Passion is what comes across when you set your vision.
If you don’t show passion when you are casting your vision to your people, they won’t believe you. If you show them that the vision you are describing is your dream, then they will believe you and follow you.
The best leaders in the world (highly effective leaders) know that leadership is about helping others reach their full potential. They also know that is also about them reaching their own potential too. Do you know how to help your team, and help yourself to reach your full potential?
1. Reaching Our Full Potential
Part of a highly effective leader’s purpose is to help their people reach their full potential, and achieve amazing results because of it.
A highly effective leader’s passion is to continuously learn new leadership principles, apply these principles and act on them, and then teach these principles to their people so that they can do the same.
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By doing this they are increasing their influence and building trust.
Following my micro-managing of my team in Siemens that we discussed in my article “Leadership vs. Management“, I wanted to ensure that I stayed on top of my leadership learning. I had slipped with my team, and I had let myself go into management mode of people instead of leadership mode.
So, I started reading leadership books every day. I still do today, even if it’s just for 30 minutes. This is part of how I work on myself. As you are now by reading my articles. There is no end to learning about leadership which is what I love about it. That’s why it is a lifelong journey.
The first leadership book I picked up was the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership by John Maxwell. I had watched videos and listened to audios of John Maxwell beforehand, and he was constantly talking about teaching. He said that when we learn new leadership principles, we should teach them to our people.
So, I did. I started teaching what I learned to my team, and other teams within my engineering depot. But Siemens is a huge, worldwide conglomerate and I wanted to increase my influence with as many Siemens people as possible.
Siemens has an internal social networking site (much like Facebook), and they also have their own video platform (much like YouTube). So I started to create my own videos based on the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership, and uploading them to the Siemens social network.
A lot of people enjoyed them and learned from them. I loved this so the more leadership books I read, the more videos I created.
I am a lifetime student of leadership, personal growth, and influence. By being a student, and constantly learning gives me the capacity to constantly teach and create my own resources, hence this website.
2. Sharing Our Knowledge With Our People
The leadership principles you are learning here must be applied with your people, and then be taught to your people. The other leadership books, courses, videos, or any other leadership content you consume, you must do the same too.
That is how we keep the leadership legacy going. That is how you build your own legacy too. Being remembered as the person who improved people’s lives through leadership is an amazing legacy to have.
When teaching your people about leadership, it is up to you what you decide to teach them. It’s likely that your people have never been taught leadership before, so everything will be brand new to them.
That is what makes teaching leadership exciting, you can make this material your own, but only after you have learned and applied it yourself.
When we are teaching our people, we are showing them that we care about them and that we respect them. We are putting in the extra time and effort to help them improve themselves, and get closer to reaching their full potential. But, before you start teaching any material, we must set our vision with the team.
3. Setting Our Vision
What are you and the team striving for by you teaching, and them learning about leadership? What is the common goal that you want to achieve? That must come from you.
My vision when teaching any of my people, and my vision when writing articles or creating other materials is to create highly effective leaders, who will then go on to create more highly effective leaders. My vision is like a snowball effect. That is how I want to increase my influence and leave my legacy.
It will take some time to become the most effective leadership teacher to your team you can be, but as John Maxwell says, “Leadership is practiced daily, not in a day.” Think of it like going to the gym.
Simon Sinek says, “If you go the gym and work out for 9 hours, you will not get into shape. However, if you work out for 20 minutes every day, you are guaranteed to get into shape, we just don’t know when.” So, don’t give up on teaching your people because you will be letting them down.
When you set your vision for the team, and what you want to achieve by teaching them how to be leaders, and apply leadership principles to their lives, they will be inspired to do everything they can to strive towards your vision.
It may be a vision that you may not ever achieve, but if you do this right, then your team will work their hardest to try to achieve it. That’s why having a vision is very powerful. It brings people together, and is something that is common between the whole team. Your vision eventually becomes their vision.
For example, when I began creating videos for Siemens and teaching my team what I had learned, the vision I set for them was simple. I wanted them to become leaders, not just engineers. I wanted them to take what they had learned and teach other Siemens people too.
4. Going Beyond Our Vision
I didn’t want my teaching to stop with them, or my videos, or that I was the only person doing the teaching. I wanted to inspire everybody to learn about leadership, and then pass on what they have learned. That vision to me is beautiful. Creating a world of highly effective leaders is who I am.
I really hope you understand my vision, and my purpose, and I need you to make it part of your purpose and vision too. Commit to passing on what you learn in leadership. Commit to teaching your people, so that they can teach their people. Not just in the work place, but with their family, friends, and anybody else they know.
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Do it through teaching face to face, videos, books, or any other resources that you can create yourself. Imagine a world full of highly effective leaders. Imagine having highly effective leaders as our world leaders who think like you and I do.
To me that is a beautiful world to live in. What do you think?
When setting your vision, what does it look like? Can you see it? Do you believe it? If you cannot, then your vision is fake. It is just words. You have to be able to see your vision. That is why it is called VISION.
You must be passionate about it, think about it all the time, and show your team the vision and the dream before they buy-in.
I welcome hearing how this post has influenced the way you think, the way you lead, or the results you have achieved because of what you’ve learned in it. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me by commenting below.
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All the best,
Tom, I really loved how you differentiated Management versus Leadership – they really are 2 different roles and get 2 different results and I so agree that having a vision must be experienced as you pointed out ‘by seeing it’ – any of the senses brings it to life doesn’t it! I am guessing you have been getting some great results. Thanks for sharing – Chrissie
Hi Christine,
Thank you for your comment. I’m so pleased that you found the article valuable.
You are so right, the difference between leadership and management is huge and a lot more people must realise this. Since I started being more of a leader than a manager many years ago, the difference in our results as a team were like night and day. It is my pleasure.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
Inspiring post. We all are leaders in one way or another, in our families, workplace, community. It’s absolutely important to learn how we can be better leaders.
Having a clear vision shared with all the team is critical, everybody will be working towards the same objective. There are so many projects that failure due lack of leaders.
Great leaders are the ones that wants everybody to grow, to be better. They are not afraid to share their knowledge and experiences. They make others feel good. That’s why they are not only great leaders but successful people.
It is great to have practical experiences like yours to inspire us. Well done and keep up the good work.
Hi TPG,
Thank you for your comment. I’m so happy that you think this was an inspiring article.
You are absolutely right, we are all leaders in one way or another. If we are a parent then we are the most important leader in the world. Leadership is exactly the same as parenting, as we are influencing a person or people to become the best person they can be.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
Hello Tom. Being a leader is something everyone ” does” is is at some point or another. It doesn’t always mean it is in the office or work place. As a parent, we are entrusted to lead our children too. I agree with you all the way. Thank you for yet another great article. All the best and keep up the great work.
Hi Felicity,
Thank you for your comment. It’s great that this article resonated with you.
I totally agree with you too, leadership is just like being a parent.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
Tom, this was fantastic. I work with a new manager, and she is finding leadership skills difficult. She has a tendency towards a more oppressive management style, born out of mistrust and fear that someone might screw her over. I am going to refer her to your articles. Maybe coming from someone other than me might help the ideas sink in about empowerment, investment, and agency of employees and their relationship to their leadership. Thank you 🙂
Hi Hilary,
Thank you for your comment. I’m so pleased that you found this a fantastic article.
Thank you for sharing your experiences with your new line manager. Please do refer my articles with her and if you or her need any further advice then please don’t hesitate to contact me.
All the best,
Tom
Tom,
Showing passion in your vision creates motivation within the team. You emphasized that point here in your article. I love John Maxwell and Simon Sinek’s books! Each provides a wonderful perspective on leadership. I like Simon Sinek’s view on vision, when he said that “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” It’s very telling for a leader who lives their vision every day compared to those who do not. Great article!
Hi Robert,
Thank you for your comment. I’m so pleased that someone of your leadership level resonated with this article.
You are absolutely right, “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” This is something we all should be aware of.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
Hi Tom and thanks for another inspiring post. It got me to thinking that we all need to be effective leaders and effective followers as well. Good leadership works best when there are good followers and the conditions for good followers is one of the things an effective leader has to establish.
It is also true that as hierarchical organizations need to change themselves to becoming more nimble and flexible, different situations are going to require different leaders to emerge from within and sometimes lead from the grass roots up. Again this is where effective leaders at the top can empower effective leaders lower down in the hierarchy and give them the confidence, the resources and the room to lead.
Thanks again and best regards
Andy
Hi Andy,
Thank you for your comment. It’s great that you found the article inspiring.
Having leaders at the very top who empower the leaders lower down in the organisation is the only way to lead it. How we empower our people is to give our power away, if we cannot do that then we are not empowering. Hopefully in your organisation your leaders empower in the right way.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
This is so great, Tom, in your other posts I kept seeing myself as the ‘boss’ having my team, as I did quite some years ago. And now it finally dawned on me that I didn’t stop to strive to be a highly effective leader, just because I don’t lead anyone directly, face to face, anymore.
I made an image of my vision a couple of months ago (an ink spot that is growing on all sides from a circle of people of which I am one), made a picture of it and I look at it every day during my morning routine.
Thanks for being an inspiration.
Hi Hannie,
Thank you for your comment. I’m so pleased that you found this article valuable.
Thank you for sharing with me your vision, it is so great that you see this every day and that it is part of your morning routine. Keep it going and keep sharing your vision with the world.
If you need any further help then please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
Hi Tom,
I really like reading your articles. There is always something positive on them and also there are ways here on how to remove or reduce negativity.
Anestis
Hi Anestis,
Thank you for your comment. I’m so pleased that you like reading my articles.
Changing our thoughts from negative to positive can be life changing. So, do your best to keep thinking positive, and if that means visiting my articles then so be it.
If you need any further help or advice then please don’t hesitate to contact me.
All the best,
Tom
Hi, Tom,
This is another great post, thank you for it!
If everybody out there would be thinking just the same as you do, then it would be easier to create a world of highly effective leaders.
I never cease to be surprised how much value you are putting into your content on this your website.
Keep up the great work and keep up being such an amazing leader!
Best Wishes,
Natalie
Hi Natalie,
Thank you for your comment. I’m really pleased that you found the article valuable.
It is my commitment to help aspiring leaders and current leaders become highly effective leaders, so that they can do the same for others.
I really appreciate your kind words.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
Tom, I really enjoyed your article on how to set your vision. I believe it is so important for us as human beings to do our absolute best. Your article shows us ways in which we can achieve this.
I have not yet tapped into my full potential but I believe I will get there and the steps you have laid out here will help me to achieve those goals.
Each week I write out my goals, goals keep me focused on what’s next, and writing them down keeps me on track allowiong me to take action.
Staying persistant is also somthing I need to work more on, Lately life has been throwing me with many setbacks. Reaching your potential requires you to be persistent; there are no quitters here.
Thank you Tom your articles always show leadership skills and really do help to motivate.
Hi Kay,
Thank you for your comment. I’m so pleased you enjoyed the article and that you found it valuable.
I really appreciate you sharing how you write out and set your goals weekly, I think people can learn from you too. I totally agree that staying persistent is something that we all need to work on. I’m sorry to hear that you have had a few setbacks, and I hope you can overcome them. If you need help with these then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
Great writeup. Many people goof up management with leadership. In fact, they both are opposite poles. If people strive for the excellence in leadership, they are bound to succeed but unfortunately not many people can do it.
Hi Prav,
Thank you for your comment. It’s great that you found the article valuable.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom