by Tammy Stoner

Created on: December 16, 2009   Last Updated: December 29, 2010

"The lead dog gets the best view", is a popular saying, and it is also true. Without a doubt, the leader steers the sled, and changes course when needed. The other dogs follow.

Leadership in an organization is about vision and purpose. You cannot lead unless you know where it is you want to go. Effective leaders work backwards. They determine the end result. They map out this result clearly in their heads, so that the leader visualizes it as having already happened. Then, and only then, can the leader take the steps to move the group forward.

A new year is about to begin, and commonly goals happen at about this time. Most people will on December 31,2009 begin by stating the goals they want to see happen in 2010, and hopefully make them happen. Leaders do it differently. A good leader will visualize January 2011, and decide what he wants that day to be like. What goals will he have accomplished? What steps had to happen to make those goals come to pass? Leaders see the end result. They put themselves into the future, and then go back to fill in the details.

Great leaders are forward thinkers. They have to be. How else would a great leader be able to gain a following, if the leader was looking to the present or to the past to make things happen?.

Forward thinking requires vision, and purpose.

Like the dog leading the sleigh, the leader needs to know where he is going. How else will he know whether or not he got there? A good leader must have focus or purpose for that vision. If they didn't then why  would somebody follow them?

Organizational change can become tricky when people follow different paths, or different sense of purpose. Suppose you are the "lead dog" in your business, and the other "dogs" are trying to lead in different directions, because they are trying to get to different places. One leads one way, another follows another way. The sleigh goes nowhere.

Leadership not only involves vision, it means that all members of the team are going in the same direction at the same time. All followers and all leaders must define purpose. This purpose must be shared. Leadership without vision is flawed. Vision without purpose is flawed.

Applying good leadership skills requires both vision and purpose. The "lead dog" gets the best view, but the lead dog can only take a group that is willing to follow the same path.

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