LEADERS LOOK FORWARD TO THE FUTURE. They hold in their minds visions and ideas of what can be. They have a sense of what is uniquely possible when everyone works together for a common purpose. Leaders know that bringing meaning to life in the present by focusing on making life better in the future is essential to making extraordinary things happen.

But visions seen only by leaders are not enough to make extraordinary things happen. They must help others to see the exciting future possibilities and communicate their hopes and dreams so that others clearly understand and share them as their own. They must show other people how their own values and interests will be served by a long‐term vision of the future. By expressing their enthusiasm and excitement for the vision, through making strong appeals and using quiet persuasion, they enlist enthusiastic supporters.

To Inspire a Shared Vision, you envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities, and you enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations.

WHAT IS A VISION?

We define vision as an ideal and unique image of the future for the common good. A vision articulates a realistic, credible, attractive condition that is better in some important ways than what exists. To inspire others, you need to be able to state what's unique and distinctive about your vision. You need to be able to describe it so that people can picture it in their own minds—“Oh, I see what you're talking about!”—and talk about it in a way that is appealing to all who have a stake in it. Only shared visions have the power to sustain commitment over time.

Here are examples from our personal‐best cases of actions that helped some leaders Inspire a Shared Vision:

• Every quarter, an insurance executive assigned each of her dozen team members three different publications to read. Some were meant for general audiences, and others were industry‐related. She wanted the readings to be diverse, so her choices covered the gamut from popular music to science and technology. The task of each team member was to look for trends that had implications for their business and write one‐page summaries of those implications for the future. Then the team members would meet to discuss their work and look for themes. This process of continually scanning the horizon for emerging trends helped the team stay ahead of the curve.
• A vineyard manager decided to bring his core team together and create a credo and vision statement they could turn to when things were uncertain. The values they developed became the foundation for a “guiding vision” for the organization. But it wasn't easy. At first, the manager felt as if he was giving up control of the business. He kept thinking, “What if their ideas are awful?” and “Will I get stuck with a direction I don't want to go?” But he ended up with people who were totally committed to the credo and vision statement because they were involved in its creation. They felt empowered to act, knowing that they had a “constitution” of sorts to rely on in the face of change.
• The volunteer coordinator for a beloved community bookstore learned how important it is for people to take pride in being unique. The bookstore was a cherished institution, but it was in disarray and volunteers felt little impetus to go the extra mile. A principal cause was the lack of vision and direction for the team. The coordinator coached the volunteers on ways to use the store's scarce resources more efficiently, improve financial practices, and provide better service to customers. To inspire them to bring the bookstore back to being the place where people loved to go, not just because of the great collection of books but also for the inviting vibe and sense of community, she reminded them of how important the bookstore was to people's lives. She emphasized how much the institution was relying on them to survive and how they were in an honorable position not just to serve as a bookstore but to be a community icon with an esteemed legacy.
• The head of a community outreach program of a state university wanted to provide an educational and service opportunity for students to engage with issues and people who were unfamiliar to them. He traveled to San Francisco with a group of students for the school's first‐ever “alternative” spring break. This group slept on the floor of a San Francisco church and worked at local homeless shelters. Each night they cooked dinner together in the church kitchen and discussed the day's events as they ate. After dinner they gathered to participate in team‐building exercises, discuss social issues related to their service experiences, write in the group's online journal, and prepare for the next day's work. His fondest wish for the project was for students to return to campus with a new sense of passion and commitment to social justice.
• A registered nurse in her new role as unit leader of a hospital intensive care/cardiac care unit was part of a team opening a new state‐of‐the‐art facility. She brought the team's vision to life by creating a logo with a slogan and choosing a mascot, one that identified with their Canadian roots and symbolized the journey they were on: an Inukshuk, a stone landmark built by the Inuit Natives across the Canadian Arctic that denotes a spiritual resting place along a migration route to food or shelter. She also created a “passport” that included a map of the new facility and a checklist for working safely in the new environment. Those innovations, plus a mock patient setup room where the staff could practice using the new technology and equipment hands‐on, brought the team's vision to life and lessened the anxiety about the move.

OBJECTIVES

As a result of completing the worksheets in this chapter you will be better able to:

• Articulate your personal vision of the future to the members of your project team
• Engage your team members in a dialogue about their hopes, dreams, and aspirations
• Enlist others in a common vision
• Communicate the common vision in an attractive, appealing way