This week I had the privilege of speaking before The Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley, an organization dedicated to developing strong leadership and civic engagement skills in young Latinas in our community. I wanted to start with a typical definition of leadership before presenting my thoughts and found this: A process of social influence whereby one individual elicits the aid and support of others towards a common task. That’s a lot of words that but it doesn’t help me explain leadership. To me, that sounds like someone in charge who may, or may not be a “leader”. I had to come up with something that had relevance to my audience.
Think of leadership development as a journey; start with a clearly defined destination (the vision). Add the people you need to convince to come along (inspiration) and then start taking the necessary steps to get there (action). Today, I’d like to talk about the first part of that journey: vision
Vision is about what can be; it’s about how to affect change and how to make a difference. Understand that your final destination may look completely different than in the beginning but that’s OK. A vision must be massaged and molded until you are clear about what you are trying to accomplish. One way to be clear is by answering the five W’s. Who will you need to help you? What resources do you have or will you need? When do things need to happen and in what order? Where will you concentrate your efforts and resources? And most importantly, why are you doing it?
Who:
Recruit your dream team but don’t leave it at that. Make sure their talents and skills align with the mission’s needs. Understand that not everyone who wants to help can or should be on the team. If you have some of these folks around, train them, reassign them or let them go. It’s not about how nice they are, it’s about what they can contribute. Think of your vision as a bus ride. You are the driver so you get to decide who comes along. Once you know who’s there you can determine how they fit into your plan or how your plan fits your fellow travelers; adjust accordingly. For example, is your envelope stuffer actually a CPA who could better serve the as organization treasurer? Make sure you not only have the right people but they are in the right seat.
What:
Now that you know who is on board and that they can contribute, it’s time to figure out what resources are available. This step will help how big you can dream. Big dreams require major resources; if the resources aren’t there yet – take side trips. Just make sure you’re still headed in the right direction
When:
Is your vision tied into a local or large scale event or do you plan to go it alone? If you want to join others, you may have to change the timeline which may, in turn affect your overall plan. As the leader, you have to decide which road to follow. Remember though, a side trip is not your ultimate destination – keep heading toward your original plan
Where:
Is your dream based on a local or wide scaled objective? The ultimate size of the project may affect what you can actually accomplish. Make sure you have the correct perspective.
Why:
As you look at who, what, when, and where, affects your vision, it will start to evolve from an idea to a possibility. That’s OK. A fully developed vision rarely stays unchanged from its beginning. But now that you know what’s possible it’s time to take a hard look at what you can do and tie that into why you want to do it. Does the reality of what you want to do match the reality of what you can accomplish? If it does, your journey has a chance to succeed. If not, start over, identify what needs to be changed and change it. Keep tweaking your dream until it is clear to everyone what you are doing and why. Repeat as many times as necessary until everyone on the bus sees the same road ahead. When that happens, you’re on your way.
Many thanks to LCSV – it was a pleasure to join you.
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