so. But because a wise leader will always put forward a vision that will be beneficial for all.
And if the vision is seen clearly by each member of the team, their benefit is clear to them, then they willingly play a part in achieving the vision. This will also keep the team engaged till the vision is achieved.

About going the way, well thats a different ball game altogether.

Sachin the leader will get compliance not commitment."Its not my vision that motivates you, but your vision"
Good advice for leaders who wish to enhance commitment rather than battle with compliance. The challange is one of helping people move from Reacting to Creating. To move the "C" they need to enable others to - 1 Create ,2 Share and 3 Live THEIR visions. Neuroscience research shows us the deeper and longer lasting value of "shared" rather than "told" visions. We need to stop confusing a visionary - seeing the future and a visionary leader who enables others to create and live their shared visions. We have run community visioning sessions with +200 participants to partner visions for life partners and personal visioning- Create your Future,
PS Since a vision is a picture of the future-all our visions are pictures - no words just telling future stories- NS again.

Comment on what both sachin and mike had so say: I think that a leader must have a very good idea (picture/vision) of where he/she wants to end up, and the trick will be in actually getting there. No point in trying to figure out clearly how to get there first, by then the goal posts may have shifted already, and often the path to the vision cannot be clearly mapped out at the onset. So leadership also entails a strong belief and conviction in the vision, and the ability to allow others to shape the actual path of getting there. And never ever forget that the successes achieved along the way must be celebrated - each one forms part of the bigger final picture.
Thanks for excellent comments and article!!