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Executive Coaching, Leadership, Leadership Coaching, Leadership Development, personal development, Vision

Thinking of the Big Picture: What Do We Aspire to Accomplish?

John Whitehead
May 26, 2021

Thinking of the Big Picture: What Do We Aspire to Accomplish?

In this week’s Vlog post I explore how Vision is about the big picture. We start with the big picture and from there start developing how we get there, but we need to start with looking forward and upward. It is also about bringing others along with you on your journey. One way to do that is to ask others what their vision is for the organization. Kouzes and Posner in The Leadership Challenge give us some questions we can ask to help us clarify what our own vision of the future may look like, but we can use these same questions to ask others what theirs is. They are: What is your ideal work community? What qualities make the future of your organization/team/project distinctive, one oof a kind? What is your vision like (symbol/metaphor/image etc.)? What are the trends that are propelling your vision? Who are constituents/partners/clients?

 

 

John K Whitehead & Associates coaches individuals and organizations in becoming more effective by helping them improve their interpersonal communications, emotional intelligence, and resiliency.

You can read my blog at https://johnkwhitehead.ca

If you have enjoyed reading these posts, please Follow Me – and if you sign up for my Blog I will send you a copy of my eBook, “What Are These Things Called Soft Skills?”

Executive Coaching, Leadership, Leadership Coaching, Leadership Development, Vision

How Are You Enlisting Others in Your Vision?

John Whitehead
May 19, 2021

Kouzes & Posner in their work “The Leadership Challenge” state that “Visions are images in the mind; they are impressions and representations.” As leaders we need to present our vision in ways that our direct reports and others can grasp it, to “draw on that very natural mental process of creating images”. How can you do that? Well for me one way is in repetition, repeating my vision in as many different ways and as often as I can. Once is not enough. In this week’s Vlog I use the example of attending networking events on a consistent basis to make connections, build relationships and to be consistent with my message – my vision – of who and what I do. What do you do? How Are You Enlisting Others in Your Vision?

 

John K Whitehead & Associates coaches individuals and organizations in becoming more effective by helping them improve their interpersonal communications, emotional intelligence, and resiliency.

You can read my blog at https://johnkwhitehead.ca

If you have enjoyed reading these posts, please Follow Me – and if you sign up for my Blog I will send you a copy of my eBook, “What Are These Things Called Soft Skills?”

Coaching, Executive Coaching, Leadership, Leadership Development, Vision

Do You have a Compelling Vision of Your Future?

John Whitehead
May 12, 2021

And if you do, are you sharing that vision with others? Specifically, and in the context of leadership, with those of whom you lead?

Following up to my last Vlog post where I asked the question “What is your Vision for your organization? Can you envision what the ideal and unique future is for your team?” How are you bringing others along on that journey, sharing that vision you have for your organization? As Dan Schwab, former director of Training and Development, The Trust for Public Land stated,” One of the greatest gifts you can give others is the understanding that they can think bigger things than they believe they can. It’s contagious. What limits vision in an organization is nobody being willing to speak up for one. But once you do, there is a sort of avalanche or landslide factor; it just keeps rolling.”

Let me know what you think.

 

 

John K Whitehead & Associates coaches individuals and organizations in becoming more effective by helping them improve their interpersonal communications, emotional intelligence, and resiliency.

You can read my blog at https://johnkwhitehead.ca

If you have enjoyed reading these posts, please Follow Me – and if you sign up for my Blog I will send you a copy of my eBook, “What Are These Things Called Soft Skills?”

Executive Coaching, Leadership, Leadership Coaching, Leadership Development

Are You in Your Job to Do Something, Or for Something To Do?

John Whitehead
May 6, 2021

What is your Vision for your organization? Can you envision what the ideal and unique future is for your team? Try asking these questions of yourself:

  • Are you in your job to do something of for something to do?

  • What about your job is important to you, your team, your organization, to those who use your product or service?

  • What would give your work real meaning and purpose – inspire you to come to work everyday full of energy and enthusiasm?

  • What legacy would you aspire to leave when it’s time to move to a new opportunity?

  • What is your vision theme?

from The Leadership Challenge Workshop Participants Workbook (4th Ed) Pfeiffer, 2013

 In this week’s vlog post I explore these questions and how they impact how you “Inspire a Shared Vision”

John K Whitehead & Associates coaches individuals and organizations in becoming more effective by helping them improve their interpersonal communications, emotional intelligence, and resiliency.

You can read my blog at https://johnkwhitehead.ca

If you have enjoyed reading these posts, please Follow Me – and if you sign up for my Blog I will send you a copy of my eBook, “What Are These Things Called Soft Skills?”

Executive Coaching, Leadership, Leadership Coaching, Leadership Development

How Do You Inspire a Shared Vision?

John Whitehead
April 28, 2021

What is your vision for your organization? – Do you know? Can you state it seamlessly and flawlessly? What can a “Vision” be? Well Kouzes and Posner give us this; “a vision is an ideal and unique image of the future for the common good”. To share that vision, we should “envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities” and “enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations”. How do we do that? This week I start the next series of vlog posts on just that. This week, how often do we talk to our direct reports (or anyone for that matter) in our organization about future trends and those might influence how our work gets done?

 

John K Whitehead & Associates coaches individuals and organizations in becoming more effective by helping them improve their interpersonal communications, emotional intelligence, and resiliency.

You can read my blog at https://johnkwhitehead.ca

If you have enjoyed reading these posts, please Follow Me – and if you sign up for my Blog I will send you a copy of my eBook, “What Are These Things Called Soft Skills?”