Making It Happen :

Translating Vision into Reality

 When it comes to the future,
There are three kinds of people:
Those who let it happen,
Those who make it happen,
And those who wonder what happened

-John M.Richardson, Jr-

UNIFIED OF WEST AND EAST
GERMANY

 One person (Helmut Kohl) made the vision his own

and then seized the moment to make it happen

 To finally convert his vision he employed

spokesperson, cahnge agent, and coach, and elobarate
them into one goal
THE LEADER AS A SPOKEPERSON FOR
THE VISION

 A vision is little more than an empty dream until it is

widely shared and accepted
 How does a vision become widely shared? 
Connecting with people in a meaningful way to
persuade them to change their perception about what
is important for them and for the organization
 Single rule that governs change situation 
unless people believe they have chosen to adopt a new
attitude and behavior and feel rewarded, they are
likely to revert to old ways
THE LEADER AS A SPOKEPERSON FOR
THE VISION

Three main tasks of the leader as spokeperson:

1. Communications
 many ways to do communication such as
simple dialogue, memoranda, public speakers, and
media. Each type has different effectiveness to
shared vision
THE LEADER AS A SPOKEPERSON FOR
THE VISION

2. Networking
 Effective leader invest a good deal of their time in
networking with people both inside and outside
their organization to generate trust and consensus
for their visions.
 Effective leader usually skilled negotiators who can
press their own views and reach agreement that
advance the vision
THE LEADER AS A SPOKEPERSON FOR
THE VISION

3. Personifying the Vision

 Leaders live the vision by making all their
actions and behaviour consistent with it and by
creating a sense of urgency and passion for its
attainment
 You can do this in many ways, among them the
following :
a. How you make and honour commitments
b. What you say in formal and especially infomal
setting
THE LEADER AS A SPOKEPERSON FOR
THE VISION

c. What you express interest in and what questions you

ask
d. Where you choose to go and with whom you spend
time
e. When you choose to act and how you make your
actions
known
f. How you organize your staff and your physical
surroundings.
THE LEADER AS A SPOKEPERSON FOR
THE VISION

 The spokesperson task is not complete until

everyone in the organization and all the major
external stakeholders viscerally understand where
the organization is headed and have a high degree
of shared commitment to the vision
THE LEADER AS CHANGE AGENT FOR
THE VISION
 The Leader’s purpose as a change agent is to make the
investment decisions and other organizational changes
necessary to realize the vision

 Leader have the skills and authority to both directly

and indirectly steer the changes. So, change agents
have the authority to make the key decisions on
resource, allocations, staffing, structures, information
flows, and operating processes that determine what
shall or shall not done by the organization
THE LEADER AS CHANGE AGENT FOR
THE VISION

1. Thinking Strategically
 Leader make the strategic invesment decisions commiting
resources to new facilities, locations, equipment as needed to
accomplish the leader’s vision
 The visionary leader builds human capital mainly through
decision on hiring, staffing, and training.
 With strategic alliances, goals, and objectives, the three forms
of capital, and strategic thinking throughout the organization,
you will have established a necessary framework within which
oraganizational change can take place
THE LEADER AS CHANGE AGENT FOR
THE VISION
2. Altering the Organizational Climate
 Organizational climate consists of the structures,
processes, and culture that collectively determine how
the organization functions
 Visionary leader must overcome resistance to change and
adapt the organizational climate to the new agenda
 There are things you can do to overcome resistance to
change:
a. You can implement the new visions deliberately, making
sure everyone understand the new direction an
introducing the least disruptive or threatening changes
first
THE LEADER AS CHANGE AGENT FOR
THE VISION
b. You can avoid resistance by isolating the units responsible for
pioneering the new direction from the existing organization
until they prove their worth or acquire legitimacy and acceptance

c. You can put the new thrust in the hands of younger people with
less commitment to the status quo and extend it later to other
parts of the organization

d. You can foster a culture that embraces change and innovation, so

that new vision is not seen as something unusual but rather as
part of the continuing evolution of your organization
NEXT STEP IN CONSTRUCTING THE PROPER
ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE FOR THE NEW
VISION
 What values are most consistent with the new vision ?
 How shall performance in support of the vision be
encouraged, recognized, and rewarded ?
 What are the best ways to organize for the vision?
NEXT STEP IN CONSTRUCTING THE PROPER
ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE FOR THE NEW
VISION

 What new operating policies or processes should you

develop to move toward the vision ?
 What additional skills are needed, and should they be
developed internally through development and
training or hired from outside ?
THE LEADER AS COACH FOR THE
VISION
 Purpose as coach: empower people to act in the name
of the new vision and to help sustain their
commitment to it

 Act as mentor or teacher :

 Commenting on or celebrating an individual’s
accomplishments
 Attempting to correct a misperception
 Helping to resolve a conflict
DECISION TO SHAPE THE SOCIAL
CONTEXTS IN YOUR ORGANIZATION
 Who you choose to assign to groups and tasks

 The amount and types of resources and support services you

make available to work groups

 The design of incentive systems

 The way jobs are structured and allocated among work groups

 Your choice of people to head the teams

 The goals and expectations you associate with each

organizational unit
LEADING FROM THE MIDDLE

 Acknowledge the pressure, and take the initiative

 Delegates responsibilities to subordinates
 Build teamwork and empower your people to make
decisions
 Pay more attention to longer term matters
 Collect information on changing environments that
effect your unit
LEADING FROM THE MIDDLE

 Look for emerging threats and opportunities

 Keep asking why things are being done in certain way
and how they improved
 Enlist others in your search for new directions
THE FORMULA FOR VISIONARY
LEADERSHIP

Vision + communication = shared purpose

Shared purpose + empowered people + appropriate

organizational changes + strategic thinking =
successful visionary leadership