The Seventh Annual Hay Group Study finds leadership boosts the bottom line. Best companies outperform the S&P 500 almost 2x over 10 years.  The study was quite comprehensive and the key findings worth reading.  We will focus on a small subset in this post.

According to the study, “The Best Companies for Leadership distinguish themselves by their ability to develop well-rounded, multifaceted talent within their organizations,” said Susan Snyder, senior principal in Hay Group’s Leadership and Talent practice and co-leader of the Best Companies for Leadership Study. “As innovation increasingly becomes a key differentiator for companies worldwide, best-in-class organizations are doing more to train and develop their people, celebrate diversity, reward collaboration and establish an environment that fosters innovation, creating a competitive advantage in the marketplace.”

In fact, the Best Companies for Leadership consistently outperform their peers. Over a 10 year period, the Top 20 companies produced a 5.39 percent shareholder return, compared to a 2.92 percent shareholder return generated by the S&P 500.

You have heard this before and here is another study that confirms what you either knew or imagined to be true.  So, what do you do about it?  You may not work for one of the global top 20 best companies and yet you want to improve how you lead.  What can you do?

1. 1. Buy the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook (I know blatant self-promotion) or upcoming workbooks (the series will create the pathway to develop innovative leadership from individual contributor  through executive). These books provide a comprehensive approach and worksheets that are self-paced and cost effective.
   2. Form a “book  club” for leadership development – create a group of colleagues and peers who have a shared desire to improve. It can be people within your company or outside.
   3. Develop practices or routines that support your ability to refine how you lead and sustain the changes long term.
   4. Teach others what you are learning-  by teaching it you will learn more.
   5. Create a culture that supports the changes you are making – not just for yourself but for as much of the organization as you can influence.
   6. Evaluate the performance management systems within your purview and ensure they support the leadership changes you are making in yourself and encouraging others to make.
   7. Take a class that helps you build on your strength or fill a gap.
   8. Work with a coach.

There are lots of barriers that get in our way and yet, most of us have the ability to take some small action every day to move forward and become a much stronger leader. What can you do today? tomorrow? next week?  What can you do to remove the barriers to taking small steps?

Are you considering improving your ability to be an innovative leader?  If so, take this free on-line Innovative Leadership assessment to determine where you fall on the innovative leadership scale.  If you are looking for tools to help develop you ability to be an innovative leader, check out the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook.  Metcalf & Associates offers assessments, coaching and workshops to help you and your leadership team become more innovative.

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I am kicking off a series of blog posts talking about challenges I see in coaching successful leaders looking to “up their game”.  We use the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook as the foundation for much of our approach.  This first post talks about leaders who are too competitive within their small group.

Our leader is being groomed for a senior leadership role in a major university. He is known for getting significant results often with limited financial resources and little political support. Now that he is moving into a more visible role, his prior behaviors will no longer serve him.

In this case, he took a 360 degree assessment that gave numeric scores and written comments from his boss, peers, and subordinates. He learned from this that his aggressive tactics have undermined him with his peers. They saw him as acting in his personal interest and the interest of his immediate team over the interest of the broader department. He used the feedback and insight to become much more aware of his actions and the impact they have on how others view him.

Based on what he learned during the assessment phase, he took action.  He made significant progress in rebuilding several key relationships and is also building a broader base of support across the university. His self-awareness provided him the foundation to make very different choices in how he relates to peers and people who will become his peers when he is promoted.

Result:  he is much more of a team player, considering the needs of the group and how he can work with others to accomplish a much broader goal than the ones he was accomplishing only a few months ago.  During a recent feedback discussion with one of his key stakeholders, he got very positive feedback about the changes others are seeing and the increased impact he is having across the organization.

Who do you define as your competition? Is it your coworkers? Your subordinates? What would happen to your business relationships and organizational success if you look more broadly at who is “in your circle” and who your competition really should be?

Are you considering improving your ability to be an innovative leader?  If so, take this free on-line Innovative Leadership assessment to determine where you fall on the innovative leadership scale.  If you are looking for tools to help develop you ability to be an innovative leader, check out the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook.  Metcalf & Associates offers assessments, coaching and workshops to help you and your leadership team become more innovative.

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According to a report published by Deloitte on March 29, 2012 revealing just how market perceptions of leaders move share prices. See excerpt from report below:

“In surveys and interviews in the United Kingdom, United States, China, India, Japan and Brazil, stock market analysts told Deloitte they’d award significant premiums for effective leadership and levy sizeable discounts for its opposite.

Deloitte discovered an average premium of 15.7% and an average discount of 19.8% – making the potential gap between the value of a company with good leadership and that of a company with weaker leadership an astonishing 35.5%.

It is clear that company valuations go up or down partly according to the perceived quality of leaders. The paper, The Leadership Premium, finds that analysts look beyond financial ratios to the broader picture of public and press opinion and corporate governance, to core leadership capabilities and to personal qualities such as honesty and integrity.

Simon Holland, head of Deloitte’s global change and transformation practice, comments: “To succeed over the long term, an organization needs a clear and inspiring vision of where it wants to be and the resources, ability and drive to get there. It also needs a culture that supports new ideas and that fosters a strong sense of belonging and purpose. These conditions aren’t developed accidentally: effective leaders design them in, and analysts recognize that.”

We believe one of the five key elements of Innovative Leadership is what we call situational analysis and alignment. This involves having a clear personal and organizational vision. Once you know where you are going, it’s important to evaluate the systems, processes, people and culture to determine where there are gaps and areas of misalignment.

We used this process when the CIO of a global manufacturing business accepted the position. He conducted a thorough visioning and current state assessment process where he evaluated both the organization and the leaders. The vision and assessment results allowed him to identify the short and long-term barriers to what he could accomplish and create an action plan to overcome those barriers. This process was invaluable to his success.

If analysts are looking at the broader picture of core leadership capabilities and personal qualities, what are you doing to build your own capabilities? Do you have a clear and inspiring vision? Does your culture align with your vision? Have you built systems that will allow you to achieve your vision? Are your leadership behaviors aligned with the vision, systems and culture?

Are you considering improving your ability to be an innovative leader? If so, take this free on-line Innovative Leadership assessment to determine where you fall on the innovative leadership scale. If you are looking for tools to help develop you ability to be an innovative leader, check out the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook. Metcalf & Associates offers assessments, coaching and workshops to help you and your leadership team become more innovative.

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Who to partner with is a critical decision. The pilots of these planes put their lives on the line based on the people they fly with.  While most of us do not face these consequences, our choices still have an impact. Chose poorly and you could invite serious damage to your reputation and your ability to succeed going forward.  Choose well and you could greatly enhance your organization’s ability to meets its goals and serve its constituents.

Many people look good on a first meeting yet   without serious consideration, can quickly become frustrating while also undermining your ability to meet your strategic goals. 

I recently attended a board meeting where the Board needed to evaluate if it was in their interest to partner with an organization that is leading the charge on an issue they care about.  The board wanted to uphold stakeholder interests as they clearly understood that should they not, there was potential to do serious damage to key partnerships and risk ongoing donor relationships. 

Within 5 minutes of watching this partner speak at a leadership summit, I was personally offended and saw many others respond the same way.  When discussing non-profit board member who need to raise money, he reprimanded donors for taking the easy way out and “just donating”.  He continued to speak in a confrontational manner and alienated a variety of attendees.   Moreover,   He minimized a very complex issue related to changing laws that are highly emotional and “simplified” them to the point that he appeared naïve at best. 

How could this Board have been better prepared? We will talk about six important questions to ask when considering a partnership or alliance.

What questions help you decide if a partner is a good fit?

1. What are my values?  How is the partner aligned with my values?
2. What behavioral ground rules do I expect for how we work together ex. open communicate?  Does the partner have similar expectations about how we will work together?
3. What is our culture?  Are our cultures aligned enough that we can have a productive working relationship?
4. Do our systems and processes align and support an efficient relationship?
5. What will this relationship cost me if it goes poorly?  What are the risks?
6. What do we get if we succeed?  How likely is it that we will succeed (give a percentage)?

Now, as you step back and carefully consider these six questions, how does this relationship look?  If it is not attractive, what other options will meet your objectives?

The people you associate with reflect on your judgment – and your organization.  Highly competent leaders tend to work together as do mediocre leaders.  If you are evaluated by the company you keep, it is important to develop the skill of discernment with regard to identifying and selecting talent.  How can you use these questions to improve success by doing a comprehensive evaluation of your potential partners?

Are you considering improving your ability to be an innovative leader?  If so, take this free on-line Innovative Leadership assessment to determine where you fall on the innovative leadership scale.  If you are looking for tools to help develop you ability to be an innovative leader, check out the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook.  Metcalf & Associates offers assessments, coaching and workshops to help you and your leadership team become more innovative.

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Photo credit:  flickr: Armchair Aviator

This is a guest post by Dani Robbins, a Metcalf & Associates, Inc. Associate.

As we all know by now, the Susan G. Komen Foundation Board of Directors adopted and then quickly revised (in response to fierce opposition) a policy that disallowed financial support to organizations that are under investigation, even politically motivated investigations, after a Florida Republican began an investigation into Planned Parenthood to assess if any Federal funding was being used to support abortions.

It all took less than a week, but during that week, some powerful leadership lessons emerged.

Let’s start in Philadelphia from whence the article entitled Komen foundation needs cure for backlash over Planned Parenthood cutoff hails. The article says ”The Susan G. Komen foundation, a behemoth in breast cancer philanthropy and creator of the immensely successful Race for the Cure brand, is battling a public-relations debacle. Within hours of Tuesday’s news that Komen would stop giving grants to Planned Parenthood for breast health services, donations began pouring in to the family planning organization while pink-ribbon crusaders vowed to cut Komen off.”

Talk about picking a hill to die on! Regardless of if you are pro choice or pro-life, love Planned Parenthood, love Komen, hate one, or hate the other, the Komen Board found themselves with a PR tsunami. NPR.org called it “one of the worst weeks in terms of public relations of any organization in recent memory.” And Komen is the PR queens of pink.

National Foundation Boards, like many Boards, tend to be filled with very smart, talented, passionate and connected people. I can only surmise that they greatly underestimated the ramifications of their decisions. Or that Board members who did not agree, also did not speak up! Stupid things happen, sometimes because they are allowed to happen.

The Washington Post reported ”Komen has been deluged with negative emails and Facebook postings, accusing it of knuckling under to pressure from anti-abortion groups, since The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that the charity was halting grants that Planned Parenthood affiliates used for breast exams and related services. The grants totaled $680,000 last year.” The article goes onto say “Besides $400,000 in smaller donations from 6,000 people, Planned Parenthood is receiving $250,000 from a family foundation in Dallas and a $250,000 pledge announced Thursday by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to match future donations.”

Leadership at any level is hard. Leaders make decisions. Some decisions will be unpopular. Some will be unwelcomed. Some will be unsafe for the leader but right for the organization. “Is this the hill you want to die on?” is a great question to ask before you charge forward.

It may well be the hill you want to die on. We all have values and when we’re lucky and intentional, we work at a place where the values of the company match our values. The question comes up less in this environment but it still comes up, especially if leadership, at the Board or senior level, changes.

What if you work with someone who continues to make sexually charged comments or gestures? You’ve said something to him. (Sorry; it’s usually a him.) You’ve said something to your boss. Where do you take it from there? What is the price?

What if the culture has changed around you? What if a board member/s or manager encourages you to do something you believe is unwise, or unethical or illegal? What if other Board members disagree but remain silent? What if you’re in charge and despite your best efforts to the contrary, you cannot align your values and the organizational values. In those circumstances, it may very well be the hill you want to die on.

What if your women focused work place decides to de-fund another women focused organization? Maybe you charge the hill. Maybe go away quietly. Where do the lines go between burning bridges and refusing to be a part of something that is abhorrent to you?

Mollie Williams, the Komen official who resigned to protest the organization’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood, managed to do both, and to do it brilliantly. She is quoted in The Atlantic as saying “Thank you for contacting me. As a public health professional, I must honor the confidentiality of my former employer, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and for this reason, I ‘m not responding to questions about Komen’s decision to no longer fund Planned Parenthood. The divide between these two very important organizations saddens me. I am hopeful their passionate and courageous leaders, Nancy Brinker and Cecile Richards, can swiftly resolve this conflict in a manner that benefits the women they both serve.”

Now, you might note that other than offering respect, she didn’t say much, but then, again, she didn’t have to. Because she left, and that says it all.

Are you considering improving your ability to be an innovative leader?  If so, take this free on-line Innovative Leadership assessment to determine where you fall on the innovative leadership scale.  If you are looking for tools to help develop you ability to be an innovative leader, check out the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook.  Metcalf & Associates offers assessments, coaching and workshops to help you and your leadership team become more innovative.

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Photo credit:  flickr: Gavin St. Ours

I have had a number of discussions with clients and colleagues lately that point to the profound risk people are facing of burnout and the cost we experience when this happens.  Many of our strongest leaders are saying they cannot maintain the pace and they are looking for other options that will allow them to maintain their health even if it means stepping back in pay and responsibility. 

I had three discussions this weekwith highly successful executives who are seriously considering these options.  To paint the picture, these are people who have been the ones who stepped in when others could or would not.  They are the heroes; they had the stamina, the competence and the commitment to sacrifice their personal wellbeing for the good of the organization.  What happens when they cannot do it anymore?  In many cases, they stepped up because others could not or would not so they are filling a gap that they thought was temporary.  Things were supposed to get better.  This was supposed to be a short term choice and now it has been a few years for some of them. 

According to Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chair of the World Economic Forum: “In the run-up to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, there is a distinct sense of burnout in the air.”

What is the impact?

According to Wendy Woods, “Basex research found that 50 percent of a knowledge worker’s day is spent “managing information” and that an excess of information results in “a loss of ability to make decisions, process information, and prioritize tasks.” In fact, research shows that constant information overload sends the brain into the fight-or-flight stress response, originally designed to protect us from man-eating tigers and other threats.”

What do they recommend?

The theme of this year’s annual World Economic Forum is “The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models”, precisely because we are in an era of profound change that urgently requires new ways of thinking instead of just more business-as-usual.

According to Klaus Schwab again, “There is an urgent need to act. As well as finding new models to collaboratively address all our global challenges, we also need to form a new model of leadership that is effective in the modern world: leadership that emphasizes both vision and values in order to overcome the current challenges. It is this combination that can provide leaders with a compass to guide their decision-making.”  Leadership based on vision and values will go a long way to regaining trust and beating the burnout, but only if leaders themselves can prove through concrete actions that social responsibility and moral obligations are not just empty words.

We completely agree with this assertion.  In our recently published book, the first step in developing innovative leadership is to examine and clarify your vision and values.  This set of exercises and reflections encourages you to consider the impact you will make on the world and how you will behave in the process.  We will be publishing a workbook in the first quarter of 2012 with exercises to help you identify your vision and values.  This will be a condensed version of the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook.  Our current plan is to make this chapter available at no cost on-line to encourage leaders to consider their personal vision and values and provide a set of tools to make this possible. In the absence of this clarity, leaders and organizations are more susceptible to the onslaught of information, changing priorities and fires to be addressed with no “north star” to use for navigation.

Are you considering improving your ability to be an innovative leader?  If so, take this free on-line Innovative Leadership assessment to determine where you fall on the innovative leadership scale.  If you are looking for tools to help develop you ability to be an innovative leader, check out the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook.  Metcalf & Associates offers assessments, coaching and workshops to help you and your leadership team become more innovative.

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Photo credit:  flickr: L.I.N.S.

Title: ASQ Spring Conference – Innovative Leadership
Location: Columbus State Conference Center
Link out: Click here
Description: Conference: Improving Quality – some assembly required. Innovative Leaderhship: Explore the five key elements of innovative leadership, score your proficiency, create a plan to improve the highest impact area.
Start Time: 8:30
Date: 2012-3-22
End Time: 16:30

I had lunch with a dear friend and executive yesterday talking about her sense of dread about getting out of bed in the morning and going to work.  She is a very upbeat person so this is a new experience for her.  She believed about 80% of her executive peers had similar dread on a daily basis and really wondered how they could make it through their day. 

People are actually hoping the 2012 disaster predictions are true so they can escape the jobs that they dreamt about and worked their entire lives to achieve.  How can that be? 

We go to college, take the right stretch assignments, relocate for jobs, and work crazy hours so we can reach this goal – being an executive.  All those sacrifices, time with friends and family, missed events, putting off relationships and family.  Then the question – I gave up so much to get here?  Now what?  Is this really it? 

How does this tie to innovative leadership?  Most of the leaders I know are working longer hours than they ever imagined at this point in life.  We all expected to pay our dues and we expected that the long hours and crazy schedules would be rewarded with promotion and an opportunity to live a more balanced life. Many are at the top of their game with regard to skills and abilities and still working crazy hours and feeling burned out.  As they look down the road, what are they working for? 

Innovative leadership helps leaders change how they see their role as leaders and develop additional awareness and skills to shift their experience. What do you get from focusing on Innovative Leadership?

1. It can help you become more self-aware – providing a foundation for different choices and more productive interactions
2. It can increase your ability to find innovative approaches to solve problems
3. It can help you change your habitual thinking –  moving away from unproductive thoughts
4. It can help you become more systematic in your problem solving and decision making – more comprehensive solutions mean more efficiency
5. It can guide your leadership behaviors to a more generative (less controlling) style – increasing engagement and productivity among your team

So, with those potential benefits – can you afford the time to explore what it is?  Please see our blog post on Innovation Excellence site explaining more about Innovative Leadership – titled Is Your Leadership Innovative.  You can also take the free on-line Innovative Leadership assessment to test your own development.

Based on feedback from busy executives, we are in the process of condensing the highly acclaimed Innovative Leadership Fieldbook into a much shorter workbook format.  While it does not have the depth of information, it is shorter thus requiring less time.  We provide practical tools and templates that help you in your leadership development along with an example of what completed worksheets look like.  You can use this as a stand-alone process or work with a coach. If you as a leader find the content and process helpful, you can use it with your staff to help them develop. 

If you are looking for tools to help develop you ability to be an innovative leader, check out the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook.  Metcalf & Associates offers assessments, coaching and workshops to help you and your leadership team become more innovative.

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Photo credit:  flickr h.koppdelaney

The TechColumbus Leadership Series is an exclusive invitation only event with 50-75 small and large company Founders, CEOs and Presidents.  It is an opportunity for the best and brightest of Columbus leadership to share ideas and discuss best practices. It is a more informal and conversational forum than other events with discussion designed to create greatest interest and value for attendees.  When company leaders can exchange ideas, lasting value and lasting relationships are formed.

Our first Fall Leadership Series in 2010 was very successful and became a space where veteran “business builders” shared their philosophies in a conversational setting.  Why were the speakers and their companies successful?  What mistakes did they make?  What lessons were most important?  Each, with their unique perspectives and experiences, engaged the attendees in ways that sparked new thinking and created valuable takeaways.  An experienced moderator directed the discussion and encouraged participation.

I attended most of these discussions and wrote blog posts about them to share the Founder, CEO and President’s messages with our community.  You can find links to the entire blog posts for each presentation below.  

January’s discussion featured Michael Glimcher – Culture Differentiates.  Michael talked about the tough economy and the tough lessons that allowed Glimcher to endure the economic crisis and position them for success going forward.  He shared some of his lessons learned over the past 15 years in detail.   Culture was one of the key differentiators.

In a world where we face a great deal of uncertainty in all areas of our lives, Glimcher promotes a culture of respect resulting in greater employee engagement, greater productivity and greater customer satisfaction.  All of these contribute to company sustainability and success.

As with other successful leaders, Michael has focused his attention on knowing his business, hiring the right leader and creating a culture and systems that promote effective operations.  Additionally, he built a company that supports the wellbeing of his associates and the community.  

April’s presentation featured Cheryl Krueger – Passion for Excellence.  In listening to her, she seemed very clear that no one element drove her success but rather the combination of doing everything well.  She created a system (business model) that operated impeccably.  She was committed to employee morale and engagement as a key enabler to deliver the customer experience she expected in every interaction. 

While her entire talk was interesting, a few things really stood out to me.  She was passionate about the company, about her vision, innovation and customer service. Her company was the first to offer individually wrapped cookies which had several benefits including flavor preservation and allowed the cookies to arrive intact.  As a consumer, I had not given packaging any thought.  In her discussion it was clear that the packaging was an important innovation that was unique to Cheryl’s and created a competitive advantage and also ensured a better customer experience.  What stood out most was her militant focus on customer care. 

Cheryl created a corporate culture, systems, processes, compensation plans, and organizational structure that delivered an experience to employees and customers that is consistent with her values. 

In September Jay Jordan, OCLC President Speaks   OCLC’s purpose is:  Furthering access to the world’s information and reducing the rate of rise of per-unit costs.   Here are a few of the ideas Jay shared that allow OCLC to meet it’s purpose:

• Understand what the future will require of us and build our technology and services to intersect that future. 
• Engage younger folks (digital natives) – bringing kids to work.  Ask questions of young people in high school who see the world differently?
• Get out of your comfort zone – remain curious
• Hang out with crazy people – those who want to change the world and leave a legacy.   Even if they miss the mark, they are still making an impact
• Live your values
• Failure is expected if you are learning and growing – keep experimenting
• Collaboration is critical with other organizations and around the world
• Hire diverse people with different strengths to ensure a well-rounded team
• Measurement is important but so is realizing that there are important things that cannot be measured – stay open and aware of the value and the limitations to measurement

October featured Tony Wells – Business Success Linked to Giving Back.  Tony  opened his presentation talking about the one trait many of history’s great leaders had in common; a commitment to giving back from an early age.  The core point I took away from Tony’s presentation is the idea that the new generation of leaders is committed to doing well by doing good – they want to make a positive impact in the world while also succeeding financially. While many of us spent our early careers establishing ourselves so we could give back later, this generation wants to do both from day one. 

Tony gave lots of statistics and case studies but his message consistently came back to the underlying theme, we can solve many of the problems we are facing by marrying the innovative spirit of entrepreneurs, innovation, a desire to do good in the world, innovative leadership, a family foundation, and a foundation founder who is highly involved and shepherds the process.  One of the innovations was teh Time Traveler pictured on the right.

Tony talked about his involvement in non-profits early in his career. Before he could afford to donate money, he donated time. Do you have a skill and time to volunteer? Skill can be your core profession, a hobby, or a basic skill like driving meals to people who cannot get out of the house. If you are not already, what can you do to use your talents and creativity to help solve the challenges our community faces?

December’s presentation was Randy Wilcox – Culture of Customer Service Creates a Competitive Advantage.  Randy talked about the key themes for success of his businesses over the past several decades:

• Customer service must be a priority
• Culture matters
• Hire and retain great sales people
• Implement strong financial reporting and controls

This culture of satisfaction was very similar to the culture Cheryl Kruger created at Cheryl’s Cookies.  Her company was also known for a very high level of service as well as innovation.  The proof of success is in the level of customer retention and in the top and bottom line performance.  SARCOM was a very successful company at the time Randy Wilcox sold it.  He is using similar principles for Quest Business Centers. 

What are your company differentiators?  Are you creating a comprehensive system of leadership behaviors, culture, processes and measures to leverage those differentiators?

Are you considering improving your ability to be an innovative leader?  If so, take this free on-line Innovative Leadership assessment to determine where you fall on the innovative leadership scale.  If you are looking for tools to help develop you ability to be an innovative leader, check out the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook.  Metcalf & Associates offers assessments, coaching and workshops to help you and your leadership team become more innovative.

To receive future blog posts in your mailbox, enter your name in the subscribe box on the right column.

You may be thinking – who has time for a vision – my vision is to get through the day and get most of my tasks done.  Or, I was reading holiday letters from friends, how did they possibly find time to do all of that? 

And yet, here we are at the beginning of a new year, the time to consider what you want to invest your time and energy into.  If you could transport yourself to the end of 2012 and write the end of year success story, you had a great year and accomplished more than you had dreamed – what would that look like for you?

“You’re in the midst of a war: a battle between the limits of a crowd seeking the surrender of your dreams, and the power of your true vision to create and contribute. It is a fight between those who will tell you what you cannot do, and that part of you that knows / and has always known / that we are more than our environment; and that a dream, backed by an unrelenting will to attain it, is truly a reality with an imminent arrival.”  Tony Robbins

The Innovative Leadership Fieldbook, provides an extensive process to create your person vision.  It is important to cultivate a sense of clarity about your overall vision which can also be summarized as your direction and aspirations.  Simply put, your vision and aspirations help you to decide where best to invest your time and energy.  Clarifying your personal vision and aspirations helps you define a manner of contributing to the world that authentically honors who you are.  Your vision and aspirations further help you clarify what you want to accomplish over time.  This can be any time span that resonates especially for you, whether in the short-term—as in one to five years—or perhaps a longer time-horizon, such as the span of your lifetime. Knowing your vision and values ensures that you are precise about your goals and can better align your behavior to your aspirations.

In addition to creating a well-defined vision, it is also important to be clear about your motivation.  It is the combination of vision and desire that will enable you to optimize your potential.  Without sufficient desire combined with solid vision and understanding of your current capabilities, you are likely to struggle when progress becomes difficult.  

• What one thing could you invest your energy in that would make you say at the end of the year – this was an amazing year?
• How would you life be different at the end of the year than it is today?
• Who needs to be involved now to support your success?
• Is there anything you need to stop doing to ensure your success?
• How will you maintain life balance and accomplish this goal (sleeping, working out, etc.)?
• How will you know if you have  been successful – what will you measure?

I was talking to a client today about her goals for 2012.  She is a very accomplished journalist who has dreamed of writing books.  She has a very successful career and yet, this is the one goal she has not prioritized above all of the other life challenges.  Today, she committed to writing a book and getting it published in two years.  This means she set interim deadlines of outline due date, contacting an agent, etc.  By the end of 2013, you may be reading her first book.  She is a person who, once she sets something as a goal will get it done and we will discuss her progress on an ongoing basis.  In addition to setting her goal, we talked about what she is doing that gets in the way of writing.  She agreed to spend less time focused on house hunting (x hours per month).  While her current location is not optimal for her, she agreed that this takes away from her primary focus.  I hope to report next year that she has a contract with a publisher for her first novel. 

Are you considering improving your ability to be an innovative leader?  If so, take this free on-line Innovative Leadership assessment to determine where you fall on the innovative leadership scale.  If you are looking for tools to help develop you ability to be an innovative leader, check out the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook.  Metcalf & Associates offers assessments, coaching and workshops to help you and your leadership team become more innovative.

Photo credit:  flickr by banalities