Communicates a compelling and inspired vision or sense of core purpose; makes the vision sharable by everyone; can inspire and motivate entire units or organizations.
Managing vision and purpose involves anticipating future trends, creating a compelling vision, and communicating that vision. Describe a situation that conveys your capability in this area.
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People who manage vision and purpose impassion others, generating expectancy and optimism. Describe a situation that demonstrates your skill in this area.
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Managing vision and purpose involves discerning what inspires and motivates people. Tell me about the most complex situation in which you demonstrated this competency.
Learning on your own: These self-development remedies will help you build your skill(s).
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Craft the message: Create a mission statement that can be clearly explained to an audience in three minutes or less. Make it simple, compelling, and capable of capturing the imagination. Capture the essence of what’s important in your organization.
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Represent a common mindset: Mission and vision statements should provide everyone in the organization with a roadmap of how to reach a common goal. Imagine what the change will look like when it’s fully implemented. Content should express where you are going, not how you will get there.
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Manage change: Anticipate trouble and prepare to debug or fix mistakes. Document difficulties, and learn from them as a work in progress.
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Walk your talk: Let what you do reflect what you say. Make your actions line up with your new mission and vision.
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Match the audience: Learn to adjust the tone, pace, style, and content of your message to your audience.
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Inspire: Motivate instead of threaten. Paint a positive, optimistic, and inspirational picture about where you need to go.
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Prepare for resistance: Consider 10 critical questions that may arise, and be prepared with answers. Mentally rehearse how to respond to criticism; attack positions, not people.
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Sell the mission and vision: Point out the features and benefits of the changes. Anticipate objections.
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Talk the future: Consider educated “what-ifs” and speculate on how the future will impact your group.
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Manage the mission and vision: Even if you have not been involved in creating the mission and vision of the organization, deliver the message with loyal enthusiasm.
Learning from develop-in-place assignments: These part-time develop-in-place assignments will help you build your skill(s).
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Be a change agent; champion a significant change and work toward implementation.
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Relaunch an existing program or project that is not going well.
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Manage, teach, or coach a temporary group of inexperienced people.
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Draft a mission statement or policy proposal, and get feedback from others.
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Manage a study or project team on a significant issue, and present the results to key people.
Learning more from your plan: These additional remedies will help make this development plan more effective for you.
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Learning from experience, feedback, and other people:
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Use multiple models. Select role models of towering strengths (or glaring weaknesses). Learn from characteristics rather than from the whole person.
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Be a student of others. Study their behavior and what’s effective and ineffective. Adapt what you learn to improve yourself.
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Learn from those in authority. Distance yourself from your feelings, and analyze what those in authority do and do not do well. Choose to imitate the successful behavior.
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Learn from interviewing others. Ask what, how, and why they do what they do, where they learned it, and how they keep it current and relative.
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Learn by observing others. Objectively study what they do.
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Learn from remote models. Read a book or an article about someone, and observe what they do and don’t do well.
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Get feedback from those in authority. Communicate that you are open to constructive criticism and are willing to work on issues they view as important.
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Get feedback from your direct reports. Set a positive tone, and don’t retaliate if you don’t agree.
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Learning from courses:
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Participate in Orientation Events that communicate the strategies, mission, and goals of your organization.
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Take a strategic course. Stretch your thinking to prepare for and anticipate future challenges.
Adair, John. The Inspirational Leader. London: Kogan Page, 2003.
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Bacon, Terry R. and David G. Pugh. Winning Behavior: What the Smartest, Most Successful Companies Do Differently. New York: AMACOM, 2003.
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Black, J. Stewart and Hal B. Gregersen. Leading Strategic Change: Breaking Through the Brain Barrier. Upper Saddle River, NH: Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2002.
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Bossidy, Larry, Ram Charan, and Charles Burck (Contributor). Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. New York: Crown Business Publishing, 2002.
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Chajet, Clive and Tom Shachtman. Image by Design. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1991
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Collins, James C. and Jerry I. Porras. Built to Last. New York: HarperBusiness, 2002.
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Davidson, Hugh. The Committed Enterprise: How to Make Vision and Values Work. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2002.
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The Futurist Magazine. http://www.wfs.org
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Hamel, Gary. Leading the Revolution. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2000.
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Kotter, John P. and Dan S. Cohen. The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2002.
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Price Waterhouse Change Integration Team. Better Change. Burr Ridge, IL: Irwin Professional Publishing, 1995.
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Reed, Peter J. Extraordinary Leadership: Creating Strategies for Change. London: Kogan Page, 2001.
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Schwartz, Peter. The Art of the Long View. New York: Doubleday, 1991.
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Tellis, Gerard J. and Pete N. Golder. Will and Vision. New York: McGraw-Hill Trade, 2001.
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Thornton, Paul B. Be the Leader, Make the Difference. Irvine, CA: Griffin Trade Paperback, 2002.
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Welch, Jack and John A. Byrne. Straight From the Gut. New York: Warner Books, 2002.
