Personal leadership starts with your vision, mission, and values. You can increase your speed when you know your direction. You cannot skip this part. Leadership begins with you.
To create a breakthrough, you need to think long-term. Though we want immediate for our actions, we must keep in mind that everything our actions have consequences. What we do today may impact the future.
You can transform lives. Because you can make lives better or worse for others, you need to think from a helicopter point of view while keeping your feet on the ground.
I encourage you to create a compelling vision, commit to a mission, and clarify your values. I shall discuss each briefly.
Vision
Every leader dreams big. He sees a future much better than today. I think this is one reason why great leaders are often known to be stubborn. It is not that they don’t listen to people. Unfortunately, most people have a vision.
A compelling vision makes people leave their comfort zone to explore unchartered territories. Your ability to paint a clear and convincing picture of the future will encourage people to march together.
We will talk more about this in Inspire A Shared Vision.
Mission
Your mission explains your existence. It tells what a leader must do at a given moment. I say that a vision is often more important than a leader. As long people believe in the vision, they’ll follow leaders.
If your vision is your destination, your mission is what you do every day.
Values
Values are a set of beliefs and principles that guide your leadership. You must be clear about your beliefs, for they shape your decisions.
You will lead people with the same values as you are. You must therefore listen to your voice before you listen to others. You need to know who you are.
Then, find out what others value too to agree on shared values.
Some organizations have a set of Core Values, while others have Principles.
