In the Ability to Lead, I quoted Warren Bennis who says, The Lone Ranger is dead.  In order to lead a Great Group, a leader need not possess all the individual skills of the group members.  What he or she must have are vision, the ability to rally the others, and integrity….

A Regional Director is discussing the thrust and directions of the office to her staff.

Visualizing what you want and wish to happen as if it already exists, opens the door to letting it happen.  A leader must have a vision to effectively set priorities and keep people focused and motivated.

Jim Clemmer says, Give it a strong, clear picture of what you want and this creative power starts to work magnetizing conditions about you — attracting to you the things, resources, opportunities, circumstances and even the people you need, to help bring to pass in your outer life what you have pictured . . . what you picture in your mind, if you picture it clearly and confidently and persistently enough, will eventually come to pass in your life . . .

That’s how powerful a vision is to a leader.  What you are thinking and imagining will usually happen, especially if you act on it.

“Soon after the completion of Disney World someone said, ‘Isn’t it too bad Walt Disney didn’t live to see this’. I replied, ‘He did see it – that’s why it’s here’.”
- Mike Vance, creative director, Walt Disney Studios

Disney World was created based of Walt Disney’s strong vision of how it shall look like.

A leader’s vision gives hope to the people especially in times of crisis, stress and difficulty and in state of confusion and despair.  As a leader, you must know where you are going.   Hesburgh says that you can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.

Where there is no vision, there is no hope.
- George Washington Carver

I’m inviting you to share your ideas and opinions on the role of a vision to a leader by leaving your comments below this article.  I love to hear from you.

Your friend,

Nimia Acebes