You Need a Leadership Manifesto – Write Yours 10 Minutes (or less!)

Welcome to Leading Disruption, a weekly letter about disruptive leadership in a transforming world. Every week we’ll discover how the best leaders set strategy, build culture, and manage uncertainty all in service of driving disruptive, transformative growth.

Humanity is on the cusp of change. It’s an exciting time — anything feels possible!

As disruptive leaders, this is where we thrive.

But to succeed and intentionally drive change, we need to focus our energy. Chasing shiny objects or drowning in possibilities doesn’t drive change! We need to define the vision we see in our mind’s eye. We need to channel everything we believe is wrong into something positive and actionable.

And we need to rally people to our cause.

On Wednesday’s livestream, I shared why a leadership manifesto is a gamechanger for any leader wanting to create transformation. Now, I invite you to follow my four-step process to write your own. Let’s begin:

Step 1: Go on a rant.

It’s time to rant – productively. Set a timer for three minutes and write down a few things that really bother you. What could you vent about ad nauseam? You can choose to focus on your organization, your industry, your community, or your life.

Try prompting yourself: “What do I think is wrong with the world? What do you see (or feel) that no one else understands? What opportunities are people missing? What could be better if only people chose to do something about it.

Don’t censor yourself! Just let the answers flow without second-guessing them.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you’re left-handed. Maybe you’re passionate about preserving left-handedness in a right-hand dominant society. Your rant would be that the world is biased against left-handers and you’re frustrated that the world caters to right-handed people.?

Write whatever comes up until your timer goes off. Then:

Step 2: Flip the rant into a belief.

This step is magical. Transformational.

Ranting alone might feel good to blow off steam. Instead of stopping there, transform your rant into a belief.

Ask yourself, “What’s the underlying belief behind my rant? What should everyone believe?”

Pick one of your rants and flip it into a belief.?

For our rant about bias against left-handed people, the underlying belief might be that the world should be designed ambidextrously. You believe that everything should be equally accessible – whether you use your right or left hand.

Write this new belief down for at least one of your rants before you move on to the next step.

Step 3: Outline your actions.

The last step was magical, but this is the best part: It’s time to identify the actions you’ll take. Belief without an action won’t change anything!

How will you make this belief come to life? What action can you personally take to make that belief a reality? Or if you’re writing the manifesto on behalf of an organization, what could we do together to manifest a change?

Looking at our example again, maybe you research and promote ambidextrous designs within your organization.

Write down the actions that come to mind. Then:

Step 4: Write a shabby first draft.

You have your beliefs and your actions – now you’re ready to write a draft of your manifesto. This is exciting!

There are two ways you can structure it:?

• “I believe that _____, and I will do _____.”
• “We are doing _____ because we believe _____.”

To put all the pieces together, our example might be: “We believe the world should be designed ambidextrously, and we will seek out and promote ambidextrous designs.”

That’s all there is to it: You take your rant, flip it into a belief, put some action behind it, and – voila! – you have your first draft manifesto statement. Easy, right?

With this powerful statement, you’ve succinctly captured everything you’re trying to do, everything you believe, everything you want to change, everything you’ll implement into one document. You’ve gone from aspirational to actionable –?and that’s how you drive change.

If you want to ensure the success of your digital transformation, please join me next Wednesday, November 10 at 9 am PT / 12 pm ET for a conversation about the state of digital transformation! I’ll be joined by my colleague Omar Akhtar, who will share the latest research on what drives a successful transformation. See you then!?

Your Turn

If you’ve got a shabby first draft of your manifesto, please share what you’ve written! Let me know what you thought of this process. Was it hard? Did you find it easy? Did you get stuck on a step? And has your manifesto had an impact yet? I've shared a portion of mine below, and I would love to see yours!

Thank you to Workplace from Meta for supporting Leading Disruption.