Visionary Leadership Skills

Creating a world to which people want to belong

Robert Brian Dilts

• Publisher: Dilts Strategy Group
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781947629035
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

At some point in our lives we have probably all felt the desire to “change the world” or to “make the world a better place.” This desire usually stems from a “vision” that our lives or our world could be enriched or improved in some way. Such visions of the future often provide guidance and direction for our lives and our work, furnishing the motivation and impetus for change on many levels.

This book examines some of the essential skills and tools that are required to bring about change and “create a world to which people want to belong” – the skills and tools of “visionary leadership”. These skills relate to forming and clarifying one’s own dreams and ideas, sharing those ideas with others, transforming those dreams into actions, and engaging the help of others to bring dreams and ideas into reality. Many of the skills presented in this book have been modeled from and were inspired by effective leaders and managers from around the world. These skills include communicating, interacting and managing relationships within an organization, network or social system in order to move towards one’s highest aspirations.

Some of the topics covered include:

• Releasing natural leadership abilities through the identification of your vision and mission

• Developing and maintaining states of personal excellence

• Forming effective plans

• Recognizing and addressing different thinking styles

• Understanding and managing beliefs and belief systems

• Enhancing personal effectiveness in communicating and in managing others

• Exploring and enriching personal leadership styles

• Giving useful feedback

Chapter 1

What is Leadership?

Overview of Chapter 1

•Defining Leadership

•The Problem Space of Leadership

•The Basic Skills of Leadership

Defining Leadership

One of the most important sets of skills required in a changing world are the skills of leadership. This has become increasingly evident as we have attempted to adapt to the escalating changes in our society and workplaces over the past century. As we try to take command of our own destiny and guide the destinies of our families, communities, organizations and our planet, the necessity of effective leadership ability has become increasingly obvious. Effective leadership is one of the keys to our future success and survival.

But what is leadership, and who has it? Can you develop leadership ability, or is it something you must be born with? Some say leadership has to be learned and earned. Others say leadership is a gift that cannot be taught.

Much of the literature on leadership focuses on “characteristics” of good leaders. These characteristics, however, are often too general to be of much practical value to someone trying to become a better leader. For instance, to say that good leaders are “gifted optimists” or are “honest” and “inspiring” provides little practical basis for specific skill development or improvement. These are typically judgments about our behavior made by others.

Frequently, descriptions of effective leadership emphasize what has been effective in a particular business, culture or environment. However, the actions, style or characteristics that make a leader “good” in one context may be ineffective or devastating in another.

Some studies of leadership focus on the outcomes of effective leadership; pointing out that good leaders “create vision,” “mobilize commitment,” “recognize needs,” etc. However, simply knowing about these goals is not enough. The key to actually achieving them involves having the mental and behavioral skills required to put them into practice.

The purpose of this book is to define and explore some specific models, principles and skills that will allow you to be a more successful leader; i.e., the “how to's” of effective leadership.

In defining what effective “leadership” is, it is important to distinguish between (a) a “leader,” (b) “leadership” and (c) “leading.” The position of “leader” is a role in a particular system. A person in the formal role of a leader may or may not possess leadership skills and be capable of leading. “Leadership” is essentially related to a person's skills, abilities and degree of influence. A good deal of leadership can come from people who are not formal “leaders.” “Leading” is the result of using one's role and leadership ability to influence others in some way.

In its broadest sense, leadership can be defined as the ability to influence others toward the accomplishment of some goal. That is, a leader leads a collaborator or group of collaborators towards some end. In businesses and organizations, ‘leadership’ is often contrasted with ‘management’. Management is typically defined as “getting things done through others.” In comparison, leadership is defined as, “getting others to do things.” Thus, leadership is intimately tied up with motivating and influencing others.

In the emerging views of leadership, however, leaders do not have influence simply because they are ‘bosses’ or ‘commanders’. Rather, leaders are people who are committed to “creating a world to which people want to belong.” This commitment demands a special set of models and abilities in order to effectively and ecologically manifest the visions which guide those committed to change. It involves communicating, interacting and managing relationships within an organization, network or social system to move toward one’s highest aspirations.

Nicholls (1988) has pointed out that a fair amount of confusion has arisen in leadership research because there are three fundamentally different perspectives of leadership. He defines these as Meta, Macro and Micro.

1.Meta leadership creates a ‘movement’ in a broad general direction (such as civil rights, home computers, or glasnost). Meta leadership, “links individuals, through the leader’s vision, to the environment. In doing so, it releases energy and creates enthusiastic followers.”

2.In Macro leadership, “the leader’s role in creating a successful organization is fulfilled in two ways; path-finding and culture-building...Path-finding can be summed up as finding the way to a successful future. Culture-building can be viewed as drawing people into purposeful organization – one which is capable of traveling along the path that is found or of fully exploiting current opportunities...Macro leadership activity can influence individuals by linking them to the entity – be it the whole organization or just a division, department or group. The leader influences the individual by supplying the subordinates with answers to such questions as: What is this organization all about? Where do I fit in? How am I valued and judged? What is expected of me? Why should I commit myself? In the process, the leader creates committed members of the organization.”

3.In contrast to both of these, Micro leadership “focuses on the choice of leadership style to create an efficient working atmosphere and obtain willing cooperation in getting the job done by adjusting one’s style on the twin dimensions of task and relationship behavior. Choice of leadership style depends on the particular subordinates and the job/ task being done; it is, thus, situational and contingent...the leader directs people in organizations in the accomplishment of a specific job or task. If the leadership style is correctly attuned, people perform willingly in an efficient working atmosphere.”

“Creating a world to which people want to belong” involves a mixture of all three different types of leadership ability to some degree.

The ‘Problem Space’ of Leadership

Before identifying some of the specific principles and skills that accompany micro, macro and meta leadership, let's look at some of the issues or ‘problem space’ those skills must address. The elements which make up a typical leadership situation involve (a) a leader leading (b) others toward (c) a goal within (d) a system. Thus, the general ‘problem space’ and skills of leadership (as perceived from the leader's perspective) involve managing the relationship between:

1.Oneself as a leader.

2.The desired goal or outcome of the project or situation.

3.The collaborators and others who influence and are influenced by oneself and the desired outcomes.

4.The system in which one is operating with others in order to reach the desired outcome.

The General ‘Problem Space’ of Leadership

As Nicholls pointed out, however, the types of issues relating to this general ‘problem space’ of leadership will vary depending on whether one is engaged in meta, macro or micro leadership.

On a ‘meta’ level, for instance, leadership involves considering (a) one’s mission with respect to (b) the larger global or overal...