How to be a visionary leader

"Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” Jonathan Swift

At a conference, during the introduction to my session on leadership the CEO of a fast growing tech company said:

?We have caught up with the competition. Now we are entering an area we don‘t know where to go. And for that we need great leaders.“

Following the paths of others is hard enough and doing so well that you can reach your competitors is a great achievement.

But once you have caught up, once you need to create own paths, then different qualities are necessary.

Individuals need to have the ability to envision the future. To go into areas that have not been explored yet. That requires courage. But it also requires the skill to actually see these new areas.

How do you best develop the skill of envisioning the future in yourself and others? 

Think in scenarios along various axis that are important to you. The best way to do this is thinking of a couple of “axis” of future development that are important to you. Like "degree of urbanization" or “acceptance of technology" or "disposable income development" or "development of mobile technology" or others. 

Pick 1-3, to keep it simple at first. And then start your thoughts around it. What could the future look like in 1, 2, 10 years along these axis? 

Then ask yourself a couple of questions:

1. How can I/we operate in this future?

2. Are there other places / areas where this future is already in place, and can we learn something from this? As I once overheard on a podcast: "The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed."

3. Ask often “What else could we do that we are not already doing currently?”. Push yourself and others to leave the current path. 

4. Ask even more often “What if we did xyz?”. Push yourself and others to come up with various versions 

5. Ask "What could we build/create that is not there yet?" 

And many more questions. If you go through this process, a vision might occur, a picture of what reality could look like and maybe as well a vision of what the future could be. With that vision one can then lead oneself and others. 

The future is not static. We create it. We shape it. Being able to envision a future for your business, your organisation or yourself is a key skill for every leader.

What has worked for you in developing envisioning skills in yourself and others?

Lars Sudmann is an expert on high-performance leadership in global corporations. You can contact Lars to work with you as a keynote speaker and executive trainer at your next offline or online event or as strategy advisor and executive coach for your management team. You can find more articles and information as well as Lars' TEDx talks at www.lars-sudmann.com.

Lars' latest book is called "Innovation that Sticks". Watch the TEDx talk below for the key messages of the book.

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