100 Great Leadership Ideas
Jonathan Gifford
ISBN: 978-981-4276-90-0

IDEA 1: Have a vision
A vision sets out a view of what the organization should look like in the future and of the way in which it will have changed the world. A really successful vision will inspire an organization, and affect every decision that is taken.

The idea
The Wal-Mart Stores retail group is one of the world’s largest public corporations in terms of revenue. The founder, Sam Walton, said, “If we work together, we’ll lower the cost of living for everyone … we’ll give the world an opportunity to see what it’s like to save and have a better life.”

“Saving people money to help people live better” is still the company’s vision. The vision of Microsoft Corporation is “To help people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential”. Google’s vision is “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. Nike aims “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world”.

A vision should be specific enough to guide people’s future behavior, but sufficiently general to allow for changing circumstances, and to allow the organization to use its initiative in deciding how best to achieve the vision. Some visions are apparently stark and simple and need to be“ unpacked” to reveal all of the organization’s values but, in the best examples, all of these values are implied in a simple, bold statement.

Wu Xiaobing, president and MD of pharmaceutical company Wyeth China, says, “To me, the most important thing for a leader is to create a vision and get everyone on the management team to believe, be convinced and excited and work for that. In most cases, if there is a vision, people will work hard together to create a miracle. If you are only dealing with daily business, and even if you are busy every day, you won’t go very far and you won’t have breakthrough. The leader must have a good vision, and then people will become inspired.” The corporate vision of Wyeth is “To be the world’s best pharmaceutical company”. It unpacks this vision to reveal the goal of “developing innovative new medicines that really make a difference to people’s lives and address signifi cant areas of unmet medical need.”

In practice
• A vision sets out a future that the organization seeks to bring about. It is a statement of where the organization hopes to get to, what it aspires to be and what change it intends to bring into people’s lives.
• A vision should be simple and bold; it is not a defi nition of the organization’s role—this is set out in the mission statement.
• The vision should inspire the organization, give it purpose
and act as a reference point for every decision. It should persist through changing circumstances and different strategies. excellence, increasing shareholder value through profi ts and through growth and taking care of the communities and the environment… we’re mission-driven in that we try to fulfil those core values which include, but go beyond, simply maximizing profits.” Whole Food’s vision is encapsulated in its motto: “Whole foods, whole people, whole planet”..

The 99 other great business ideas featured in this book:
2 Establish your mission
3 Establish your values
4 Make it happen
5 Seek out change
6 Build the perfect top team
7 Challenge the management structure
8 Collaborate
9 Delegate
10 Devolve decision making
11 Leader-managers
12 Make the budget work
13 Plan for your succession
14 Allow choice to drive decisions
15 Be clear
16 Be demanding
17 Be fair
18 Communicate all of the time
19 Communicate in crisis
20 Communicate simply
21 Communicate the vision
22 Create action groups
23 Create followers
24 Distance and closeness
25 Don’t get complacent
26 Encourage candor
27 Encourage real debate
28 Engage people’s emotions
29 Get feedback
30 Get people aligned
31 Give people autonomy
32 Give the team the tools to do the job
33 Involve the team
34 Make it fun
35 Options and consensus
36 Transform the team
37 Trust your employees
38 Walk around
39 Work with the team you have
40 Be diplomatic
41 Be meritocratic
42 Create an entrepreneurial culture
43 Cut down on meetings
44 Drive the culture right through the organization
45 Encourage diversity
46 Encourage innovation
47 Get the culture right
48 Harness the intelligence of the organization
49 Herding cats
50 Implementation
51 Make small improvements
52 March towards the sound of the guns
53 Mix things up
54 Not everything is measurable
55 Plan for every contingency
56 Practice democracy
57 Respect the culture you inherit
58 Servant leadership
59 Set reasonable goals
61 Be authentic
62 Be decisive
63 Be fi rm
64 Be honest
65 Be human
66 Be passionate
67 Confi dence and humility
68 Stay alert
69 Follow your instincts
70 Listen, learn and act
71 Say sorry sometimes
72 Set a good example
73 Stick to the strategy
74 Stick to the values
75 Stick to the vision
76 Stop being judgemental
77 Use symbols
78 Focus on the wildly important
79 Get a good PA
80 Get a life
81 Get out of the limelight
82 Good enough
83 Keep a sense of burning urgency
84 Keep fit
85 Know the detail
86 Learn from failure
87 Manage your time
88 Quick wins
89 Recognize people
90 Reinvent yourself
91 Say no to distractions
92 Think laterally
93 Assume the worst
94 Attract and encourage talent
95 Be accountable
96 Do the right thing
97 Lead for your industry
98 Look for partnerships
99 Make a contribution
100 See the bigger picture