N4L 034: "Full Steam Ahead" by Jesse Lyn Stoner with Ken Blanchard

Business consultant Jesse Lyn Stoner partners with Ken Blanchard to write bestseller Full Steam Ahead!: Unleash the Power of Vision in Your Company and Your Life. Using a parable format, they illustrate the ongoing need for “visioning.” Unlike the one-time experience of creating a mission statement, visioning is a process, a journey. Visioning requires three essential elements: A significant purpose. This explains why you do what you do rather than just explaining what you do. In other words, your purpose clarifies what business you’re really in from the customer’s point of view. A deep and noble purpose will inspire excitement and commitment. Clear values. These answer the questions “What do I want to live by?” and “How?” Although values may begin as broad guidelines, when they are clearly described, specific behaviors follow. A picture of the future. This works when the focus is on what you’re trying to create, not on what you’re trying to get rid of. Similarly, the emphasis is on the end result, not on the process for getting there. An excellent example is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. So, why is visioning important? According to Stoner and Blanchard, “Less than 10 percent of...organizations...[have] a clear purpose, a set of operating values, or a picture of the future.” In other words, most companies don’t really know where they’re trying to lead people. Shaping and sharing a compelling vision relieves leaders of pressure to be charismatic or to have a similar personality or leadership style as their predecessors. Instead, a clear vision will ignite and focus everyone in an organization on the same thing and all will help carry the charge into the future. As Stoner and Blanchard put it, “The mark of a true visionary leader is that the vision continues beyond the lifetime of the person who articulated it.” Since its first publication in 2003, Full Steam Ahead! has sold over 300,000 copies and has been translated into 22 languages. BUY Full Steam Ahead! Unleash the Power of Vision in Your Work and Your Life, 2nd Edition Connect with Nonfiction4Life: Facebook Instagram Twitter Website Music Credit Sound Editing Credit