I recently attended a superb training session on Inspirational Leadership from Ben at Contender Charlie. The messages on leadership were based on Shakespeare's Henry V.
You can find handouts from the course here.
Over a series of posts I'm going to share some of my learning from the course.
Vision is the core of leadership. It's about spotting the talent in other people and helping them to achieve their potential. Vision must always deal with life's qualities, not with its quantities.
When building your vision, don't get vision and strategic targets mixed up. A vision doesn't necessarily change. Everyone should know it, and senior management should live it. It's the big picture. It's why we do what we do.
Ben explained that one of the best vision statements he had come across was in a hotel, where the care shown for its guests was exquisite. The vision for the hotel was, "We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen." It's simple and clear. It is not measurable by conventional standards. One of the most famous visions was shared in Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream speech. It wasn't measureable.
A vision should be entirely aspirational and is absolutely what we stand for. Everyone involved in the organisation should buy into it. They should connect with the vision. It should unite people.
"Whatever you can do
Or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius,
Power and Magic in it."
Goethe
