Personal Growth — May 6, 2011

Why Vision Matters

Vision determines direction. Leadership is about going somewhere. If you aren’t going somewhere, your leadership style doesn’t matter. Plus more reasons vision is vital.

bigthinkeditor

What’s the Latest Development?

Leadership expert Ken Blanchard turns 72 today but tells Dan Rockwell he’s not retired, but “refired,” and that “nothing is more powerful than vision.” Rockwell says Blanchard is one of the most energized people I’ve talked with and thinks it’s because “vision fuels youthful, exuberant energy.” Ken’s reasons that vision is vital: it’s the starting point of leadership, it determines direction, it’s something to serve, it overcomes the power of criticism (without it the squeaky wheels control organizations), and it creates unity.

What’s the Big Idea?

Alas, Blanchard also thinks that vison is sadly lacking. In “Full Steam Ahead: Unleashing the Power of Vision in your Work and Your Life,” he and coauthor Jesse Stoner wrote: Less than 10% of the organizations we visited are led by managers who have a clear sense of where they are trying to lead people.”

Bald man in casual attire sitting on a stool with a strategic diagram background in yellow.

Leadership

Adam Grant on how to identify and develop high-potential leaders

The ability to toggle between abstract and concrete thinking is a key differentiator of high-potential leaders.

A split image with a close-up of a blue eye on the left, and a classical painting of a woman resting her head on her arm on a sofa on the right.

Business

For true success we need to be more philosophical about “good” and “bad” failure

Bob Dylan gave us the paradoxical gem "there's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all" — he had a point.

Starts With A Bang

The idea that matter is mostly empty space is mostly wrong

Practically all of the matter we see and interact with is made of atoms, which are mostly empty space. Then why is reality so... solid?

Strange Maps

America’s news deserts are growing

Most counties in the U.S. have only one local newspaper, often one that publishes weekly instead of daily.

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The Present

Are smart cities a wise idea?

When Google runs a smart city, who owns the data?

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Culture & Religion

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