Truth About Leadership: Post #5

Truth Four—Focusing on the Future Sets Leaders Apart. Here’s a great quote from the book, “Leaders are custodians of the future (p. 46).” Another way to put it is that leaders create reality. Their vision of what’s possible can ignite the fire within followers to “see” and work toward the new reality. In a comparative survey, only 27% of undergraduates ranked “forward thinking” critical; however, 90% of business leaders ranked it high on their list. Optimism fuels this visionary instinct of the better leaders. To reach a vision, leaders have to be positive and optimistically realistic. This chapter contains a couple of interesting references about optimism from two leadership heroes of mine, Warren Bennis and Martin Seligman.