Visionary Leadership

Part 2: Creating the common vision.

One important part of Leadership is creating a common vision. It means to work with imagination of a group of people and to present a challenge that activates the minds of the many. Visionary leaders can bring people together with a shared sense of intentions and align them with a higher aim. The goal is set on the horizon, not just in front of us. Visionary Leadership means to encourage change and innovation and to see the life as a big puzzle, where strategic long-term decisions are more important than immediate effect.

A visionary leadership style builds connections and links. It is aimed at sharing ideas, skills and tools that can serve the whole. There is no right nor wrong, because leading by vision also means to accept setbacks as being part of the development. It adrdress the root of a problem and deals with the causes of it. It sets new milestones.

Visionary leadership is based on a balanced expression of the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical dimensions.  It requires core values, clear vision, empowering relationships, and innovative action.  When one or more of these dimensions are missing, leadership cannot manifest a vision. (Corinne McLaughlin)

We know many of those visionary leaders, whose products have changed the game.

Some of them inspire us daily, because we work with the tools they have created. I am referring to Steve Jobs, who resigned from Apple this special day, but he is not the only one who worked his magic to shape the world. – Although Apple has still some issues living the cradle-2-cradle lifestyle in their product design.

Creativity isn’t magic.

The act of creation is surrounded by a fog of myths. Myths that creativity comes via inspiration. That original creations break the mold, that they’re the products of geniuses, and appear as quickly as electricity can heat a filament. But creativity isn’t magic: it happens by applying ordinary tools of thought to existing materials.

And the soil from which we grow our creations is something we scorn and misunderstand, even though it gives us so much… and that’s copying. Put simply, copying is how we learn. We can’t introduce anything new until we’re fluent in the language of our domain, and we do that through emulation.

These are the basic elements of creativity:
copy, transform, and combine.

video and text from everythingisaremix

29 Ways to stay creative

1. Make lists
2. Carry a Notebook everywhere
3. Try free writing
4. Get away from the computer
5. Quit beating yourself up
6. Take breaks
7. Sing in the shower
8. Drink coffee
9. Listen to new music
10. Be open
11. Surround yourself with creative people
12. Get feedback
13. Collaborate
14. Don’t give up
15. Practice
16. Allow yourself to make mistakes
17. Go somewhere new
18. Count your blessings
19. Get lots of rest
20. Take risks
21. Break the rules
22. Don’t force it
23. Read a page of the dictionary
24. Create a framework
25. Stop trying to be someone else’s perfect
26. Got an idea write it down
27. Clean your workspace
28. Have fun
29. Finish something

thanks to Franziska for sharing these wonderful thoughts.