The New Leadership Model
Visionary Leadership

Visionary Leadership is leadership with a vision.

George Bernard Shaw once said,

“You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?"”

These leaders have a way of visualizing what the future could be and sharing that vision with their team.

Great leaders with vision are people like Walt Disney, who envisioned Disneyland as a place where everyone could be happy. He sold this vision to a retired navy officer over and over again and won him over to be the chief man overseeing the construction of Disneyland.

Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore was a man who envisioned the island city of Singapore to become a metropolitan first-world city. It was especially impressive when Singapore was really much more than a third world country in the 1960s.

And guess what, Singapore became exactly what Lee Kuan Yew envisioned it to be in a matter of 30 years or so under his leadership.

People like them have a great talent of seeing the potential in every situation. They don’t see what things are, but what things could be.

Vision sharing is effective and yields results! It is the most powerful form of leadership in gaining commitment from your team.

When people see that by working together, they can create a more ideal future, they will give more of themselves in achieving the cause. You win their hearts. This is not something you can gain from a person by pay and salary alone.

I have written a short article on vision under the section leadership skills; click here to understand what it means to have a vision and how to best articulate it.

So continue to question. Don’t accept things as they are at their face value, but learn to ask ‘why not?’. That question alone opens up a world of possibility of what your life, or what society could be!

The New
Leadership Model

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» Transactional leadership
Transactional Leaders practice what you would call management-by-exception and contingent reward. They set performance standards and do performance reviews for their followers.

» Transformational leadership
Transformational leaders have the ability to inspire and motivate their followers beyond their job description. They seek to bring change in their environment or community by improving on the current situation, whatever it may be. They tend to anticipate problems before they come and act accordingly.

» Charismatic leadership
Charismatic leaders have a natural ability to attract people and inspire commitment to their cause.

» Visionary leadership
Visionary leaders have the ability to see what things could be in the future, rather than what things are. Through the attractive visions that they give, they are able to draw followers to themselves.

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